The Wedgister - Princess and Ambassador Records

[martc]

On 2/5/2020 at 8:06 AM, sierraman said:

Did any of the ministerial Princess survive? The government used loads of them for ministers working in London. 

Several of them are stored, along with the 'Strategic Reserve' of steam locomotives, for use after The Event.

Here's one in the wild; used to chauffeur a certain Jim Hacker MP.

Seriously, HMG used the Wolesley version...

At least one has survived - http://www.leylandprincess.co.uk/WolseleyMinistry.htm

Apologies if this has been mentioned earlier.

[Macscrooge]

First car I ever drove was my dad’s Princess. HSP30W*. A 1.7HL in pewter metallic with paprika cloth interior. It was followed by OSR388Y*, an Ambassador 2.0HLS in white. This was his first car with power steer. The twin-carb O series was quite a beast in its day. 22mpg though.....

 

* - how do I remember this shit?

[HMC]

Mmmmmm paprika cloth

[dozeydustman]

Have you had this one yet @vulgalour?

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333506808847

[ETCHY]

I knew someone  when I was young who had the 2200 HLS version. Thing I always remember is the really nice noise the 2200 engine made, far nicer than equivalent Fords etc. It really did sound good.

Very plush comfortable car, felt like a class above.

[Isaac Hunt]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

Have you had this one yet @vulgalour?

 

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F333506808847

I thought that the vinyl roof was an unusual colour.  Then I saw the underbonnet shot, Rushit Brown.

i would say it is a HL with HLS seats fitted at sometime in its life.  The vinyl roof on a HLS came all the way down the front pillars.  The retro fit vinyl never seemed to cover those front pillars.

Still quite a rare car these days though. Silky smooth those 6 pot auto’s

Edited February 10, 2020 by Isaac Hunt
X

[dozeydustman]

@vulgalour I have at last tracked down the registration of my Granddad’s Princess. LMX281P, a 2200HLS in white with Black Vinyl roof and a blue interior. Might give you a heads up onto other wedges.

Mot status has it as Leyland Cars, MoT history has it as Rover Princess.

As soon as I come across a photo I’ll post it.

 

EDIT: LMX282P was also a princess, a blue one. 283P was a Toledo.

[martc]

Talking of celebrity Princesses have we had Terry and Junes yet?

One too many after a surprise visit from the boss? (99% of T&J's scripts revolved around the boss coming home for tea resulting in much panic and corresponding hilarity)

[captain_70s]

This was posted in a Facebook group relating to memories of Cullen in Aberdeenshire, photograph taken in 1976.

[vulgalour]

I've been steadily updating this just lately, A and N now have new image layout that should be a bit more forum friendly and I've added the new ones in that I had up until the most recent posting.  I'm impressed that previously unknown cars (to the Wedgister at least) are still appearing, like the Scottish snapshot above.

[phil_lihp]

WGK220R should be coming home to live with me in the next few weeks,  Do you recall where you got that photo of it?  Looks like one taken when it was first brought out of storage, I would be curious to know its history.

[vulgalour]

eBay.  Whenever I find one on eBay I save all the ad pics so I've got the full set if you fancy them.

[dozeydustman]

@vulgalour

From an episode of Dempsey & Makepeace I've been watching with the Mrs. Doesn't appear to be on your list

Looks like ODP638V but doesn't show up on the DVLA website

[LightBulbFun]

31 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Looks like ODP638V but doesn't show up on the DVLA website

CDP638V comes up as a Princess but it says its red...

 

[dozeydustman]

2 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

CDP638V comes up as a Princess but it says its red...

 

wonder if it's 838V?

[LightBulbFun]

2 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

wonder if it's 838V?

nah checked that it comes up as a ford Cortina

in beige tho so the colour is right at least!  

[vulgalour]

I did some of this.

I reckon it's COE835V which is listed as a white Austin Morris.  The beige that Princesses came in is often listed as not-beige, my own beige Princess is grey, for example, and Austin Morris is the usual listing for later cars like the one @dozeydustman found today.  It's also listed incorrectly as 1098cc, this isn't unusual either since the digitisation of records seemed to result in a lot of erroneous 'default' engine sizes for cars that were dormant.  This one is probably long gone now, but it's nice to have a new one to add to the listing with a picture.  @LightBulbFun's discovery is also unknown to the Wedgister so while I don't have a photo for it, I'll put the details in the listing anyway for completeness.

 

EDIT: this is easily the nerdiest thing I've done this year.

[phil_lihp]

On 4/13/2020 at 9:50 PM, vulgalour said:

eBay.  Whenever I find one on eBay I save all the ad pics so I've got the full set if you fancy them.

Yes please, if you don't mind, by chance when I joined a Princess & 18/22 Facebook group I found the current owner of my car had posted about it when he bought it last year, some better photos than he put on the ad plus a video of it running.  It'd been off the road since 1992 so I'm hoping to get a bit more history on it over time,

[LightBulbFun]

12 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

I did some of this.

