Tell me about British Leyland

[brrapp]

swisstoni said:

There's a very detailed youtube film about these called Scammell Scarab Mechanical Horse (!).
I was fascinated with these as a kid which is how I ended up watching the video.

My Dad drove a Scammell Pioneer whilst in the army in the 50's. He liked it so much he bought one when he moved back to civilian life. He used it for heavy recovery and forestry work. I vaguely remember it as a small child, huge and noisy and 'powerful'. I hadn't realised that they were part of British Leyland too till today. Just looked it up and found it only had just over 100bhp , seemed awesome at the time.

[Halmyre]

brrapp said:

swisstoni said:

There's a very detailed youtube film about these called Scammell Scarab Mechanical Horse (!).
I was fascinated with these as a kid which is how I ended up watching the video.

My Dad drove a Scammell Pioneer whilst in the army in the 50's. He liked it so much he bought one when he moved back to civilian life. He used it for heavy recovery and forestry work. I vaguely remember it as a small child, huge and noisy and 'powerful'. I hadn't realised that they were part of British Leyland too till today. Just looked it up and found it only had just over 100bhp , seemed awesome at the time.

But it probably had the torque to pull a fiver out of a Scotsman's wallet.

[saaby93]

Dr Interceptor said:

Looks okay to me...

Mmmm twin strombergs

[evilmunkey]

My grandad worked for British Leyland , he made the moulds for casting engine blocks and that kind of thing, a very skilled man, He was however a union shop steward and always seemed to spend more time on strike than doing his job .

[2xChevrons]

brrapp said:

I hadn't realised that they were part of British Leyland too till today. Just looked it up and found it only had just over 100bhp , seemed awesome at the time.

BL had so many fingers in so many pies:

Cars:

Austin (car and commercial)
Vanden Plas
Morris (car and commercial)
MG
Wolseley
Riley
Triumph
Rover (and Land Rover)
Jaguar
Daimler
Authi
Innocenti
Leyland Australia
Leykor (South Africa)

Commercials:

Leyland Trucks
Scammell
Daimler
Guy
AEC
Aveling-Barford
Bristol Commercials
Albion Motors
Charles Roe
Park Royal Vehicles

Military:

Alvis
Daimler

Body:

Pressed Steel Fisher
Autobody Dies

Industrial:

Leyland Tractors (ex-Nuffield)
Coventry Climax
Invicta Bridge & Engineering

Miscellaneous:
SU Carburettors
Butec Electrical
Prestcold Fridges
Fisholow Prefab Buildings
Nuffield Press

And that's not counting all the brands and product lines each of those firms owned within themselves!

[iSore]

fido said:

Sorry, that sounds like one of those stories, like sending a trainee out for a 'left-handed screwdriver' or 'stripey paint'! TBH I'd be quite surprised if BL did anything to save money, let alone an employee-ideas initiative.

Jaguar did something similar around 1978 ish on the 4.2 engine. These had sumps with 'ears' on the front to increase capacity but to provide room for the catalysts on USA models, these were removed and a standard sump fitted. Jaguar simply raised the oil level and fitted a shorter dipstick.
Nobody had, however, thought it through. When parked forwards at a steep nose down angle, numbers 1 and 2 big end caps would smash into the (now very high) oil level and mimic a big end knock.

[iSore]

2xChevrons said:

the 240Z's engine is just an OHC version of the BMC C-Series.

In terms of size and design, it's very close to the Mercedes M130. I've seen both side by side and they are very similar.

[iSore]

Leyland still exists: even the flying plughole logo is still used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashok_Leyland


Needless to say, the website doesn't seem to work.


www.ashokleyland.com

[Dalmahoy]

I read once that during the 70's and early 80's, one of the largest viewing television programmes was The Professionals.
During the early episodes, the cars driven in the programme were provided by BL but at the end of every day's filming they were returned back to BL.
Problem being - when they handed the show for example a red Dolomite Sprint one day and the following, they handed over a yellow Dolomite Sprint!

The producers spat the dummy and Ford then stood in with the Granada, RS2000 and Capri and the rest is history.
Product placement at its finest.

[krunchkin]

Yep - go to Sri Lanka and every truck and bus you see is proudly sporting the Leyland logo.

[fido]

iSore said:

Jaguar did something similar around 1978 ish on the 4.2 engine. These had sumps with 'ears' on the front to increase capacity but to provide room for the catalysts on USA models, these were removed and a standard sump fitted. Jaguar simply raised the oil level and fitted a shorter dipstick.
Nobody had, however, thought it through. When parked forwards at a steep nose down angle, numbers 1 and 2 big end caps would smash into the (now very high) oil level and mimic a big end knock.

Fair enough, I can see that happening as part of an engineering exercise, but not quite as above:- chirpy foreman walking into the floor and asking the boys "anyone got an idea to save the company money?" chirpy employee - "how about making the dipstick shorter?" {chortles all around} like in some 'Carry On' movie. So did they modify the shape of the sumps in the 4.2 to allow for a higher capacity - or just put it down as a 'feature' of the car?

[king arthur]

krunchkin said:

Yep - go to Sri Lanka and every truck and bus you see is proudly sporting the Leyland logo.

Isn't there also a BMC still going strong somewhere, in India or somewhere like that?

