HMC blue VDP progress

12,522 · June 11

A 'heavy 12' featured in Bangers + Cash, last night.

🚙💨

44,887 · June 13

Well the 12/4 is with another shiter. Fuzz Townshend even contacted me about it.

Also the p4 has moved to pastures new (also on the forum- wait and see)

Despite all this sensibleness and banking some cash I decided i needed a cheap project to mess about with still. Something to tinker with. Something cheap, and dreadful. Quite dreadful. Kind of looks like hipster transport ATM.

Its better than it looks, honest.

After an easy win and low hanging fruit I unearthed my suspension pump and rather wishfully started cranking it. This caused fluid to piss out of perished flexi hoses going to the rear displacers. Ah well. Got a pair on order for this little orphan.

19,704 · June 13

love 1100s hate these

sorry

15,624 · June 13

Has it got a square wheel, Mister? 😀

8,596 · June 13

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Has it got a square wheel, Mister? 😀

From the year and it being a VP, I’d guess not.

12,128 · June 13

Stunna!

15,624 · June 13

5 minutes ago, Wibble said:

From the year and it being a VP, I’d guess not.

I'd say definitely not, unless someone's put one on. God knows why they would though, they were horrible to steer with.

13,211 · June 13

Careful when jacking it up.

Does the drivers seat protrude through the floor?

37,651 · June 13

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Has it got a square wheel, Mister? 😀

No Vanden Plas's had square steering wheels.

37,651 · June 13

Date of reg Jan 2020, so where has it been since 1975?

24,565 · June 13

57 minutes ago, HMC said:

Well the 12/4 is with another shiter. Fuzz Townshend even contacted me about it.

Also the p4 has moved to pastures new (also on the forum- wait and see)

Despite all this sensibleness and banking some cash I decided i needed a cheap project to mess about with still. Something to tinker with. Something cheap, and dreadful. Quite dreadful. Kind of looks like hipster transport ATM.

Its better than it looks, honest.

After an easy win and low hanging fruit I unearthed my suspension pump and rather wishfully started cranking it. This caused fluid to piss out of perished flexi hoses going to the rear displacers. Ah well. Got a pair on order for this little orphan.

Ooh that’s the one from Llandudno! I was quite tempted!

9,323 · June 13

4 minutes ago, brownnova said:

Ooh that’s the one from Llandudno! I was quite tempted!

Got to be a TV sitcom in there?
The Last Allegro From LLandudno?
Allegro Ma Non Troppo? ;-)

21,243 · June 13

Lovely bit of film of VDP Kingsbury actually making these.

If you fancy a pilgrimage - the main office block is still there for a photo opportunity.

3,456 · June 13

1 hour ago, HMC said:

Well the 12/4 is with another shiter. Fuzz Townshend even contacted me about it.

Also the p4 has moved to pastures new (also on the forum- wait and see)

Despite all this sensibleness and banking some cash I decided i needed a cheap project to mess about with still. Something to tinker with. Something cheap, and dreadful. Quite dreadful. Kind of looks like hipster transport ATM.

Its better than it looks, honest.

After an easy win and low hanging fruit I unearthed my suspension pump and rather wishfully started cranking it. This caused fluid to piss out of perished flexi hoses going to the rear displacers. Ah well. Got a pair on order for this little orphan.

Cooorrr 🤤

28,481 · June 13

Reckon once it's up and going that will probably be quite pleasant to buzz around in. The front end treatment the VP version got on these just always looked odd to me. If they were still going for the olde worlde look, almost think keeping the edge of the bonnet straighter and sticking with round headlights, maybe spaced a little further apart might have worked better. The actual setup used just looks really disjointed to me. I mean the Allegro is a pretty odd looking thing at the best of times, but to my eye it just didn't survive the VP "dip it in chrome" treatment nearly as gracefully as the ADO16.

Interested to see how you get on with it. One of those cars I really need to get a proper drive of one day. Pretty sure I've only driven one Allegro, and that was for about five minutes about 30 years ago, on a private road, well before I had a driving licence! So it's a very dusty memory.

