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The Austin Allegro is a small family car that was manufactured by the Austin-Morris division of
British Leyland British Leyland was a British automotive engineering and manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate formed in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It wa ...
(BL) from 1973 until 1982. The same vehicle was built in Italy by Innocenti between 1974 and 1975 and sold as the Innocenti Regent. The Allegro was designed as a replacement for the Austin 1100 and 1300 models. In total, 642,350 Austin Allegros were produced during its 10-year production life, most of which were sold on the home market, less than a third of 2.1 million 1100s and 1300s sold in the previous 11 years. It was built and sold by British Leyland alongside the hatchback
Austin Maxi The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin Motor Company, Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. Despite its practical design and remarkable space efficiency (it is shorter, narrow ...
(launched in 1969) and the 1971 rear-wheel-drive
Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive C-segment, small family car that was manufactured by the Morris Motors, Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Mo ...
. All three were eventually replaced by the
Austin Maestro The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from November 1982 to 1986 by British Leyland, and from 1986 until December 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Austin Maxi a ...
in 1983.


Design

British Leyland used a saloon design for the Allegro rather than a
hatchback A hatchback is a car body style, car body configuration with a rear door that swings upward to provide access to the main interior of the car as a cargo area rather than just to a separated trunk. Hatchbacks may feature fold-down second-row sea ...
, as the company had decided that the
Austin Maxi The Austin Maxi is a medium-sized, 5-door hatchback family car that was produced by Austin Motor Company, Austin and later British Leyland between 1969 and 1981. Despite its practical design and remarkable space efficiency (it is shorter, narrow ...
should have a hatchback as its unique selling point. The Allegro used
front-wheel drive Front-wheel drive (FWD) is a form of internal combustion engine, engine and transmission (mechanics), transmission layout used in motor vehicles, in which the engine drives the front wheels only. Most modern front-wheel-drive vehicles feature ...
, with the familiar A-Series engine with a sump-mounted transmission. The higher-specification models used the
SOHC An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine in which the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combus ...
E-Series engine from the Maxi, in 1500 cc and 1750 cc displacements. The two-box saloon bodyshell was suspended using the new Hydragas system (derived from the previous Hydrolastic system used on the 1100/1300). Stylistically, it went against the sharp-edged styling cues largely led by Italian designer
Giorgetto Giugiaro Giorgetto Giugiaro (; born 7 August 1938) is an Italian automotive designer. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. He was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. He w ...
that were becoming fashionable, and featured rounded panel work. The original styling proposal, by Harris Mann, had the same sleek, wedge-like shape of the
Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...
, but because British Leyland management, keen to control costs, wanted to install the existing E-Series engine and bulky heating system from the Marina, it became impossible to incorporate the low bonnet line as envisaged: the bodyshell began to look more and more bloated and tubby. This was acceptable to BL, however, which according to Jeff Daniels' book ''British Leyland, The Truth About The Cars'', published in 1980, wanted to follow the
Citroën Citroën ()The double-dot diacritic over the 'e' is a diaeresis () indicating the two vowels are sounded separately, and not as a diphthong. is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded on 4 June 19 ...
approach of combining advanced technology with styling that eschewed mainstream trends in order to create long-lasting "timeless" models. Its unfashionable shape was thus not a problem to the company. The final car bore little resemblance to Mann's original concept that had originally been conceived as an 1100/1300 reskin. With the Allegro, the BL avoided the full extent of
