BL Autumn Rally report

Last Sunday (25th September) saw the fourth annual BL Autumn Rally, billed as a celebration of British Leyland's unsung heroes and held at Milton Keynes Museum. We had never been before but as we now own a qualifying car and live just a short distance from the venue it would have been rude not to attend. The show is principally made up of the owners' clubs for the Allegro, Maxi, Landcrab, Metro, Maestro/Montego, Vanden Plas, and new for this year, the Marina and the Rover 200/400 series, plus an open class for all other BMC, BL and Austin-Rover cars. Despite being fairly poorly publicised outside of BL club circles and not even mentioned on the museum website, almost a hundred vehicles were in attendance and it was an enjoyable day out.

Isn't Tara Green a great colour? It even makes the Vanden Plas Allegro look good.

Anything from the BL/Austin-Rover stable now seems to be collectable, including the Phoenix-era cars, the last of which are only just over a decade old, and someone even turned up in a nearly-new MG3. The Princess and Ambassador range was conspicuous by its absence though, and apparently the same thing also happened last year when Harris Mann was the special guest and examples of all of his designs were lined up with the exception of the Princess, which was disappointing. There were four Marinas but no Itals, and no SD1s either, and I thought this a little surprising but it was made up for by what was there.

This Rover 800 Coupe was an eye-catcher in the open class

This show is very much about BL's family car production and no sports cars were present (although they would doubtless be welcome), so it was a pleasant change to attend an event that was devoid of the ubiquitous MGB. Those other classic show staples, the Mini and Morris Minor, were represented by a single example of each, and types such as the Dolomite, ADO16 and Rover P6 and 800 were there in small numbers. A stranger in the camp was a Singer Chamois, the only non-BL car in attendance, which was not only welcomed despite not fitting the theme but ended up winning second prize in the open class. There was no formal judging and all prizes were awarded as a result of a public vote for their favourite car of each type.

Nothing to do with BL but a prize winner anyway

Seeing so many Metros, Maestros and Montegos in one place was a real nostalgia trip as I remember these cars being everywhere in my youth, but they just suddenly seemed to disappear and I haven't seen one outside of a show for years. An oddity was a left-hand drive European-spec Montego recently imported from the Netherlands, which unlike UK cars that were branded simply as 'Montego' with no manufacturer's name had full Rover badging including longship emblems. A Maestro van was also a welcome sight, looking quite scruffy and well used just as I remember them back in the day.

Officially a Rover Montego. Look closely and you'll spot the longship badge.

My friend Chris stretched the rules a bit with his Daimler Sovereign, but this is after all very much a BL-era product and it's easy to forget that the highly-regarded Jaguar and Daimler brands were once part of this infamous combine. He wasn't alone as an XJ12 coupe also turned up, a bit of an oddity as it was an original UK-supplied RHD car but was fitted with the horrible American-spec impact-absorbing bumpers for some reason. The Autoshite forum is a place where BL cars are loved, so naturally a number of members were present and it was a pleasure to finally meet Mike aka Trigger, one of the forum moderators. Sadly his own P6 had expired shortly after setting off for the event and he ended up hitching a lift in a friend's Marina. 

US-spec but RHD. Wonder what the story is here?

Numbers of Allegros were apparently down on last year but still included some interesting examples. In the Vanden Plas area was what is supposedly the only roadworthy Mark 1 that lacks the infamous picnic tables and was one of only three finished to special order in the discontinued colour Mirage (grey). Two other Vanden Plas versions were in the main Allegro display, painted in very different colours: one in Russet Brown that looked rather turd-like but the other in the stunning Tara Green metallic, definitely the best colour in the BL palette as it can even make the Allegro look good. For being so notoriously bad, Allegros now seem to have acquired an ironic cool image and are becoming more appreciated.

A Vanden Plas with no picnic tables! Look at its sad little face...

A well-deserved car of the show by public vote was the very rare Crayford Allegro, and seeing this car at last proved my mum right about an incident that happened a couple of decades ago. Her Metro got hit from behind by what she was adamant was definitely an Allegro convertible and was supposedly the only one on the road, but in those pre-internet days neither myself or my dad had ever heard of such a thing and were convinced she was mistaken and it didn't exist. Apparently Crayford only converted 17 as the Allegro had the weakest bodyshell they had ever worked on and was plagued with structural problems, so it is one of their least-known products. At least two still exist though, as the one that hit the Metro was a copper colour and this one is green.

Some would say an open-top Allegro makes a good skip but the people here loved it

Although generally considered to be a rare car, Maxis were out in force here and ours found itself in good company alongside ten other examples - in fact the Maxi was the most numerous type present, much to my surprise! This was an ideal opportunity to meet other members of the owners' club, who are a friendly and diverse group and some useful contacts were made. All had stories to tell about the previous owner of our car, who is very well known within the club as an eccentric and a hoarder, so they were quite surprised he had actually agreed to sell something.

Maxis to the max! Who can spot our YDU 590S in there?

Interestingly, all eleven cars had the 1750 engine, suggesting the 1500 is much less common, and all but one were single-carb versions. They ranged from an early J-reg rod-change car to a couple of late X-reg Maxi 2s and came in a wide variety of colours, from beige to bright yellow, and the choice of colour really does make a big difference to the car's appearance. For a model that supposedly didn't change much during its life, a surprising number of detail differences were apparent on close inspection. It is now confirmed that YDU has Hydrolastic suspension (not Hydragas as we thought) and the paint colour is Carmine Red, and it had a doppelganger there in the shape of another S-reg Carmine Red example.      

Seeing double! Not YDU but another Carmine Red S-reg Maxi.

As a first-time visitor I was pleasantly surprised by the turnout of so many supposedly uncommon cars, although numbers were apparently down a little on previous years, not helped by the closure of the M1. This rally proved just how much appreciation there really is for BL's unloved and unpopular products, even those from the nineties that are now being accepted as classics, and was a fitting end to our short first season with the Maxi. In fact it is exactly a month today since we bought the car and even in that brief period it has reinvigorated our enthusiasm for classic cars.