BL's alternative reality - part 2

Into the eighties...

This piece is another 'might have been' scenario concerning the British motor industry, which follows on from one published back in February and is best read in conjunction with it for the background to what happens here. That article proposed an alternative 1970s British Leyland range based around the Maxi and Allegro, so this one discusses what might have happened when the group moved into the 1980s as a successful and market-leading British-run company, a far cry from the tattered and troubled reality.

British Leyland, a world-famous brand entering the eighties in excellent shape

The Allegro and Maxi-based range proposed in the first article had proved massively popular and carried British Leyland through the 1970s with great success but despite regular facelifts were now starting to become outdated and in need of replacement. Here I suggest how they met that challenge with a new range of cars for the 1980s that took on the best the world had to offer and became the pride of the British motor industry. The name of British Leyland had become known not only for high-quality products but also for innovation with its famed transverse-engined front-wheel drive layout and Hydrolastic suspension. In the late seventies this evolved into Hydragas and by the eighties had been developed further by Dr Moulton into a patented Citroen-like self-levelling system, which would continue to be a BL trademark that gave its cars almost unmatched handling and ride quality.

BL cars would have renowned ride quality like that of the Citroen BX

After some years of public ownership, the BL empire would inevitably be privatised by the Thatcher government, but in this scenario would be a strong, market-leading company that was a desirable purchase. There would be much interest from overseas car manufacturers but the government would naturally be keen to see BL stay in British hands so the winning bidder would eventually be a management buyout, who would continue to run the group throughout the 1980s and 1990s, so the sale to BMW and subsequent destruction would not happen and BL would still be with us today. Far from its real-world image, the cars described in the previous article would have made British Leyland a popular brand with a good reputation, so there would be no need for a rebranding to Austin-Rover or Rover Group.

The mainstream cars would still be Austins with no Rover rebranding and no Honda involvement

The E-series engines will have served well, but would give way to the all-new K-series range. A much healthier financial position and a streamlined range would allow development of these power units to be accelerated and they would all have appeared by the mid-1980s without the notorious head gasket issues that plagued them in real life. As in reality these would come in 1.1, 1.4 and 1.8 four-cylinder versions and 2.0 and 2.5-litre V6s, all fuel-injected with the two larger fours capable of being turbocharged, so the entire four and six-cylinder A and E-series ranges would be replaced by the K-series. The evergreen Rover V8 would continue alongside them and in due course would be bored out to 3.9 litres.

It was originally intended that the Metro would replace the Mini, so following this line of thought the Mini would grow a little to compete in the supermini sector against the Fiesta and Nova. It would be a boxy three-door hatchback a lot like the Italian Innocenti but a bit bigger, and power for all versions would initially come from the 1.1 K-series, with the 1.4 possibly being introduced in the higher-spec models at a later date. Four-speed gearboxes no longer really cut it in the eighties, so the rod-change Maxi transmission would be further upgraded for use with all sizes of the K-series, and this would be an unusual selling point in the Mini's class.

Replacing the Mini would take inspiration from the Italians (Image: AROnline)

The replacement Allegro and Maxi would be all-new products but would retain the names of their successful predecessors and continue their winning mechanical formula. Styling would probably be by Roy Axe in typical 1980s 'aero' fashion and both would offer hatchback and saloon bodies, with a Maxi estate joining them a little later. The Allegro would be similar to the Mark 3 Escort/Orion and have its ageing A-series engines replaced by the 1.1 and 1.4 K-series, while the Maxi would be available with the 1.4 and 1.8 and compete with the Sierra but offer the advantages of front-wheel drive. A 1.4 engine may seem small in this class but the K-series was powerful for its size and use of lightweight modern technologies such as aluminium and plastics would keep the Maxi's weight down, and it should be remembered that both Ford and Vauxhall offered 1.3-engined versions of their competitors.
 

The new Maxi might look like the R8 but Sierra-sized

A luxury six-cylinder version of the Maxi would remain, still branded as the Wolseley Six but with the 2200 straight-six E-series replaced by the smaller KV6, and the BBC would regularly buy batches of Wolseley Six estates to replace the Citroens previously used as camera cars. Triumph would continue as the performance brand, and in keeping with the 1980s trend for hot hatches the Herald would lose its Michelotti-styled saloon body in favour of the Allegro's hatchback. It would be powered by a 16-valve version of the 1.4 K-series with the option of a turbocharger, and would compete with the likes of the Golf GTI and Escort XR3i. The two bigger Maxi-derived Triumphs would be retained too, the Vitesse effectively taking the place of the MG Montego with the 1.8 K-series turbo, while the six-cylinder Triumph Vanguard would have both KV6s in a higher state of tune than that in the Wolseley. 

The Triumph Vitesse Turbo would take the place of the MG Montego

The Morris Marina would initially continue after a reskin in the late seventies as a simple budget model pitched at lower prices than the Maxi. By the mid-1980s however, front-wheel drive was becoming accepted as the norm in this market sector so rather than re-engineering it to use the K-series, the old RWD Marina would be dropped without replacement and with it the Morris name would die as it no longer served a useful purpose. This would free up production capacity at Cowley for the expanding Maxi range, with the Mini and Allegro being built at Longbridge, Triumphs at Canley, MGs at Abingdon and Rovers and Land Rovers at Solihull.