I reckon it's COE835V which is listed as a white Austin Morris.  The beige that Princesses came in is often listed as not-beige, my own beige Princess is grey, for example, and Austin Morris is the usual listing for later cars like the one @dozeydustman found today.  It's also listed incorrectly as 1098cc, this isn't unusual either since the digitisation of records seemed to result in a lot of erroneous 'default' engine sizes for cars that were dormant.  This one is probably long gone now, but it's nice to have a new one to add to the listing with a picture.  @LightBulbFun's discovery is also unknown to the Wedgister so while I don't have a photo for it, I'll put the details in the listing anyway for completeness.

 

EDIT: this is easily the nerdiest thing I've done this year.

oh cool stuff nothing like a good bit of DVLA bashing, something I have done a lot of myself  

COE835V however comes back as a Mini (you can use the MOT checker or other 3rd party tools to check what the model info is  ) so I doubt its that sadly

as side note its worth noting that by the time of V registrations most if not all records will have been computerised/part of the V5 scheme from the get go, so records do tend to be more reliable (but its still the DVLA LOL)

but more importantly, as such its much rarer for such later registrations that you find a vehicle that does not show up on the checker if it did exist, so say I find a find such a V reg vehicle that does not show up on the checker, what I do is run up and down a few digits, and if all of those get no results at all

then I know that the registration series was never issued at all so I either got the registration wrong or its a false plate

(and also basically anything that survived until the mid 1980s at the earliest will quite likely still show up on the DVLA checker today ) 

[vulgalour]

It coming back as a Mini would explain the cc discrepency then, my fault for making assumptions there.  Back to square one then.

[Christine]

Added bonus point for dd  Mk1 Fiesta in the pic too .  Vulg that paint place up bluebell hill was open on Monday when i went to get supplies..

 

 

[dozeydustman]

@vulgalour I’ll try and get a better screen grab if I can. When I’m not gardening I need other things to do, so if I see a wedge on the box I’ll get the number plate & photo.

 

There’s a Wolseley wedge in an episode of Fawlty Towers

[dozeydustman]

JJT343N. Photo courtesy of IMCDB

[vulgalour]

Thank you for that one!  I'd not been able to work out the reg on pics I'd seen of it so couldn't add it in.  Matches on DVLA too, so that's good, it's not a Mini this time.

[dozeydustman]

20 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Thank you for that one!  I'd not been able to work out the reg on pics I'd seen of it so couldn't add it in.  Matches on DVLA too, so that's good, it's not a Mini this time.

No-one in IMCDB can make out the Dempsey and Makepeace one either, they come up with the same numbers that Mr Incandescent does (It’s not really really badly pogweaseled is it?)

[dozeydustman]

I’m getting quite into this “hunt the wedge game” now....

Courtesy of the internet movie car database again 

 

[LightBulbFun]

twas doing some idle browsing (totally not looking for ones with registration's shared with Invacars honest!)

and notice a couple things you might find interesting

RLF1R is a plate currently on retention and given how RLF3R is a princess as well I suspect RLF1R was one as well  (it was last on a Honda motorcycle currently wearing its original plate of LO10GEK)

and do you know whats the deal with PVW506S? PVW-S was never a registration series issued

(as a side note I like the format with the cars layed out as individual pictures with their registrations in plain text form, makes it nice and searchable  perhaps keeping a text list of all the registrations with the montages would not be a bad idea, incase someone say happens to be googling a wedge they just unearthed etc?) 

[vulgalour]

If you can find any of the KYT XX P cars, that would be great.  There were apparently 20 of them, I've got something like four on the Wedgister so far?  All black, all destined for ministerial work.

S'funny I changed the layout from the individual pictures with registration because I was finding it increasingly difficult to update content.  Once you get over about 20 cars in a section it's a bit of a nightmare on the editing front.  As for PVW506S I actually have no idea, it doesn't appear in the spreadsheet, there's no folder for it, and DVLA has no record of it.  I have literally no idea why it's there.

[LightBulbFun]

19 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

If you can find any of the KYT XX P cars, that would be great.  There were apparently 20 of them, I've got something like four on the Wedgister so far?  All black, all destined for ministerial work.

as in find as in pictures of them, or just find any info on them in general?  

[vulgalour]

Pictures, ideally.  Any information is handy but I can only really say it is X car with an image to at least show the car with the registration together.  I've also altered the N section https://autoshite.com/topic/11411-the-wedgister-princess-and-ambassador-records/?do=findComment&comment=1466732 to hopefully make it easier to see the info.  I've put a concise line of info next to each entry and have gone through and updated according to the current status on DVLA. Items in bold are either taxed or on SORN and considered to be surviving vehicles.