25 Nov 04
The Allegro was meant to be a volume seller for Leyland
A little background to the car is useful. The Allegro was not only a replacement for the bestselling 1100/1300, but a higher-tech supplementary model to the utterly conventional Marina in Leyland's plan for world domination. Other than the absurd Vanden Plas 1500 version - described by one wit as a car that should have come as standard with a bi-focal windscreen, such was the decrepitude of its target buyers - there would be no complex hierarchy of badge-engineered Wolseley/Riley/MG variants as there had been on the 1100/1300 range. A bigger car than its predecessor, the Allegro offered a much wider range of engines and trim levels, from the poverty-spec 1100 to the relatively opulent - and pretty quick -1750SS.
Leyland had international sales ambitions for the Allegro - it was launched as BL's 'song for Europe' - with temptations like cloth seats and 5-speed gearboxes. Front-driven by existing transverse A- and E- Series drivetrains and with Hydragas rather than Hydralastic suspension, the Allegro was to be scrupulously costed-out for maximum profit.
Harris Mann: man behind the Allegro, but also the Princess, and the TR7
The Allegro was styled in-house by a young designer called Harris Mann, architect of the Marina and, later, the Princess and TR7. But it patently wasn't a pretty or appealingly neat car in the way the 1100/1300 had been. Had it turned out as dashing as the vehicle depicted in Mann's early concept drawings, buyers might have been more willing to forgive its other faults. Yet, even here, there is room for some revisionist thinking in the Allegro's defence. As a reaction against the severely cubist European designs of its day - like, say, the Fiat 128 - is it really that awful-looking?
It was not quite the rustbox its predecessor had been, thankfully, with fewer moisture traps and more protection. In fact, for its time and class, the Allegro was quite resistant to rust. The last Allegros, actually quite decent cars, were built in 1983 - about the time Colin first encountered one at close quarters when he was working for a Leyland dealer in London. "I was a junior salesman and we had a 1.5-litre twin-carburettor Allegro 3 - white with a black vinyl roof - as a demonstration car. It went like stink; it really could burn off lots of other cars in London traffic."
