25 Nov 04
In the interest of journalistic enquiry, I even drove Colin's Harvest Gold 1300 Allegro and can tell here and now that it wasn't that bad. The A-Series engine is flexible, lively and smooth. Well, when I say lively... a 1.3 Allegro, all out at 84mph, is never going to blow your mind, but somehow it gets along pretty well so one can maintain one's dignity - if that's possible in a Harvest Gold Allegro. The Hydragas suspension - interconnected nitrogen-filled displacers - had delusions of Citroen-style refinement but seems to have been more trouble than it was worth. On anything other than a smooth road, the ride never really settles down and the car proceeds in a series of slight lurches and bounces.
I guess the real problem with the Allegro is that though it was competent and adequate, it didn't do anything particularly well by the standards of 1973, whereas its predecessor had been outstanding in 1962. There was nothing aspirant about the Allegro, either. Whereas a Cortina - even a boggo 1300L - suggested cheap glamour, perhaps even a bit of suburban wife-swapping of a Friday evening, the Allegro seemed to come from a more pedestrian, less ritzy world where half a mild down the Liberal club would have been the limit of one's weekly excitement.
We can giggle about the Allegro now, but there are hard and sad realities behind its failure, including its impact on people's jobs and lives. Too much was riding on the car, the one model British Leyland really needed to get truly right if it was to face the 1970s and '80s with confidence. Still, I guess it's better to be remembered for something than not remembered at all. Even if the Allegro is largely remembered for being crap.
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