This beautiful car was sold here in the sixties as the MG 1100 Sport Sedan, later as the Austin America. Just a brilliant design and not a bad line on it.
nice little car . if i remember the engines loved to burn oil and bodywork had a lot of issues but for its time a nice little car . interior always blows everyone away . just lovely . my mate had a few of them . nice memories .
My mother had one. H reg. 1970. Maroon.I remember the day it arrived. All shiny like this. She didn't like it though. Automatic. Said it was sluggish. Only kept it for about 8 weeks. She was used to zippy Minis. My grandmother took it on. She had three in a row.
I love VdP 1300s, Father had one,I just think smaller round mirrors suit them better. Positive : nice colour combination., The AP hot shift auto box is one of the cleverest designs of gearbox ( just change oil and filters regularly.)
I had a 1954 Zephyr Zodiac years ago that had mirrors on the fenders similar to this VdR & found them dangerous when a car come up behind at night as their headlights reflected straight back into your eyes which was really bad on winding roads & I think that's why door mirrors are a better option.
@@bradleyjamesclassics the coach line was actually painted on on the vanden Plas model the correct colour would of been gold on a malard green 1300. It's also missing side repeaters which indicates it's had new front wings!
Lovely little car. Almost as opulent as a Rolls Royce. Leather and real Wood veneer Notice no electric windows, air-con, cruise control etc. The Leather was freezing in winter, ( no heated seats) burning in summer Sun.
I can relate to the burning hot leather. My mother had the Princess 4 litre R. I jumped in one hot day, when I was about 12 and hadn't noticed that I had split the seam on the inner side of the thigh part of my trousers. Oh boy, when I sat down I realised. Like being stung by a wasp.
Tony Smith - I’m not how rare the AP auto box is in a VDP 1300?....the car’s themselves are rare enough these days. I recall they made a little over 40000 of these wonderful little cars....not sure the ratio of Manual/Auto?
@@bradleyjamesclassics The AP Automatic was an amazing design, running on engine oil and with the ability to 'hot shift' manually for swift city driving. Needs frequent oil changes. Using in the mini Mayfair as well as the VdP . The gear knob is not original?
@InfiniteMushroom More of a case of making the motor/transmission combination very compact. The gearbox lived in the sump directly under the spinning crankshaft. Most gearboxes at that time used engine oil as a lubricant anyway. Also 6 monthly oil changes were normal also so it was no big deal and with modern oils and filters both are adequately protected. The only real disadvantage the combination had is that it resulted in a tall engine in the engine bay.