badge engineering In the automotive industry, rebadging (also known as badge engineering, an intentionally ironic misnomer in that little or no actual engineering takes place) is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. T ...
that had defined the marketing of its predecessor, which was mostly sold as an Austin although it was badged under almost all of the brands which BMC/BL owned, but it nevertheless introduced in September 1974 an upmarket Allegro, branded as the Vanden Plas 1500/automatic. This featured a prominent grille at the front and an interior enhanced by a range of modifications designed to attract traditionally inclined customers, including: special seats upholstered in real leather, with reclining backrests; deep-pile carpets; extra sound insulation; a new instrument panel in walnut; walnut folding tables for the rear passengers; nylon headlining; and for the luggage, a fully trimmed boot. In 1974, a time when the UK starting price for the Austin Allegro was given as £1159 (£11,731.77 in 2018 money), BL was quoting, at launch, a list price of £1951 (£19,748.65 in 2018) for the Vanden Plas 1500. The Allegro name was not used on this version. Early Allegro models featured a "quartic" steering wheel, which was rectangular with rounded sides. This was touted as allowing extra room between the base of the steering wheel and the driver's legs. The quartic steering wheel was unpopular, and was dropped in 1974 when the SS model was replaced by the HL. The VP 1500 was never introduced with one, despite it being featured in the owner's manual. Despite this feature only having appeared on certain models for a limited time, the Allegro has always been associated with the criticism that it "had a square steering wheel". It could now be seen as being ahead of its time as today many cars have squared off lower section steering wheels and some Formula 1 cars have square steering wheels. Some other BL cars from this period were fitted with a semi-quartic steering wheel, such as the Rover SD1. In April 1975 a three-door estate car version was added to the range. Allegros were now coming off the production line with the same conventional steering wheel as the
Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive C-segment, small family car that was manufactured by the Morris Motors, Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Mo ...
, although the company waited till early June 1975 to announce, rather quietly, the demise of the Allegro's quartic steering wheel, presumably to give time for older cars to emerge from the sales and distribution network. Similar to the two-door saloon, the Allegro estate had a coachline and also featured a rear wash-wipe. The spare wheel was housed under the rear load floor area. It was only in production for about 100 days before the arrival of the Series 2 model, making Series I Allegro estate rarer than most other models in the range. There was a similar situation in New Zealand, where the New Zealand Motor Corporation, which at the time had CKD kit assembly plants in Newmarket and Panmure,
Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...
, and
Petone Petone (Māori language, Māori: ''Pito-one'') is a large suburb of Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand. It stands at the southern end of the Hutt Valley, on the northern shore of Wellington Harbour. Europeans first settled in Petone in Januar ...
,
Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...
, began Allegro assembly in 1975 with the circular steering wheel. Only a few hundred 'Mark Ones', among the first locally-built car models to have a factory-fitted heated rear window, were built before the 'Mark Two' was launched. Most Allegros sold in New Zealand had the 1300 cc A-series OHV engine and four-speed manual gearbox. Later, the 1.5-litre OHC engine was offered with a four-speed automatic 'box, but this was eventually dropped. NZMC, moving away from UK-sourced cars to models from its Honda franchise (it began
Civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...
assembly in 1976, with the Accord following in 1978), later rationalised Allegro output to offer just two paint colours, metallic brown or solid dark blue, with a cream vinyl roof and brown interior trim. One batch of 48 'Mark Three' CKD kits was shipped from England after NZMC had decided to drop the Allegro in 1980, and these were assembled and sold, also in brown or cream; these rare cars have four round headlights rather than two square units, and different tail lights, plus a restyled dashboard.


