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The Wedgister - Princess and Ambassador Records


vulgalour

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A few I remember from yesteryear!

 

DUS 933T, Gold 1.7 HL, run by a local taxi firm in the late '80s.

 

JAJ 977N, White early Austin 1800HL, owned by one of my neighbours, scrapped late '80s.

 

FTC 87W, Russet brown 2.0 HL, owned by my geography teacher at school. Traded in for a new Mk2 Fiesta festival, late 80s.

 

BAJ 591Y, Damask red Ambassador 1.7L, owned by my mates dad. Last taxed 1995.

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I know I've a few snaps of Ambassadors and Princesses snapped while on holiday in Norfolk in 1996. I'll look them out and scan them in later.

Annoyingly, I've no recollection of the registrations on either the Damask Red 2200HL owned by my friend's dad c.1985, nor the slightly crispy Vermilion 1700 I went to look at on a dark night in 1997.

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Dave:  If you're on desktop (may be different on mobile, I only use desktop) you can put the picture directly into the post.  If you click on the 'more reply options' button to the bottom right of the post it will open a new page that then has 'attach files' at the bottom left.  You can then click 'choose files' and directly transfer the images of choice from your device of choice.  After that, make your post and add the images as normal.  I'm not a Facebook user so hopping on Facebook to get the images isn't an option for me either.  The modern world has given us too many options to make life easier!

 

Andy:  cheers for those, I didn't have any of those at all.

 

Datsun:  I look forward to it!

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Dave:  If you're on desktop (may be different on mobile, I only use desktop) you can put the picture directly into the post.  If you click on the 'more reply options' button to the bottom right of the post it will open a new page that then has 'attach files' at the bottom left.  You can then click 'choose files' and directly transfer the images of choice from your device of choice.  After that, make your post and add the images as normal.  I'm not a Facebook user so hopping on Facebook to get the images isn't an option for me either.  The modern world has given us too many options to make life easier!

 

 

 

post-26823-0-32031500-1542475946_thumb.jpg

post-26823-0-73903300-1542475967_thumb.jpg

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Dave:  it worked!  Nice matching speed boat.  Are they both the same car?

No, these photos should have been with my original post.

 

On the left is PTF738R - Princess 2200HL manual, registered 1st June 1977, untaxed since 28th January 1991, taken at Ambleside camp site in August 1979

 

On the right is LLA552P - Austin 1800HL manual, registered 4th August 1975, untaxed since 28th June 1987, taken at Lee On Solent in September 1977

 

 

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Vehicles of Note

Police

HJW200N

HJW200N.jpg.48c41930c53a2c9b2300e47b9e87b4e6.jpg

JVP904P

JVP904P.jpg.9e373816d34b78416251bccdfc9815a3.jpg

KOA263P

KOA263P.jpg.69a2cb6f5dc544204d6859a436359030.jpg

LPT147P

LPT147P.jpg.f6e1b0fcefb2aae7860112a0ed9970b5.jpg

MUM531P

MUM531P.jpg.29b00bf0e045e39e2d97b3795c022582.jpg

RSC813P

RSC813P.jpg.76b92c3e7cdacbe1fc8b6160dddf483d.jpg

WVF737P

WVF737P.jpg.2c8827d415dbd979fbbaee03d8abc04a.jpg

 

Ambulance

YKH760X

YKH760X.jpg.c0125c83fe54c362b42f60aae55500d6.jpg

HAG642Y

HAG642Y.jpg.7162b1111c32c2991d00b9dabb32ad65.jpg

 

Government

KYT5P - Ministerial car

KYT5P.jpg.be222a7cdb40ef1fda5d143980ceea80.jpg

KYT13P- Ministerial car

KYT13P.jpg.d58e50c6e9c557660ca112c5aca968ec.jpg

KYT20P- Ministerial car

KYT20P.jpg.2c8f385cc3601c7ead439271fbd0f0c7.jpg

DCP458V - Bradford Mayoral car

DCP458V.jpg.fb577b24626ce5abc61abadcf383e756.jpg

FHN740V - Darlington Mayoral car

FHN740V.jpg.ba0bcfef3df422c8e02c351822e5bd99.jpg

LCW402W - Preston Mayoral car

LCW402W.jpg.f712e2610aa97972254110637ea2cffc.jpg

 

