It was a big, bold plan. Create a big, bold new Aussie car to take on Aussie’s ‘Big Three’ of Kingswood, Falcon and Valiant.
It was an even bigger, bolder plan when you consider who did it: BMC Australia. Foreign ownership of our ‘Aussie’ cars wasn’t a big deal: GMH, Ford and Chrysler all had roots in, and tech from, the USA and by the late 1960s, Japanese cars (in particular Toyota and Datsun/Nissan) were being assembled here in ever increasing numbers.
But BMCA’s specialty was front-drive smaller cars based heavily on UK designs: Cars such as Mini, Moke, Morris 1500 and Austin 1800, plus its later Kimberley and Tasman derivatives… Not rear-drive bigger cars.
So what was the team at BMC Australia (later renamed Leyland Australia) thinking when it conceived the big, bold, rear-drive P76?
It had high hopes it could drag ‘average’ Aussie car design out of its 1960s doldrums; it was aiming for European standards of technology and equipment; of ride and handling, infused to the cavernous size body that Aussie fleets and families favoured. With that, there was hope the Aussie company could rise above its pommy parent’s lack of new product during the 1960s.
You could say things didn’t begin well. Among other company issues, the P76 development budget was less than $25M. To put that in perspective, just a few years prior, Ford Australia announced an $31M expansion plan. In other words, a renovation of its existing facilities - not a new car.
