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Vanden Plas is the name of
coachbuilder A coachbuilder or body-maker is someone who manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles.Construction has always been a skilled trade requiring a relatively lightweight product with sufficient strength. The manufacture of necessarily ...
s who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of
British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
and the Rover Group, it was last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the
Jaguar XJ (X350) The Jaguar XJ (X350) is a full-size four-door luxury saloon manufactured and marketed worldwide by Jaguar for model years 2003–2009 as the third generation of the Jaguar XJ saloon — carrying the internal designation ''X350'' and the int ...
.


Belgium and England


Batched and bespoke coachwork

The business began in 1870 in Brussels,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
, initially making axles later producing horse-drawn carriages. It was founded by Guillaume van den Plas, a blacksmith, and his three sons, Antoine, Henri and Willy, who later set up a branch in Paris. Guillaume's surname is Dutch meaning "from the lake". In 1884 they moved from Brussels to Antwerp. With increased business they opened a branch in Brussels again in 1890. By 1900, they worked with De Dion Bouton, Berlier, Germain and Packard. By 1908 Carrosserie Van den Plas had a workforce of 400 men producing 300 special bodies a year, and that soon increased to over 750. The French branch ceased production in 1934 while the Belgian business was active until 1949. The coachbuilder's name first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1906 when Métallurgique cars were imported with Carrosserie Van den Plas coachwork. The first Vanden Plas company in England was established by Warwick Wright (now
Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...
dealers) in 1913, building bodies under license from Carrosserie Van den Plas Belgium. During the First World War UK activities were switched to aircraft production, and the UK business was bought by The Aircraft Manufacturing Company which was based at
Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...
near London. In 1917, Vanden Plas (1917) Ltd. was incorporated. After the war it seems to have been a struggle to get back into coachbuilding and in 1922 that company was placed in receivership. The exclusive UK naming rights seem to have been lost, because in the early 1920s the Belgian firm was exhibiting at the London Motor Show alongside the British business. In 1923 the rights to the name and the goodwill were purchased by the Fox brothers, who incorporated Vanden Plas (England) 1923 Limited. They moved the business from Hendon to Kingsbury and built on the contacts that had been made with
Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, Nort ...
. Between 1924 and 1931, when Bentley failed, Vanden Plas built the bodies for more than 700 of their chassis. In the 1930s the company became less dependent on one car maker, and supplied coachwork to such as Alvis, Armstrong Siddeley, Bentley,
Daimler Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...
,
Lagonda Lagonda is a British luxury car brand established in 1906, which has been owned by Aston Martin since 1947. The trade-name has not had a continuous commercial existence, being dormant several times, most recently from 1995 to 2008 and 2010 to 2 ...
,
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated ...
and Talbot. The company also updated its production methods and took to making small batches of similar bodies. With the outbreak of war in 1939, coachbuilding stopped and the company returned to aircraft work, manufacturing the wooden framework for the
de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, shoulder-winged, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its frame was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden ...
, one of the most successful aircraft of the Second World War. After the war, the company continued its association with de Havilland, and manufactured parts for the
Vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
jet fighter.


Production limousines


Princess

With peace in 1945, the company looked to restart its old business when a new customer came along. Austin wanted to market a chauffeur-driven version of its in-house-built large 4-litre Rolls-Royce-size A110 Sheerline luxury car and approached Vanden Plas. Vanden Plas became a subsidiary of the Austin Motor Company in 1946 and produced Austin's A120 Princess model on the Austin Sheerline chassis. From 1958, this began to involve chassis assembly and Austin, now BMC, recognised Vanden Plas as a motor manufacturer in its own right by dropping Austin from the name and so enabled Nuffield dealers to sell the Princess. In 1960, the Princess became the Vanden Plas Princess.