 

Limousine

LVH943P

LVH943P.jpg.e43d8ba00ee35731f13a38217f00ae9b.jpg

OCP87X

OCP87X.jpg.1d81d5293d4c29c6f12ad0715aa6a9e3.jpg

OEL825P

OEL825P.jpg.2c8504fe94a638eb8fbb162f2677268b.jpg

VJX802V

VJX802V.jpg.ccf01e0b66a0d4c277b061d78b883931.jpg

VJX803V

VJX803V.jpg.bdc35dcf622712c4399190467e28a104.jpg

JHD605W

JHD605W.jpg.841d419b174479162a3013e0f8fcdc36.jpg

JHD607W

JHD607W.jpg.147e5b711b6b9fdb4edd329d8ead5a6d.jpg

PWL861W

PWL861W.jpg.2a816c625a230f5277d0ad887dc21d0b.jpg

 

Hearse

81D1679 - Father Ted episode

505014777_81D1679-FatherTed.jpg.21f72856cf7a18bd996cfd7c8d417eb5.jpg

81WW309

81WW309-Hearse.jpg.e360ac6bb69723f040ec7f5534d18df2.jpg

THD90R

THD20R.jpg.fc5abc56568d08abad0a69d0b8abd31b.jpg

APW817S

APW817S.jpg.d9db40f7e4ad6cc6a2c2dddb2b570722.jpg

YCP663V

YCP663V.jpg.434172f67928caa47b12bae15604aef0.jpg

YCP668V

YCP668V.jpg.1ef0c2d34a268a155916f5bc8b3c1e3b.jpg

LHD475W

LHD475W.jpg.52391b9c530d297887f1e65294058655.jpg

MGK2P - Keeping Up Appearances episode

MKG2P.jpg.8f39d6b1ee63661334daaa454dbceb3d.jpg

MJK934W

MJK934W.jpg.d85c228e7eb06f7efa49016f1040c2db.jpg

RHD528P

RHD528P.jpg.833b99df3d999dfca709d75ba16f4b1f.jpg

YVH612Y

YVH612Y.jpg.2fbae7534041eae95361b7a61f980900.jpg

TIB4796

TIB4796.jpg.d74d275b7977dc262fc4bc4221c75a2e.jpg

UCP171X

UCP171X.jpg.2397d96e5a732a27906adf3d6c50ef0f.jpg

 

Club 100

GMR650W

GMR650W.jpg.b0989db14df859f0954fddda1c0fa7c0.jpg

RPV585W

RPV585W.jpg.17840beb8041c7cbbd175fe7c4602b63.jpg

PRC351X

PRC351X.jpg

 

Torcar

85-SV-46 - Torcars hatchback conversion

1207032325_85SV46-TorcarsConversion.jpg.436d46af9132be30baac5bc44d798136.jpg

 

Campers and Convertibles

DIB3583 - Starcraft camper conversion of an Ambassador.

1242065837_DIB3583-StarcraftCamper.jpg.16b60909496f83724c350e1461325106.jpg

URR260X - Camper conversion of an Ambassador.  Retitled the Coaster Tremor

URR260X.jpg.23a628c8d2b270316019937dc71b6278.jpg

AHY199 - Convertible

AHY199.jpg.ca5bb596ecc8a993ff3b7e1599b1eac2.jpg

XTC958V - Convertible

XTC958V.jpg.7ff6cbeb25e3288039a819fbfe6e3448.jpg

 

 

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Updated the W reg section and added 'Vehicles of Note' section.

