The Princess was a distinctive series of large (2 tons) luxury cars made by Austin and its subsidiary Vanden Plas from 1947 to 1968.
It was initially offered with a 3.5 litre straight six engine, which was soon enlarged to 4 litres.
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The Princess was a distinctive series of large (2 tons) luxury cars made by Austin and its subsidiary Vanden Plas from 1947 to 1968.
It was initially offered with a 3.5 litre straight six engine, which was soon enlarged to 4 litres.
[B]Naming[/B]
The first Austin Princess A120 was launched in 1947 as the most expensive flagship model in the Austin range at the same time as the A110 Austin Sheerline (designed during the war) which body was built on the same chassis at Longbridge, the A110 produced 10 less horsepower being fitted with a single carburettor. Both cars always had bodies that were massive and heavy in appearance. The Princess (model code A120) featured a body by the coachbuilder Vanden Plas and was a large saloon or limousine. The car was offered with two distinct interiors. The "DM" or limousine type had a sliding glass partition between the driver and rear passengers plus picnic tables, and the "DS" was the saloon. The saloons were successful as a top-executive car, many Princesses (and Sheerlines, for that matter) were bought for civic ceremonial duties or by hire companies as limousines for hire. The standard saloon weighed almost two tons, was 16 ft 9 inches long and 6 feet 1¼ inches wide on a 10-foot 1¼-inch (the short) wheelbase.
The Princess model was updated over the years through Mark I (A120), Mark II (A135) and Mark III versions, the largest variation being the introduction of the long-wheelbase version in 1952 with a longer body and seven seats: apart from that the bodywork and running gear hardly changed, nor did the D-Series 4-litre straight-6 engine. The radiator was fairly upright in old-fashioned style and the car had separate front wings, but these cars were always more modern in style than the equivalent-sized Bentley Mark VI or Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud and, for the saloon, the price was just a little more than two-thirds of the Rolls-Royce.
From August 1957 the Austin part of the badging was dropped so it could be sold by Nuffield dealerships as "Princess". From May 1960, the Vanden Plas name was added in front of "Princess".
[B]Austin Princess I, II and III[/B]
In 1947, Austin produced two virtually identical chassis, one for the A110 (later A125 Sheerline, built entirely by Austin at their Longbridge factory) and the A120 (later A135) chassis used by Vanden Plas to produce the Princess at their Kingsbury works (North London). Although Vanden Plas was by now wholly 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 was powered by a 3.5-litre straight-six engine. This was enlarged to a 4.0-litre unit without further modifications. The Princess was often built to order. Customers could specify the colour required and a range of different setups were available. These included triple or single carburettors and twin or single exhaust systems. Whilst the sportier multiple carb version performed better, it achieved only 12 to 14 mpg. The single carburettor version gave slightly better fuel consumption. Performance was good for a car of its size, with a top speed of 90 mph (140 km/h) and acceleration 0 to 60 mph in 20 seconds. In 1950, the Limousine version was introduced. The chassis length and passenger area were enlarged to enable a pair of drop down seats to be mounted on the rear of the front seats and a glass division was standard.
These early cars are now extremely rare, especially the saloon versions. Many of the saloons were converted for use as taxis in the late 1950s, fitted with Perkins diesel engines for better economy. The 3993cc 6-cylinder engine was also fitted, as a petrol option seldom taken up, to the Austin and Morris normal-control (i.e. "bonneted") WEK and WFK commercial vehicles.
During the life of this model (in 1952), Austin became part of the British Motor Corporation (BMC).
[SIZE=1]Source: Wikipedia[/SIZE]