In this scenario BL would be more than strong enough to stand on their own with no need for a joint venture partner, so the collaboration with Honda would not be necessary. Instead of the Honda Legend-based 800, the SD1 would be replaced by a Rover SD2, an in-house design that retained the rear-wheel drive and coil springs of its predecessor and would be available with the larger KV6 and the V8. With saloons being the most popular body style in this market sector, the fastback and estate of the SD1 would be joined by a saloon to allow the SD2 to compete more effectively with the BMW 5-series and Mercedes E-class. This would unfortunately render the 2600 Maxi-based Vanden Plas Princess pretty much redundant, but the Vanden Plas name would live on as the trim level of the flagship SD2.

SD2 would replace SD1 and continue with RWD and the V8

Over at MG, the group's sports car brand, there are two schools of thought for replacing the Midget. It could be based on the Allegro platform and controversially become front-wheel drive, thus beating the Lotus Elan to the distinction of being the first production FWD roadster, or alternatively take inspiration from the popular Toyota MR2 and adopt the mid-engined layout eventually chosen for the MGF. Either way, its power units would be the 1.4 turbo and 1.8 K-series and suspension would be by Hydragas. The MGB would have already been replaced in the early 1970s by a four-seat Capri rival that might have been called the MGD, and the successor to this (logically the MGE) would continue in this vein. It would be allowed to retain the RWD layout of proper sports cars by being based on a shortened SD2 platform and fitted with the same engines.

This 1.4 K-series Reliant Sabre shows what a new MG Midget could be like

In the previous scenario, the entire BL car range was petrol-engined and no diesels were available, as was the case in reality with oil-burners being a very niche product. By the eighties however, diesels had been popularised and every mainstream manufacturer needed them in their line-up, but Austin-Rover were quite late in introducing one. Rather than developing their own, I am taking inspiration from the reality of the Rover 200/400 and proposing that BL bought in the popular and well-regarded XUD unit from the PSA group. The 1769cc version of this would find its way into the Maxi in both naturally-aspirated and turbocharged forms, with the former maybe also later appearing in the Allegro as diesels grew in popularity in this market sector. The 1.9 turbo XUD would be available in the SD2, later replaced by the 2.1 version as found in the Citroen XM.  

Land Rover would naturally continue with the Defender and Range Rover, but with the KV6 and maybe the bigger XUDs adopted here too. The Discovery would still be introduced in the late 1980s but in a slightly different form, being derived from the Maxi platform and featuring the groundbreaking combination of Land Rover's four-wheel drive with Hydragas. The crossover of Land Rover technology with the core Maxi-based range would allow the Triumph Vitesse and Vanguard to be offered with optional four-wheel drive, and these would be the logical choice for competition. A homologation special high-performance 4x4 Vanguard ST developed by Special Tuning could now be every bit as successful and desirable as the Sierra Cosworth and Delta Integrale.

Uniquely combining Hydragas and four-wheel drive, the Maxi-derived Discovery

Again, Jaguar would remain largely independent with their own range that shared little with other BL models. The group's better financial position and more focused development strategy would however allow the XJ40 to reach production much sooner than its real-life 1986 launch, work having actually begun way back in 1972. The XJS meanwhile would continue to exist, occupying the grand tourer market at the level above the MGE and powered by Jaguar's own straight-six and V12. The Jaguar and Daimler ranges would remain an integral part of the BL empire, sitting at the top of the hierarchy above Rover, and no consideration would be given to selling them at any time.

The XJ40 would be a BL product launched around 1980

I didn't include commercial vehicles in the original post but my proposal is that these would all go under the Leyland name, creating a consistently-branded range from the smallest van right up to 38-tonne artics. During the 1970s they would largely follow reality in the shape of the van and pickup versions of the Mini and Marina, albeit badged as Leylands, with the various types of Sherpa above these competing with the Ford Transit. The latter would continue until the late eighties before making way for the proposed LDV 201, which would remain a Leyland-branded BL product without the Freight-Rover badging or the joint venture with DAF.

The new Leyland Sherpa for the 1990s (Image: AROnline)

The Mini van would give way to the Leyland Allegro, basically a three-door hatchback without the rear seat and windows, while the demise of the Marina would see its commercial variants replaced by the Leyland Maxi van and pickup, which mated the front of the Maxi with bespoke rear ends, and the advertising would make much of the low loading height and excellent ride quality afforded by the use of front-wheel drive and self-levelling Hydragas. These commercials would naturally share the K-series or XUD power of the cars on which they were based, and would attract large fleet orders from public utilities such as British Telecom and Royal Mail, who were encouraged to buy British.


So that is how things could have been so different for British Leyland in the 1980s as the group consolidated the reputation it established in the previous decade and continued to produce a popular, well-built and innovative range of cars. A little far-fetched perhaps, but it makes a good fantasy in contrast to the sad reality of what actually happened. Stay tuned for part three, which brings the story through the 1990s and up to the present day with BL still very much alive and well.