To millions, the Austin Allegro typifies the miseries of 1970s Britain: unreliable, uncomfortable and ugly.
Stand by, though, for some rose-tinted nostalgia as the rust-bucket standard-bearer for an epoch of terrible nationalised industries, mass strikes and stagflation is about to turn 50.
Celebrations will begin next Sunday at a rally at the Mini Plant in Oxford. There will be an Allegro Fun Day in Longbridge, Birmingham, in May, and then a formal golden anniversary party at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, Warwickshire.
Some turnaround for the much-derided British Leyland jalopy, voted ‘Britain’s worst ever car’ from a dismal era when competition was fierce.
Remember the Morris Marina? The Talbot Sunbeam?
Style King: Allegro designer Harris Mann (pictured)
The Equipe pictured next to a model
To fans of the Allegro – and there are, perhaps unbelievably, many –the breakdown-prone family runaround is to be celebrated for more than its revolutionary if pointless square steering wheel.
Take, for example, the Rev Colin Clarke. He has owned nearly 50 of the cars, and now has three to his name.
Mr Clarke, 63, whose parish in Birmingham includes Longbridge, where the Allegro was made, explained: ‘They made 650,000. It was not as much a flop as people say. It is part of people’s lives.
The Allegros bring back memories for people. The best thing is when someone sees the car and says, ‘Can I stick my head through the window and have a sniff?’ Then they say, ‘I remember being taken to school in this.’
‘They feel the colours are more evocative. People like them because they were bright orange or green. They had more interesting colours back then.’
Harris Mann was the guilty man. He was chief car stylist at British Leyland in the 1970s and was charged with coming up with a saloon to give the European upstarts a run for their money. The original model, launched in 1973, cost £974. The more well-to-do could splash out £1,367 on the Austin Allegro Sport Special – unfortunately known as the SS. Then came the Vanden Plas, a supposedly luxury version, fitted with a ludicrous front grille, walnut dashboard – and even a picnic table. It cost £1,950. And was still an Allegro.
None of this has put off Richard Gooch, 44, a carer based in Cornwall. Quite the opposite. Mr Gooch’s fascination with the Allegro was sparked more than 30 years ago when he worked in a garage as a teenager. Since then, he has spent an eye-watering £50,000 on buying and restoring Allegros.
He currently owns seven (there are only thought to be 300 left), and his pride and joy is a convertible damask-red 1300 Super model. He is, he says, used to the mockery.
Rev Colin Clarke (pictured) has owned nearly 50 of the cars and now has three to his name.
Mr Gooch told The Mail on Sunday: ‘When I worked in the garage, I used to get some stick. I was told it was a ”grandads’ car”. I don’t care. I just love an underdog.’
Tom Morley, 40, from Chelmsford, bought his 1976 1100 Deluxe in 2005 for £700. He calls it Gladys and they have had some fine times: it won best car out of 600 at a show in Essex in 2018.
Mr Morley said: ‘I grew up with a family having British Leyland cars, so I suppose it was just inevitable that I would own one. It has got so much character, and when you drive it, it makes you smile.
‘When I first got the car 18 years ago, it had a reputation for being rubbish. But now at shows I can be parked next to Bentleys and people will want to look at the Allegro. People can relate to it.
‘Lots of people might want a Ferrari, but they can never have one. But a lot of people could own an Allegro.
‘In the 18 years I have owned the car and taken it to shows, it has been so reliable. I wouldn’t want to drive anything else.’
So why, we asked Mr Clarke, has the Allegro risen, after half a century of being misunderstood? He said: ‘Jesus often spoke to the less powerful, marginalised and overlooked in society.
‘He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on the way to the Cross. Maybe, just maybe, He would have approved of the Austin Allegro, for long the despised underdog of the car world.’
