Wolseley 6/99 - a wonderfully British 50s classic car

Wolseley 6/99
The Wolseley 6/99 came in to replace the Wolseley 6/90 and was specced to suit the Wolseley customer who liked the bigger cars in the range.
The car, which hit forecourts in 1959, was a slightly different beast for Wolseley because for over 25 the brand had worked with Morris cars - deriving their cars from their current line up - but for the 6/99, they went with the Austin A99 Westminster shape.
I think the Austin was 10% cheaper - the highs and lows of badge engineering in full swing! In 1959, the car is advertised as being priced at £1,325 - 14 shillings and a tuppence.
Although the A99 was cheaper. There was also the VDP Princess which shared this body shape and that was more costly, which puts this delightful Wolseley we’re testing today squarely in the middle of the price bracket; well, if you’re going for civilian spec of course!
It was specced with the 2.9 litre C-Series six cylinder engine which gave 103bhp and was advertised with a top speed of 98 miles per hour, however, when Autocar put one through its paces in 1959, they managed to get 101 miles per hour.
Gearbox on this one is the Borg-warner auto which would’ve cost extra on a civilian car. On a standard car, you’d get 3 speed Borg-warner column change with overdrive.
You’ll see when we go out driving that this is no speed queen and the 0 to 60 is advertised at 14.4 seconds but Autocar reckoned they got 17.2 seconds with an overall MPG of 17 miles per gallon. Advertised I believe was 19 miles per gallon.
The car also offered Wolseley customers something different with the styling and design because this was the first top Wolseley with a unit-construction Monocoque body chassis coupled with Farina styling.
The car was also fitted with the independent front suspension/live rear axle combo which was expected by Wolseley customers - this was something they’d become accustomed to on the cars and worked well.
I comment on this on test later on, but it pulls up smartly because it’s been designed with discs to front and drums to rear - for those unfamiliar with this era of car - it was commonplace to have drums all round. Heck, there are cars in the 70s still sporting drums all round - so to have discs to front is quite the boon for the driver.
I also bemoan the vague steering later, which although is no worse than a lot of other 60s cars, was something people commented on at the time. It’s a cam and lever system on this.
Being only available for three years on paper, but not quite 36 months, it’s not surprising the production run is low - with just over 13,000 made in the three year life cycle.
The 4 door saloon body shape we’re testing today is the only shape available - being one of the large cars in the range the car was never sold as a two door variant.
The car was replaced by the Wolseley 6/110

[@breathestrongcycling3672]

Why the zipped headlining?...tried google to no avail so can someone enlighten me? i've never seen it before.

[@DaveJudd]

Average wage in 1960 was around £750 per year, average house price £2400 so at £1300 that was an expensive car back in its day.

[@terryroberts505]

I was pulled over one late night in Hornchurch in 1980 I was in a rover p6 they was in a unmarked Hillman hunter and in plain clothes they used the 🔔 bell to pull me over I was going home and saw my next door neighbour walking home so give him a lift and he was known to the police as they know is name ask if he was keeping out of trouble the police did know there Crookes in them days.

[@horsenuts1831]

Even when I was growing up in the 1970s, these were already old-fashioned, and rather humdrum in a world that now had Mk3 Cortinas and VW Golfs in primary colours. Because they were so commonplace, it was easy to forget that the original styling was Italian (by Pininfarina), and if you look at it sideways, it can look like a big Italian car of the period. By 1950s standards, it was probably quite a sharp design.

[@mikewysko2268]

Impressive attention to detail. Finding all of those police items from the 1960s must have been difficult. The car looks perfect. Well done! 👮

[@dap149b]

My Dad bought one for my Mum to drive (he never drove in his life). She had passed her test in an automatic, so she had to have an auto. It was baby blue and the reg was TCO 861, bought brand new. Blue leather upholstery and walnut dashboard. Think it was a 3 litre with overdrive. We used to go out onto Dartmoor for picnics in it. It never did a lot of miles. My Mum was very short and always strained to see over the bonnet. The suspension was very wallowy and I used to get car sick a lot in it when I was a nipper. We used to urge her to put her foot down along the embankment by the Plym and she took her up to 65mph once which seemed fast at the time cus most cars then were quite slow. Fond memories.🥲

[@D...M...A...]

Nice review Steph , the car and reviewer are lovely ... You look and sound great , hope all is well... Thanks for your diligence and endless effort ... You brighten the world ...

[@brianwillis9673]

Lovely old motor which is more remembered by me from old films rather than seeing them in real life. I love the fact it has big plush leather seats with arm rests and then that utilitarian dashboard.

[@hutchcraftcp]

Lovely car. Steph, maybe someday you can find a 1950/60's women's police outfit 😊

[@richardarcher3435]

Great car Steph but wait a minute, did you tell us what the zip was for in the roof headlining? I'm intrigued.

[@dieselfunk65]

Great video Steph. Thanks for showing us this lovely Wolseley. I was pulled over by an unusual police car in 1983 when I was only 17, I hadn’t long passed my driving test. I was driving an M reg Hillman Hunter and I was pulled over by a plain, red Capri 2.8 injection that had 2 blue lights in the front grille. Apparently there was also a white one in the Thames Valley area. Different times indeed.

[@ulrichmuhlenkamp6351]

Respect for the performance of the British car industry! - often ignored in Germany! +++ Ulrich of Krautmotors

[@thevauxhallman7157]

Pure nostalgia, brilliant. This car appears to have the 6/110 engine going by the air intake over the rocker cover. This is one of the best engines ever made. The police loved them. I've currently got a 1973 Daimler Sovereign but I'd still like to have one of these. Thank you Steph.

[@gjclark2478]

Strange. I was thinking only yesterday when I first started driving, at night you would always know a wolseley behind you by the light up badge...

[@sharkamov]

Moving along from the 'Gong';

[@007JHS]

Love the chromed bell on the front bumper.

[@foxstrangler]

My father was a police sergeant, and owned one of these as our family car. Lovely walnut dash, and proper door cards with armrests. A 59 model bought in 61 with 14K on the clock. Something that interests me, the car you were driving had an auto box, buy also the 'T' handle under the centre parcel tray for the overdrive selector. I thought only the manual had the overdrive option.

[@TheBasementChannel]

Lovely old Wolseley. I’ve owned a couple of these, ‘62 model year (NZ). The 3sp manual with O/D is a really clever bit of tech. The overdrive would work on 2nd and 3rd and would kick down and change up like an auto which made it very easy to drive around town. It also had the weird side effect of no engine braking when the OD was engaged, which increased the waftiness of the car through town. My starter broke once and I used the crank handle to get her going for a few months while I was searching for another starter. Strange the police ones have stripped out a lot of the nice Wolseley trim from the inside including all the timber trim and dash, they should have probably just used A99s. Thanks for sharing the video, miss my old Wolseleys.

[@billeves4627]

My parents had a 6/90 in the late 70s. My dad used to say it was one of 3 in Australia. Trafficators, starter crank handle, real wooden dash. I can remember every detail.He still has the grille on display with the lift up cover for the crank handle and the light up grille badge works off a power point.

[@anthonytallarida4192]

That was great Steph