Austin - Princess

Princess naming

In 1947, Austin produced two virtually identical chassis, one for the A125 Sheerline (built entirely by Austin at their Longbridge factory) and the A135 chassis used by Vanden Plas to produce the Princess at their Kingsbury works (North London). Although Vanden Plas was by now wholely owned by Austin and much of the running gear and instrumentation was the same in the two cars, the Princess was the Austin flagship, with a higher specification leather, wool and burr walnut interior. The original Princess DS1 (DM1 with glass divider between front and rear) was powered by a 3.5 litre straight six engine. This was enlarged to a 4.0 litre unit and the car was renamed the DS2 (DM2 with glass divider) without further modifications. Both the DS1 (DM1) and DS2 (DM2) were often built to order. Customers could specify the colour required and a range of different setups were available. These included triple or single carburetors and twin or single exhaust systems. Whilst the sportier multiple carb version performed better, it tended to achieve only 12 to 14 mpg. The single carb however gave fuel consumption between 22 and 27 mpg. Performance was very good for a car this size with top speed of 90mph and acceleration 0 to 60 mph of only 20 seconds.

However, from August 1957 the "Austin" part of the badging was dropped, so although Austin was producing a Princess, it was no longer the Austin Princess by name. From May 1960 the Vanden Plas marquee was applied in front of "Princess". Later, the Vanden Plas Princess was revived as a single model of the Leyland Princess range, built by British Leyland (BL) in the 1970s and initially sold through Austin and other dealerships; this car was never actually badged Austin Princess in the UK (though it was in some export markets) and is commonly referred to as simply the Princess.

Austin A110 Sheerline

The Austin Sheerline was a luxury car produced by Austin Motor Company from 1947 to 1954.

The Sheerline was designed by Austin before World War Two (1942) but production did not begin until 1947 because of the commitment to war production. It was a luxurious car in the style of the contemporary Rolls-Royce or Bentley but at a much lower price. There were about 8000 built but it is now becoming quite rare.

The first cars, designated A110, had a 3460 cc straight 6 overhead valve engine but this was soon increased to 3995 cc with 125 bhp (93 kW) and the designation then became A125. Initially only a Saloon version on a 9 feet 11 1/4 inch wheelbase chassis was made but this was joined by a (rare) Limousine version in 1950 on a stretched 11-foot (3 m) chassis. Later on there came more versions including a hearse and an ambulance. At 37 hundredweight (1850 kg) for the saloon and 2 tons (2000 kg) for the limousine this was a heavy car and to maintain performance a low final drive ratio of 4.55:1 with 16 inch tyres was fitted. Suspension was by coil springs at the front and half elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The saloon version had a top speed of 82 mph (132 km/h).

In 1954 production ceased with the Austin luxury category passing to the similar A135 Princess Mk II which had also been in production since 1947 and would continue until 1956.

The 1947 Sheerline became Austin's first post-war, all-new model and carried on the established Austin tradition of offering a large saloon/limousine. The Sheerline was originally called the Austin A110 Sheerline but after only 12 cars had built the car was renamed the Austin A125 Sheerline.

Produced at Longbridge the A125 came as either a 4 door saloon or as a Limousine, both cars featured "Razor Edge" styling by Austin's own design team. Both variants had a distinguished look with a large upright radiator, Lucas P100 headlamps and well appointed interiors, the cars were intended to be alternatives for the Bentley, Daimler and Armstrong Siddley customers to consider.

Austin also offered a A135 Princess version of the Sheerline, this particular model was styled and built by coachbuilder Vanden Plas. For some reason these large Austin's failed to capture the publics imagination and most cars were purchased by hire companies or for civic ceremonial duties, a few were also built with Ambulance bodies for private hospitals.

The A135 Princess first appeared alongside its smaller sister the Sheerline in 1947, its position being more of a flagship than a serious production model. Like the Sheerline, the Princess first used a different Austin model code for the first batch of cars, in this case it first appeared as the A120 but became the A135 after receiving the bigger, 3995cc engine.

Essentially the A135 Princess was a coach built saloon or limousine version of the Sheerline offering similar styling and interior appointments. Some early cars used triple carb's to overcome the cars heavy weight, this tuning arrangement gave 135bhp which helped performance somewhat.

The A135 Princess stayed in production until 1956 in which time it had undergone many improvements and had passed through Mk I, Mk II and Mk III phases, including some long wheel base limousine versions. The model was eventually replaced by the new Princess IV in 1956 which sold as a Vanden Plas from 1957.

Launched in the 1956 the Princess IV was the last in the well regarded big Austin / Vanden Plas Princess range. As with the earlier Princess cars the IV came as either a Sports Saloon or Touring Limousine and offered the usual appointments and high build quality, most were purchased and used by hire firms or by local councils for "civic duties".

The Princess IV now came equipped with power steering, servo assisted brakes and Hydramitic (automatic) transmission as used on Rolls-Royce models of the period. Production ended in 1959 and was replaced by the much smaller 3 Litre Vanden Plas Princess range.

The final version of the Austin powered Vanden Plas limousines appeared in 1957, the Princess 4 Litre. As before these impressive cars were built by Vanden Plas on separate Austin chassis, powered by the old D-Series 3993cc six cylinder engine. These large, almost truck-like engines developed 120bhp, however due to the cars enormous bulk and weight the cars top speed was around 75mph.

The Princess 4 Litre normally came as either a saloon or limousine, however some landaulette versions were also built. Due to the traditional and formal design these gigantic cars tended to be bought by either private hire companies or local councils (for carrying the local Mayor!). With the formation of British Motor Holdings a Daimler version was introduced to replace the ageing design, production of the Princess ended in 1968.