[saaby93]

iSore said:

Leyland still exists: even the flying plughole logo is still used.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashok_Leyland
Needless to say, the website doesn't seem to work.
www.ashokleyland.com

It's a very slow website but it does get there
See the blue logo


'Optare occupies a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Sherburn in Elmet, near Leeds'

[2xChevrons]

king arthur said:

Isn't there also a BMC still going strong somewhere, in India or somewhere like that?

Yes, in Turkey. It's the descendant of a BMC subsidiary set up in the 1960s in Izmir which is, coincidentally, the birthplace of one Alec Issigonis. It originalyl built Austin T-Series trucks and Nuffield tractors, then added the Leyland Sherpa to the range. BL sold its share in 1975 (when it withdrew from nearly all its global partnerships to shore up the UK business) but they kept building the Sherpa until a few years ago and (I'm pretty sure) still build the diesel version of the B-Series engine. Apparently they're in the process of designing a car, so there will BMC cars on the roads again in a while!

[99dndd]

iSore said:

Needless to say, the website doesn't seem to work.


www.ashokleyland.com

It's on strike.

[Too Drunk to Funk]

Britain - Selling st to the easily pleased since like forevs.

[P5BNij]

Dalmahoy said:

I read once that during the 70's and early 80's, one of the largest viewing television programmes was The Professionals.
During the early episodes, the cars driven in the programme were provided by BL but at the end of every day's filming they were returned back to BL.
Problem being - when they handed the show for example a red Dolomite Sprint one day and the following, they handed over a yellow Dolomite Sprint!

The producers spat the dummy and Ford then stood in with the Granada, RS2000 and Capri and the rest is history.
Product placement at its finest.

Not quite right but you've got the general gist of it - the cars were kept at the production company's base in Middlesex but BL often wanted them back for a few days at a time to loan them out to other people, when they did return the cars they often refused to start or broke down which wreaked havoc on the production schedule. Some of the cars promised by BL never turned up, Cowley was originally supposed to have had a dark blue Daimler Double Six which never arrived which is why they ended up using the ex- New Avengers SD1 until it was replaced by the Granada. Filming started in June '77 and by October the last BL cars had been sent back, a meeting had been set up to sort things out but the BL representative who was invited couldn't give MkI Productions any guarantee that things would be any better so stunt co-ordinator Pete Brayham suggested they get in touch with his contact at Ford from his days on The Sweeney and that was the end of the contract with BL. Part of the problem had been that the contact point at BL changed almost weekly with messages not getting through to the right person.

BMC / BL never seemed to appreciate product placement!

[blueg33]

fido said:

iSore said:

Jaguar did something similar around 1978 ish on the 4.2 engine. These had sumps with 'ears' on the front to increase capacity but to provide room for the catalysts on USA models, these were removed and a standard sump fitted. Jaguar simply raised the oil level and fitted a shorter dipstick.
Nobody had, however, thought it through. When parked forwards at a steep nose down angle, numbers 1 and 2 big end caps would smash into the (now very high) oil level and mimic a big end knock.

Fair enough, I can see that happening as part of an engineering exercise, but not quite as above:- chirpy foreman walking into the floor and asking the boys "anyone got an idea to save the company money?" chirpy employee - "how about making the dipstick shorter?" {chortles all around} like in some 'Carry On' movie. So did they modify the shape of the sumps in the 4.2 to allow for a higher capacity - or just put it down as a 'feature' of the car?

At no point did I say it was an employee suggestion. It was a management decision.

[swisstoni]

P5BNij said:

Dalmahoy said:

I read once that during the 70's and early 80's, one of the largest viewing television programmes was The Professionals.
During the early episodes, the cars driven in the programme were provided by BL but at the end of every day's filming they were returned back to BL.
Problem being - when they handed the show for example a red Dolomite Sprint one day and the following, they handed over a yellow Dolomite Sprint!

The producers spat the dummy and Ford then stood in with the Granada, RS2000 and Capri and the rest is history.
Product placement at its finest.

Not quite right but you've got the general gist of it - the cars were kept at the production company's base in Middlesex but BL often wanted them back for a few days at a time to loan them out to other people, when they did return the cars they often refused to start or broke down which wreaked havoc on the production schedule. Some of the cars promised by BL never turned up, Cowley was originally supposed to have had a dark blue Daimler Double Six which never arrived which is why they ended up using the ex- New Avengers SD1 until it was replaced by the Granada. Filming started in June '77 and by October the last BL cars had been sent back, a meeting had been set up to sort things out but the BL representative who was invited couldn't give MkI Productions any guarantee that things would be any better so stunt co-ordinator Pete Brayham suggested they get in touch with his contact at Ford from his days on The Sweeney and that was the end of the contract with BL. Part of the problem had been that the contact point at BL changed almost weekly with messages not getting through to the right person.

BMC / BL never seemed to appreciate product placement!

This one must have shifted a few XJS at least

[P5BNij]

A rare exception Toni!

A mate a to work used to work at Browns Lane from '86 to '92 before he came on the railway, he was on the XJS line for a while and fitted the dashboards in, when boredom took hold he and his mates used to leave allsorts of rubbish in them, food, screwed up bongo mags etc.