 

I'm thinking I need to set up a dedicated web archive for this really, I just have absolutely no idea of how to go about it, or what the best layout would be.  Doesn't need to be anything interactive, just a basic information and tiny image archive as I'm doing here.  If anyone can help with this, please get in touch.

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Thought I'd found another one. Oxford Diecast normally model real cars and they've done models of UOX766S, VRW475S and YBJ243X. The fourth version is a Staffordshire Police car registered LRE750P but sadly that doesn't seem to be a genuine reg as DVLA says it was a Suzuki moped.

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Images - The best of what I've got available have been turned into thumbnails for all the vehicles that were listed here.

 

Extra info - coming soon.  I've got a spreadsheet for most of what you see here, but I need to research more on the ones you don't see.  It will also take me a while to type all the relevant information out and since I'm doing this for fun rather than as paid work, I'm not going to work on this after the point it stops being fun.

 

Non-UK cars - again, coming soon.  I've got plenty of images of these, none of which are organised.  I don't have access to a DVLA type database for these either and some of the number plates I may have misidentified the country of origin, so there's a lot to do on this side of things.

 

---

 

The sad thing doing this is just how many of these cars simply don't exist any more.  Many of the pictures I have are cars in an abandoned state or, at the opposite end of the scale, at shows.  There's no many cars from this selection that you see in the wild simply being cars.  It has been interesting to see how colour trends change with each new registration year, with earlier cars being a much wider range of colours to begin with fading out to just beige and silver for the most part at the end.

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This is really wierd but In 1994 my grandparents took me to the Pontins at Morecambe. I remember a beige rust stained ambassador sat by the boating lake. As I got older I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it as an 8 year old, anyway, fast forward to last year and there was footage on YouTube of a Star Wars conversation the same year, lo and behold but the beige Ambassador was there, I hadn’t imagined it.

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I would have liked to have put it on the club site but this is really the only way I currently have of doing it in an easily accessible way.  I'm sure there's going to be cars that are known to the club that aren't here too.  Difficult to keep track of them all even though there's barely any left.

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From AA Drive and Trail magazine Apr 1982:

 

post-20295-0-73974800-1542648688_thumb.jpg

LOV755X - 2 litre untaxed since June 1993

 

post-20295-0-71025000-1542648696_thumb.jpg

LOV758X - 1.7 untaxed since September 1992

LOV756X - 2 litre untaxed since April 1994
 

All registered November 1981, long before the Ambassador went on sale, and registered as Austin-Morris cars of unknown model.

 

Incidentally, online searches show that LOV753X LOV754X and LOV759X were also probably pre-production Ambassadors, the DVLA record them all as Austin-Morris unknowns and they have 1700 or 2000 engines.  None have been taxed for years.

 

 

 

 

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I do wonder if they planned to release the Ambassador a year or two earlier than they did and to keep it in production a year or two longer.  It seemed an awful lot of effort to go to for a car that was barely in production for two years.  While it does look superficially the same as the Princess, almost the entire body was reworked on the Ambassador so it was a bit of an oddity in that it was almost a completely new car that didn't actually look like more than a facelift.

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The Ambassador was developed (for £19 million) with a maximum two year life span in mind; enough to refresh the Princess design and keep sales afloat until the Maestro/Montego were in full production in 1984. They even spent money giving it a facelift (including an expensive new dashboard moulding for the VP to accept a wood insert) in August 1983 knowing production would end two months later. However, there was six months stock sitting in fields and the car remained in brochures until April 1984 though dealers couldn't guarantee you'd get an Autumn '83 facelift car until all the old stock had gone.

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There was a further model planned, based on the Maestro/Montego platform:

 

post-20295-0-00330000-1542667363_thumb.jpg

 

This was LM14/15 - a large hatchback which would have been a much more direct replacement for the Ambassador.

Details on the AROnline site: http://https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/maestro/concepts-and-prototypes-meet-the-lc-family/

 

Was there an idea within BL that the Ambassador would remain in production alongside the Montego until LM14/15 was ready?  That might explain why more resources were put into the Ambassador than seemed sensible.

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