25,017 · June 13

2 hours ago, Wibble said:

From the year and it being a VP, I’d guess not.

Yep.

37,651 · June 14

13 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Reckon once it's up and going that will probably be quite pleasant to buzz around in. The front end treatment the VP version got on these just always looked odd to me. If they were still going for the olde worlde look, almost think keeping the edge of the bonnet straighter and sticking with round headlights, maybe spaced a little further apart might have worked better. The actual setup used just looks really disjointed to me. I mean the Allegro is a pretty odd looking thing at the best of times, but to my eye it just didn't survive the VP "dip it in chrome" treatment nearly as gracefully as the ADO16.

Interested to see how you get on with it. One of those cars I really need to get a proper drive of one day. Pretty sure I've only driven one Allegro, and that was for about five minutes about 30 years ago, on a private road, well before I had a driving licence! So it's a very dusty memory.

I agree the grill looks out of place. Also the whole cars looks rather bulky. Give me an ADO16 any time, even then the VP1300 grill looked slightly too big for the car.

Mrs6C has a VP1500 and I am sure she would lend it to you on request.

19,704 · June 14

8 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

Give me an ADO16 any time

when a massive botherer doesnt like them

44,887 · June 17

I havent taken any photos, but the white VDP is up on stands, the hoses to the rear displacers have had their connections doused in plus gas. And some second hand replacement hoses have arrived from the hydrogas specialist people. The underside looks really sound, wants a bit of wire brush and por15 or something like that. “better than it looks” definitely applies to this little allegro.

They seem to have bred as theres another on its way

oh dear! Pass the meds, matron!

44,887 · June 17

On 13/06/2025 at 19:27, Six-cylinder said:

Date of reg Jan 2020, so where has it been since 1975?

@LightBulbFun i noticed that too. Wonder whats going on there?

62,815 · June 17

Oh dear.

Manual or Mills-o-Matic?

9,635 · June 17

On 13/06/2025 at 21:07, Zelandeth said:

The front end treatment the VP version got on these just always looked odd to me. If they were still going for the olde worlde look, almost think keeping the edge of the bonnet straighter and sticking with round headlights, maybe spaced a little further apart might have worked better. The actual setup used just looks really disjointed to me. I mean the Allegro is a pretty odd looking thing at the best of times, but to my eye it just didn't survive the VP "dip it in chrome" treatment nearly as gracefully as the ADO16.

Allegedly the budget only stretched to changing one panel for the Vanden Plas version, so they changed the bonnet to allow for the more traditional style grille.

28,481 · June 17

4 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

Allegedly the budget only stretched to changing one panel for the Vanden Plas version, so they changed the bonnet to allow for the more traditional style grille.

That sounds very much like BL thinking. Especially where anything related to the Allegro is concerned!

5,080 · June 17

9,635 · June 17

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

That sounds very much like BL thinking. Especially where anything related to the Allegro is concerned!

They did seem strangely obsessed with minimising the amount of tooling for body panels, even when that really compromised their designs, e.g. Maxi having to use the 1800's doors, Marina 2 door having to use the front doors of the 4 door.

21,243 · June 17

36 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

They did seem strangely obsessed with minimising the amount of tooling for body panels, even when that really compromised their designs, e.g. Maxi having to use the 1800's doors, Marina 2 door having to use the front doors of the 4 door.

Goes right back to the early days of Austin.

I haven't checked - but certainly some of these used the same doors - Devon A40/Hampshire A70; Somerset A40/Hereford A70; I think the Cambridge and Westminster did too. The 3-litre used the 1800 doors and central body tub etc.

There was even this Austin Sheerline replacement prototype using Somerset doors.

That's quite a beast - pity it never made production.

44,887 · June 17

40 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Oh dear.

Manual or Mills-o-Matic?

Both Baders

62,815 · June 17

Oh dear.

12,522 · June 17

Why we're all here #popcorn#....

👍♥️

🚙💨

12,265 · June 17

2 hours ago, HMC said:

@LightBulbFun i noticed that too. Wonder whats going on there?

At a guess parked up and dropped off the system, reregistered again in 2020 retaining it's original number.

HMC blue VDP progress

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