The life and times of the Princess series perfectly sum up the chaos that the British motor industry found itself completely swamped by in the 1970s. The low nose, high tail shape penned by Harris Mann was years ahead of its time. It was incredibly space efficient, and the original design even included a hatchback a format unknown in the size of car at the time. Inexplicably British Leyland management insisted that the car competitive advantage. It was some five years before the similarly aerodynamics and hatch backed Sierra appeared. The Princess arrived in 1975 as the 18-22 series, but after nine months the initial build quality was so bad and the company had been nationalized by the government, that it was re-launched as the Princess, the new name standing in for Austin, Morris and Wolseley versions. Under the space age skin was equally high tech Hydragas suspension, often praised in road tests for a superb ride quality, and, very unusually, transversely mounted in the line six cylinder engines. Early examples of the six cylinder installation were surprisingly poorly engineered. Four cylinder sufficed for the cheaper models.
Eventually the Princess was reskinned, although it’s debatable whether the looks were improved, finally given the hatchback that was always intended for it, and re-launched as the Ambassador. It only lasted two years before being phased out. It was effectively replaced by the Austin Maestro which was a class blew it in size.