Dimensions

* Overall length: * Overall width: * Height: * Wheelbase: * Track: * Weight: The Allegro was fitted with 13" pressed-steel wheels fitted with 145 tyres, 155 on 1750, Sport and Vanden Plas derivatives.


Allegro 2 (1975–1979)

Launched in time for the
London Motor Show London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Thame ...
in October 1975, the Allegro 2 had the same bodyshells but featured a new grille, reversing lights on most models and some interior changes to increase rear seat room. The estate gained a new coachline running over the wing top lip and window edges. Changes were also made to the suspension, braking, engine mounts and drive shafts. Since the original Allegro had been launched more than two years earlier, several of BL's key rivals in Europe had launched new competitors - these included the MK2 Ford Escort, as well as the groundbreaking and highly acclaimed
Volkswagen Golf The Volkswagen Golf () is a compact car/ small family car ( C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplate ...
. A popular Japanese rival, the 120Y generation of the Datsun Sunny, had also been launched in Europe soon after the Allegro.
General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
had also introduced the Vauxhall Chevette, a slightly smaller car, but which competed with larger rivals due to the practicality of its hatchback body. At the end of 1976 British Leyland confirmed that it was holding exploratory talks with trades union representatives concerning the possible transfer of Allegro production from
Longbridge Longbridge is an area in the south-west of Birmingham, England, located near the border with Worcestershire, historically being within this place. Public transport Longbridge is described as a hub for public transport with a number of bus ...
to the company's plant at Seneffe in Belgium. The Belgian plant was already assembling the cars for continental European markets using CKD kits shipped from the UK. The stated objective of the transfer was to free up capacity at Longbridge for the manufacture of the forthcoming ADO88
Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...
replacement. In the event, the ADO88 project was abandoned and the eventual Mini replacement, the less ambitiously engineered
Austin Metro The Metro is a supermini car, later a city car that was produced from 1980 to 1998, first by British Leyland (BL) and later by the Rover Group. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin Mini Metro (styled AUSTIN miniMETRO). The Mini Metro was inte ...
, did not go on sale for another four years. Whether for reasons of politics or of customer demand or of cost, at a time of rapid currency realignment, Allegros for the UK market continued to be manufactured in the UK; the Belgian plant was closed in the early 1980s, by which time Allegro demand in continental Europe had faltered and BL's Austin-Morris division clearly had more production capacity than product demand. Some models of Allegro 2 made for non-UK markets were equipped with four round headlights, rather than the usual two rectangular units. Only weeks before the launch of the Allegro 3, 1979 saw the release of the 1.7l Allegro Equipe; a two-door sport style model in silver with red and orange hockey stick-shaped cheatlines and alloy wheels manufactured by GKN. The car was unveiled to the press at Sherburn-in-Elmet in
North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...
without the distinctive trim. The Equipe was intended to compete with the Golf GT and the Escort RS; by now though the aging Allegro with its lack of hatchback and dated styling struggled against these offerings and sales were poor.


Allegro 3 (1979–1982)

The Allegro 3, introduced at the end of 1979, used the "A-Plus" version of the 1.0-litre A-Series engine (developed for the forthcoming new Metro), and featured some cosmetic alterations in an attempt to keep the momentum going, but by then the Allegro was outdated, and was now up against high-tech opposition in the form of the Ford Escort III and Vauxhall Astra Mk.1/Opel Kadett D, both launched within a year of the Allegro's facelift and both featured hatchback bodies with front-wheel-drive. The cosmetic alterations were fairly minimal; the Allegro 3 gained a new grille with the new Austin-Morris "chevron" logo; it carried the Allegro 3 name, bore a larger bumper and gained additional side indicators. The interior was modernised with new components such as a new upper dashboard moulding (famously using the same air vents as the
Jaguar XJ6 The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat species in the Americas an ...
), a more modern instrument binnacle and a round four spoke steering wheel. By now, however, British Leyland was working on an all-new car to replace the Allegro and Maxi during the early 1980s - the LC10 - which would eventually emerge as the
Austin Maestro The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from November 1982 to 1986 by British Leyland, and from 1986 until December 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Austin Maxi a ...
. British Leyland entered the small hatchback market – pioneered during the 1970s by the likes of the Renault 5 and
Volkswagen Polo The Volkswagen Polo is a supermini car ( B-segment) produced by the German car manufacturer Volkswagen since 1975. It is sold in Europe and other markets worldwide in hatchback, saloon, and estate variants throughout its production run. As of 2 ...
, with its Metro which was launched in October 1980. The Metro would be built at the
Longbridge plant The Longbridge plant is an industrial complex in Longbridge, Birmingham, England, currently leased by SAIC Motor, SAIC as a research and development facility for its MG Motor subsidiary. Vehicle assembly ended in 2016. Opened in 1905, by the lat ...
which had just been expanded to provide adequate production capacity for the new car. But with BL hoping to sell more than 100,000 Metros a year in Britain alone, more capacity for production was needed and production of the Allegro and the Mini were pruned back as a result. The base models of the slightly larger Triumph Acclaim, the first product of BL's alliance with
Honda commonly known as just Honda, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in October 1946 by Soichiro Honda, Honda has bee ...
introduced in 1981 also acted as a substitute for the Allegro until the Maestro launched. After 1980, the Allegro failed to feature in the top 10 best selling new cars in Britain, barely a decade since its predecessor had been Britain's most popular new car, though this fall in sales was compensated by the large sales figures achieved by the smaller Metro, as well as the fact that the slightly larger Triumph Acclaim was among Britain's top 10 selling cars by 1982. The Vanden Plas models were rebranded as the 1.5 and the 1.7,Vanden Plas 1.5 & 1.7 Series 3 1979–80 UK market sales brochure the 1.5 having a twin carburettor 1500 cc engine and a manual gearbox, while the 1.7 had a single carburettor 1750cc engine and an automatic gearbox. Some models of Allegro 3 (the early HL and later HLS models) were equipped with four round headlights, rather than the more usual two rectangular ones. Allegro production, which had lasted for nearly a decade, finally finished in March 1982. Its successor, the
Austin Maestro The Austin Maestro is a five-door hatchback small family car (and two-door van derivative) that was produced from November 1982 to 1986 by British Leyland, and from 1986 until December 1994 by Rover Group, as a replacement for the Austin Maxi a ...
, went into production in November 1982 and was officially launched on 1 March 1983. The backlog of unsold Allegro 3 models remained sufficient to stock dealerships into 1983, well after the Maestro had launched.


