Maxi model repaint

It should come as no surprise that as soon as Oxford Diecast released their model of the Austin Maxi I embarked on a repaint to represent my actual car. Read on to discover the trials and tribulations of what should have been a simple repaint project, and see if the finished product looks anything like the real thing...

Smaller wheels make a big difference, but will it look like the real one?

Maxi model review

Oxford Diecast 76MX001 - 1/76 scale Austin Maxi in Tara Green

Regular readers may remember that almost a year ago I expressed my delight that Oxford Diecast had announced a model of the Austin Maxi. It was due for release in the fourth quarter of 2018 so I predicted I would have one in my collection by the end of the year, but Christmas came and went and nothing further was heard about it.

There's a good reason for that: the model has suffered a long delay and has only just been released last week, shortly after the real Maxi's 50th birthday. I was hoping to do this review sooner as I placed my order last Wednesday but a system glitch at the supplier meant I had to wait another week for it to arrive, so at long last and much later than expected I finally have an Oxford Diecast Maxi in my hands for a review. Was it worth the wait?

Not a bad representation of the Maxi

Happy 50th birthday Maxi!

Yesterday marked exactly 50 years since the Austin Maxi was presented to the world on 24th April 1969 in Oporto, Portugal. The Maxi has had a bit of a tough life: born prematurely as a step-child to parents who got together long after it was conceived, it finally came good 18 months later but was then left to fester for a decade before quickly disappearing into oblivion, and is still often mocked but only now finally earning the recognition it deserves. It's hard to believe this brilliant but flawed car is now half a century old, so join me in raising a glass to the humble and often-misunderstood Maxi as it celebrates its 50th birthday...

Motoring Misfits: Austin 'Minor' van

It's been a while since my last blog, and there's no particular reason, just everyday life getting in the way. Today I want to start a new occasional series looking at a subject that fascinates me: the 'motoring misfit', those odd vehicles that while not necessarily bad just didn't seem to have a place in the market, and my first candidate at first glance appears to be something very common.

Look at the van pictured above. Isn't that a Morris Minor, one of the most popular and beloved vehicles of its era, so how on earth can I claim it to be a motoring misfit? Take another look though and you'll see this is a Minor in disguise - there's a crinkly grille and an Austin badge where you'd expect it to say Morris. How come a Morris Minor van ended up wearing the Austin identity? It isn't a DIY job as you might think but a standard production model, so keep reading to find out why its manufacturer felt the need to create this pointless motoring misfit...

Range Rover field test

Modern Range Rovers leave me cold. I think they're hideous and vulgar and have absolutely no desire to own one. The original, retrospectively known as the Range Rover Classic, on the other hand has long been a favourite of mine and I think its simple, rugged yet elegant shape is a design classic that looks great. I'd never actually driven or even sat in one though, until now that is.

A proper Range Rover in what should be its natural habitat

The Saturday just gone was the fifth running of Hagerty Insurance's Festival of the Unexceptional and there will be a full report on that event in due course, but this year it was decided to make a weekend of it and hold an after party in the Field of Dreams for invited guests. A nice man called Ian from Hagerty owns the blue Range Rover that can usually be found at the events they sponsor, and when he turned up on Sunday I cheekily asked if I could have a go. "Sure", he said, "the keys are in it", so I clambered in and off I went across the field to realise my dream of driving a classic Range Rover.

A Maxi model

It's been far too long since my last blog as I've been very busy and going through some tough times at work. There has been some very good news amongst all of this though: my prayers for a 1/76 scale model of the Austin Maxi have finally been answered by Oxford Diecast so I am looking forward to adding one to my collection soon. The Maxi has been overlooked by the model manufacturers for far too long and has been requested countless times, not just by me, so the news of its addition to their programme has been received with much enthusiasm and I'm sure it will be a good seller.

At long last, an affordable model Maxi

BL's alternative reality - part 3

Here is the third and final part of my alternative reality that could have seen British Leyland become the pride of Britain with a popular, desirable and well-built range of cars and a world-renowned image, far from the reality of a long-extinct but still tarnished brand and its infamous lineup of failed products. Part 2 took us through the 1980s as the group consolidated the reputation established in the previous decade, so here we take up the story from the 1990s through to the present day with British Leyland still very much alive and well as a dominant force in the global motor industry. Sadly I have no Photoshop skills, otherwise I would create renderings of these cars to illustrate this article as I can picture them in my mind, but read on anyway to see how I envision BL looking today.

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

A year of Maxi-ing

Time flies when you're having fun, and the weekend just gone marked the first anniversary of buying the Maxi. It's hard to believe a whole year has passed so quickly, so what has happened to the car in that time? It may have been overshadowed in recent weeks by the unexpected arrival of the Renault 6, but the Maxi hasn't been forgotten. To be honest, there really isn't much to report as it just keeps on doing its thing without a fuss.

The Festival of the Unexceptional was its first outing with the new wheeltrims

Unsung heroes: Triumph TR7

British Leyland have far more than their fair share of unsung heroes, being the car company everyone loves to hate, and today's subject is the second Triumph-badged car to feature in this series. The Triumph TR7 is practically guaranteed to feature in all those lists of the world's worst cars that keep appearing, especially those compiled by Americans, who really seem to hate it with a passion. That's quite ironic really as it was designed specifically to appeal to the US market and the Americans mostly have themselves to blame for the way it turned out. Was it really that bad though? Yes, it suffered its share of issues and its story is one of missed opportunities and unrealised potential, but it's a surprisingly contradictory yet true fact that the TR7 is somehow both the least loved and simultaneously also the most successful member of the TR series.

Is it really fair to class this as one of the world's worst cars?