Daimler DS 420

Austin was joined in BMC by Jaguar with its new subsidiary Daimler. Production of Princess limousines ended in 1968 when they were replaced with Daimler DS420 limousines (Jaguar had acquired
Daimler Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...
in 1960) built by Vanden Plas on a lengthened
Jaguar Mark X The Jaguar Mark X (Mark Ten), later renamed the Jaguar 420G, was British manufacturer Jaguar's top-of-the-range saloon car for a decade, from 1961 to 1970. The large, luxurious Mark X succeeded the Mark IX as the company's top s ...
platform. The DS420 was produced at the Kingsbury Lane Vanden Plas factory until it closed in November 1979. The British Leyland overall holding company board decided in 1967 there were insufficient funds in the group advertising budget to cope with marketing in North America the Daimler brand as well as Jaguar. This decision was later changed but Vanden Plas is used in North America instead of Daimler on Jaguar's top luxury models. Ownership of the Vanden Plas name stayed with the Rover Group so when Rover was sold Jaguar was obliged to stop using Vanden Plas in the United Kingdom though it continues to do so in America. Within the UK a Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas became a plain Daimler Double-Six.


Badge engineering

Also in 1957/8, Vanden Plas were asked by Leonard Lord to add luxury fittings to a batch of Austin A105 Westminster cars, beginning the practice of using the company's skills and name for badge-engineered (and modified) luxury versions of many of the BMC (and later
British Leyland British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
(BL)) cars such as the 1100/1300 range and the Allegro (known as the Vanden Plas 1500, 1.5 & 1.7Vanden Plas 1500/1.5/1.7, www.vpoc.info
Retrieved 18 February 2013. from 1975 to 1980). The Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury, North London closed in 1979 and the marque switched to Abingdon. From 1982 to 1989, Austin Rover made upmarket Vanden Plas models within its
Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urban ...
,
Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning " master" or "teacher") is an honorific title of respect (plural: maestros or maestri). The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and opera, in line with the ubi ...
, Montego and
Rover SD1 The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division) of British Leyland (BL), under the Rover marque. It was produ ...
and SD3 ranges. The name is also used in North America on Jaguar cars otherwise branded
Daimler Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to: People * Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies * Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler * Paul Da ...
in other markets between 1982-2008. File:Austin A105 Vanden-Plas front.jpg, Austin A105 by Vanden Plas 1959 File:Vanden Plas 3-litre first registered February 1961 2912cc.JPG, Vanden Plas Princess 3-litre 1961 Image:austin.princess.1967.750pix.jpg, Vanden Plas Princess 4-Litre R 1967 File:Van den Plas 1300 reg aug 1973 1275 cc.JPG, Vanden Plas Princess 1300 1973 File:Van den Plas 1500 reg 1981 1485 cc.JPG, Vanden Plas 1.5 1980 File:Maestro vp.jpg, Maestro Vanden Plas interior File:Austin Metro Vanden Plas Automatic 1985.jpg, Metro Vanden Plas 1985 File:Jaguar-XJ-Mark-2.jpg, Daimler Super V8 badged Vanden Plas In 1992, a Japanese company recreated the Vanden Plas 1100/1300 look on the Nissan Micra K11. This involved replicating the front and rear of the Vanden Plas, complete with two tone paint scheme as sported by the original model in the 1960s. The last UK market British car to bear the Vanden Plas name was the Rover 75 at the beginning of the 21st century.


China

The rights to the design of the Rover 75 cars and the MG Group (which had formerly been MG Rover) were purchased by a Chinese firm, Nanjing Automobile. Ford purchased the Rover name from the Rover Group's previous owner BMW to protect the Land Rover brand from
Shanghai Automotive SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the " Big Four" state-owned car manu ...
, who wanted the Rover name for their 75-based car (Ford was at this time owner of Land Rover and Jaguar). The Vanden Plas name (for outside North America) and many other Leyland names were purchased by Nanjing Automobile.


See also

* Austin Sheerline * Austin Princess *
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom :''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.'' As of 2018 there are approximately 35 active British car manufacturers and over 500 defunct British car manufacturers. This page lists ...

Vanden Plas Owners Club


References


Cited in text


General




External links


Austin MemoriesThe Cambridge-Oxford Owners Club
{{coord missing, London Rover Company Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom Vehicle manufacture in London History of the London Borough of Brent