Reputation

Upon its launch the Allegro was not particularly badly received by critics, but the gearchange drew criticism and the "quartic" steering wheel "comprising four curves joined together by four straight lines, similar to the shape of a television screen", fitted partly in order to compensate for the shortage of space between the driver and the rather low steering column, was widely derided by motoring journalists, especially when faced with the manufacturer's insistence that this curious steering wheel design was "avant garde and high-tec". In other respects the car was somewhat underdeveloped, and a number of design flaws plagued the early models, earning it the nickname of the 'All Aggro', which intensified over the next few years as well publicised stories about its build quality and reliability emerged. Most of these were fixed in the Allegro 2 edition of the car, launched in 1975, by which time a slightly smaller round steering wheel had quietly been substituted for the "quartic" original. Nevertheless, the car never quite managed to shake off its initial reputation. In spite of all of this bad press, the Allegro was still a very popular car. As late as 1979, six years after its launch, it was the fifth-best-selling new car in Britain. Sales in its final years were disappointing, and by 1981 it had fallen out of the top 10 as more buyers were choosing two newer BL products: the similar-sized and more viable Triumph Acclaim, and the smaller
Austin Metro The Metro is a supermini car, later a city car that was produced from 1980 to 1998, first by British Leyland (BL) and later by the Rover Group. It was launched in 1980 as the Austin Mini Metro (styled AUSTIN miniMETRO). The Mini Metro was inte ...
. In his book ''Crap Cars'', Richard Porter placed the Allegro second worst in his list, beaten only by the VW Beetle. Porter said "the only bit of the Allegro they got even vaguely right was the rust-proofing". Despite this, the Allegro picked up a reputation for rust problems during its life. This was probably due to association with many other cars of the period (both from BL and other manufacturers) which had poor rust-proofing. An early edition of ''
What Car? ''What Car?'' is a British monthly automobile magazine and website, currently edited by Steve Huntingford and published by Haymarket Media Group. Other team members include deputy editor Darren Moss and test editors Will Nightingale, Neil Wi ...
'' ran a feature on the then new Allegro, including an interview with staff at a BL dealership, who were asked if any problems occurred with the car in service. They replied that the car suffered from rust problems to its rear subframe. However, the staff thought they were being asked about the 1100/1300 car, which had been out of production for five years. Nonetheless, the magazine went on to report on the Allegro's non-existent rust problems, creating a serious image problem. The poor reputation of the car and the inefficient production and management techniques in British Leyland at the time at which it was produced have meant that the Austin Allegro has become associated with waste, inefficiency and poor quality. In '' Clarkson's Car Years''
Jeremy Clarkson Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English television presenter, journalist, farmer, and author who specialises in Driving, motoring. He is best known for hosting the television programmes ''Top Gear (2002 TV series), T ...
compares the Allegro to the Morris Marina, concluding that the
Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...
was in fact a worse car than the Allegro due to its relative lack of technical ambition and innovation. Clarkson noted that while the Allegro had initially been intended as a forward-looking design to compete with technically advanced European cars such as the Citroën GS, its development budget was only around half that of the much simpler Marina. In 2007, Sir Digby Jones, in criticising the inefficiencies of the
Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Ma ...
, said, "It is what I call 'the British Leyland model' – you put a lot of money in at the top, and an Austin Allegro comes out at the bottom". Quality problems concerning the Allegro led to British Leyland making the training video ''The Quality Connection'', outlining both superficial and dangerous issues that can arise from a lack of care and attention.