Dream cars: Rover SD1 estate

BL's greatest missed opportunity? 

I like estate cars. I don't really know why but I just have a fascination with them and often find them more attractive than the saloon or hatchback on which they're based, with a few exceptions of course. I also like the Rover SD1 for its radical Ferrari-inspired styling, so combine the two and it's highly likely that the result will be greatly appealing to me. British Leyland's troubled history is littered with cancelled projects that might have been great but never saw the light of day for whatever reason, the advanced mid-engined Rover P6BS and Capri-rivalling Triumph Lynx among others. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity of all is the proposed SD1 estate, which would have been a formidable rival to the big Volvos, Mercedes and Ford Granada and ranks highly on my list of dream cars.

How I wish I could own one of these...

Making more of the Maxi

British Leyland's alternative reality

 

As a fan and owner of the Austin Maxi, I have spent some time thinking about why it didn't achieve the success it deserved. BL didn't really know what to do with the Maxi and basically pushed it to the sidelines, but with a different attitude it could easily have formed the very heart of the range and spawned many more variants. One of the biggest reasons I came up with for its failure was the simultaneous existence of both the Maxi 1750 and the 1800 Landcrab, which seemed to be a pointless duplication that did nothing other than create internal competition, as the latter was basically the same car but with an older engine and without the benefit of the fifth gear or hatchback. This realisation provided the starting point for an entire train of thought that could have changed the course of British Leyland's history for the better!

The Maxi could have been so much more than this dumpy unloved hatchback

Had the Maxi been used as a direct replacement for the Landcrab, the Princess would then become redundant and extending this thought a little opens up the possibility of its place being taken by a whole series of Maxi-based cars using all of the E-series engine variations that existed in reality, from 1500 right up to 2600cc. The existence of these additional Maxis would then cause other models to develop in a more logical way to fit around them, rationalising the range and providing full market coverage that was equivalent to Ford, with the Allegro and Escort, Maxi and Cortina, and SD1 and Granada pairings all being direct competitors. Here's how things might have turned out in this alternative reality... 

Unsung heroes: Triumph Acclaim

It's fair to say the dawn of the 1980s was not a great time for British Leyland. The company had managed to survive the turmoil of the seventies but not without gaining a very poor reputation, and their well-documented financial problems meant the product range was not in the best of health. The evergreen Land Rover and Mini were still selling well and the Metro was the great new hope for the future, but new legislation in the USA had killed off their popular sports roadsters and caused the closure of the Canley and Abingdon factories, and the mainstream family car lineup was looking very much past its best.

The Allegro 3, Maxi 2, Ital and Ambassador were all crude facelifts of ageing and unpopular designs that were long past their sell-by date and had bad reputations and very little appeal, so something new and better was urgently needed. Salvation was to come in the form of a joint venture with Honda, the first fruit of which would be the Triumph Acclaim, an underrated car that I think is deserving of greater accolades for being the first in a long line of successful Anglo-Japanese collaborations. I could easily have written 'greater acclaim' there but such puns are cliched and everyone uses them when talking about this car. 

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.

A fortnight of Maxi-ing

Today marks exactly two weeks since the Maxi arrived in its new home, so this is a good time for a quick progress update. My dad has spent almost all of his spare time since then on the car so a lot of little jobs have been done and it is continually getting better, not that it was at all bad to start with. The postman, himself a classic car enthusiast who took a keen interest in our new purchase, has been kept busy with regular deliveries of Maxi parts, which have so far proved surprisingly easy to obtain as many are shared with the Mini. It has now done more than the previous owner's entire annual mileage in just ten days and is in fine fettle mechanically, so confidence is growing with each journey and it is proving itself to have been an excellent purchase, despite breaking the golden rule of never buying a car in the rain!

The first show, three days after collection

It's a Maxi adventure

As you'll probably know from previous posts, we've been looking to buy a classic car, preferably but not necessarily an Austin Maxi, and had narrowly missed out on a fine example a couple of weeks ago. Since then we've been keeping an eye on various car sales websites, but nothing available locally on eBay jumped out at us and the good stuff all seemed to be overpriced and/or hundreds of miles away. Thus disappointed, just on the off-chance we decided to check the Maxi Owners' Club website again in case anything new had been listed. The reward was a car advertised that very morning, which quickly became the latest addition to the Rusty Old Rubbish fleet and means the Maxi urges have been satisfied and we now have a British Leyland car in the garage again after selling the Triumph Dolomite several years ago.

Second time lucky. There's a BL car on the drive once more.

The Maxi that got away

I'm sure all car enthusiasts have been through it many times: the excitement of a potential purchase followed by disappointment when things don't work out and you end up leaving the seller's house without the car. Rusty Old Rubbish may be mostly about old cars but there is one important thing missing as we don't actually own one at the moment, although efforts are being made to rectify that situation. With forthcoming changes in circumstances hopefully meaning the loss of a dull modern car and me being able to drive again soon, the time has come to get another classic, but the first attempt to buy one sadly failed despite our best efforts in slightly odd circumstances. Nonetheless it was an interesting experience and not a complete waste of time like some car viewings turn out to be.

The perfect Maxi that narrowly escaped our grasp

Unsung heroes: Austin Maxi

I haven't championed an unsung hero for a very long time so a new entry is well overdue but this one may seem an odd choice: the Austin Maxi. Have I lost my mind? Surely everyone agrees the Maxi was a terrible car that epitomises everything wrong with British Leyland? Well no actually, I think that reputation is rather unfair and the poor old Maxi deserves a lot more credit than it's given. I've been seeing a few Maxis at shows recently and become quite fond of them, so let me justify myself...

The much maligned Maxi. Pile of crap or unsung hero?