Legacy

The Allegro is generally considered amongst the most disreputable British Leyland models; some credibility was restored with its replacement the
Maestro Maestro (; from the Italian '' maestro'' , meaning " master" or "teacher," plural: maestros or maestri) is an honorific title of respect, sometimes abbreviated Mo. The term is most commonly used in the context of Western classical music and oper ...
which was tipped as an adequate competitor to the Ford Escort, Vauxhall Astra and Volkswagen Golf. By the time of the Maestro's launch, a string of poor quality models throughout the 1970s had damaged the reputation of British Leyland and the Austin brand with the Maestro selling fewer models over a greater number of years (605,000 over 12 years to 642,000 Allegros over eight years). In 1987, the Austin name was phased out after 82 years in favour of the Rover name, which hadn't been tainted by some of the poorer products that had dented the reputation of the Austin brand. In February 2006, it was reported that more than 1,000 Austin Allegros sold in the UK were still registered with the
DVLA The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA; ) is the organisation of the Government of the United Kingdom, British government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a Vehicle register, database of vehicles f ...
, a better survival rate than the more popular
Morris Marina The Morris Marina is a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive C-segment, small family car that was manufactured by the Morris Motors, Austin-Morris division of British Leyland from 1971 until 1980. It served to replace the Morris Minor in the Mo ...
; most of which were dismantled for parts that were interchangeable with other British Leyland cars such as the MGB,
Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...
and
Morris Minor The Morris Minor is an economy car produced by British marque Morris Motors between 1948 and 1971. It made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6  ...
. However, that figure had fallen to just 195 cars by February 2016 (excluding cars which were declared SORN), by 2023, that figure had fallen further to 36 cars still on the road in the UK. Part of this is down the Allegro's suitability (in A-Series engine format) as an engine donor for
Mini The Mini is a very small two-door, four-seat car, produced for four decades over a single generation, with many names and variants, by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors British Leyland and the Rover Group, and finally ...
restorations which is why many Allegros were broken solely for their power units.


Engines

* 1973–1975: '' A-Series''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5250 rpm and at 2450 rpm * 1975–1980: '' A-Series''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5250 rpm and at 2900 rpm * 1973–1980: '' A-Series''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5300 rpm and at 3000 rpm * 1980–1982: '' A-Plus''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5250 rpm and at 3000 rpm * 1980–1982: '' A-Plus''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5600 rpm and at 3200 rpm * 1973–1982: '' E-Series''
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5600 rpm and at 3200 rpm * 1973–1982: '' E-Series'' single carb
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5000 rpm and at 3100 rpm * 1974–?: '' E-Series'' twin-carb
Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also referred to as an inline-four engine) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout ( ...
, at 5500 rpm and at 3100 rpm


Advertising

The Allegro's launch slogan in 1973 was "The new driving force from Austin". In 1979, the Equipe and the Allegro 3 were sold under slogans based around the word "vroom".


References

*


External links


Austin Allegro development history
{{Authority control Austin vehicles British Leyland vehicles Compact cars Front-wheel-drive vehicles Sedans Station wagons Cars introduced in 1973 1980s cars Cars discontinued in 1982