TEST DRIVE: 1975 AUSTIN ALLEGRO 1.1 ORIGINAL PAINT!

[@christophernye1970]

My father had a metallic blue Allegro, my brother bought my next door neighbour's low mileage mustard coloured Allegro, great little car's, never much trouble.👍

[@SvennsCarchannel]

Really like the little Allegro! Nice video Rob👍😀

[@EA-58]

For some reason i love those little cars.

[@beardsandbangers]

They are the best aren't they?

[@stevesj80]

My first car was a 1979 Orange Austin Allegro. Had it in 1991/2

[@reinhardbehrend9411]

i hat on in 1978 asembelt in Malta it was a nice Car i even went two times to germany with it-

[@Sorted7]

I always think BL cars and latterly the rover cars were killed by the press having a downer on them rather than them being bad. Admittedly the allegro was a kind of futuristic design but made in an antiquated way but they weren’t bad for their time other than the dodgy manufacturing

[@nygelmiller5293]

I think I once had this beautiful RADIOMOBILE radio! ( But on a Mini, not my Allegro)

[@beardsandbangers]

Love a period radio!

[@mickles1975]

Did you see the vents from the engine bay into the wheel wells? That's to cool the brakes because they were just so damn fast.

[@nickyjames8550]

I had one for my daily drive back in 2019 , regret selling it 😢

[@beardsandbangers]

I really enjoyed driving this car. Am on the look out for a Vanden Plas version!

[@petrolpunx]

Nice test. But let me add one thing. Giugiaro was never involved into the Allegros design - in fact it was BL design legecs Harris Mann, who came up with a very dynamic design, that ended up to be compromised by all the BL drama.

[@SmashingPistons]

8:19 - I think you'll find thats the bow tie switch. You needed to wear a bow tie when you were out driving in one.

[@beardsandbangers]

Ah yes! I completely forgot!

[@johnrossewingiii3270]

Nice test, two things wrong. 1. Harris Man styled the car BL inhouse, eventually influenced from italian styli g originally which BL could not brin into fruition because of lack of money and parts from Marina and E-series to baulky, 2. Hydragas not ...lastic

[@davidw8759]

Great review as ever but please wear the seatbelt!

[@garymorris801]

looks good

[@beardsandbangers]

Thanks Gary

[@bernarddegrasse8753]

No seat belt ?

[@ngauruhoezodiac3143]

Even with the 1300cc engine it was seriously underpowered. Could it do even 70mph with an 1100 cc engine?

[@beardsandbangers]

I would like to drive a 1.7 to compare

[@nygelmiller5293]

To ngaurozodiac. Well I had a 1300, which could do about 83mph. But I think it was a mistake that BL and Ford offered too wide a range of engines, to attract a wider range of customers. Sometimes they were unrealistically hopeful about what engines were enough for a model. I had, as I said the 1300 engine in my Allegro, and my mother had exactly the same engine in her Morris Marina. The Allegro was okay, away from the lights, but her Marina was bordering on DANGEROUS away from the lights - because the weight of her bigger car was just too much for it. People don't at first realise that just as the PRESENT MINI is actually bigger than the FIRST version - the Allegro is really in the next size category compared to it's predecessor. THAT one's engine "grew" from an 1100 to a 1300, to make it better for motorways - so since the Allegro was bigger , the SMALLEST engine it was offered with SHOULD DEFINATELY been the 1300 engine!

[@ngauruhoezodiac3143]

@@nygelmiller5293 I had a 1969 Austin 1300. With a single SU carb it had only 56hp and would not do 135 km/h. The Allegro had basically the same A series engine and could not have had much more power.

[@nygelmiller5293]

@@ngauruhoezodiac3143 hello again! I didn't WORK for BL or anything, and am not trying to put shine on their image by saying my 1300 Allegro Automatic did 83mph. Speedos were , certainly not digital, and were inaccurate by up to 10%. Apart from electronic Speedos this used to be possible - so the indicated 83mph might have well been on the flattering side a bit! The makers knew of the slight inaccuracy - so they made sure they were too fast, rather than too slow - so people would not exceed speed limits, thinking they were not travelling too fast. HOWEVER, although I always had my car tuned by HOMETUNE, in the days when cars had points to adjust and so on Despite liking my car otherwise, it spoilt things by not only being no good on actual hills - but no good even on slight inclines. I'd hold up other traffic on hills because of this, and was even once overtaken by a Citroen 2CV, with an engine HALF the size! But the fact the 2CV's could manage steep hills ,even with a puny sized engine, was because of the horizontally opposed engine - which according to Alfa Romeo (who used such engines for a long time) "let out " 20% more of the engine power! And That's why the original model Volkswagen Beetle was horizontally opposed, to manage German/Austrian steep hills! I've never had any front wheel drive car that was any good at hills! My mother's Marina had the same engine, and was better, despite it's heavier weight! BMW used to say they would "never" ( well, not till now!) Use front wheel drive - because "it is easier to propel an object from the back, than from the front" , meaning a CAR. So you do need a more powerful engine for hills, on front wheel drive cars. So there WAS that, but it may also have had something to do with the AP automatic gearbox. A friend had a French micro car, the AIXAM (look them up on the internet) the size of a Mini, which was underpowered, but would scuttle up Highland Hills, "unfettered" ! If I still had my (low mileage ) Allegro , I would write to the Owners Club and ask if other owners of Automatics had trouble!

[@MrRetro-]

I thought these were hydrogas, not hydroelastic the spheres are filled with fluid, so not like the car it replaced

[@beardsandbangers]

You are correct!

[@andyh8156]

Seatbelt!

[@paulgoldsworthy5971]

When cars were designed to be worked on rob. harvest gold best colour informative video as allways take care

[@beardsandbangers]

Can't beat an A-series!

[@badbooks476]

Thankyou for sharing. What a wonderful survivor, with mostly original paint, Harvest Gold was a very popular colour for the BL range in the 1970’s. My dad had a 1977 Black Allegro, so remember the sound very well

[@StevensPaul]

Ah,1975 I remember it well. I was 11 and quiet adorable 🤪😜!!

[@beardsandbangers]

I was -2! It was chilly :)

[@nygelmiller5293]

INTERESTING how you mentioned that this 1100 engined model had LIGHT steering. My 1300 model seemed a bit stiffer - my Mum sold it to me because she found the steering TOO FIRM. She then got a 1300cc Morris Ital (same engine), and found the steering LIGHTER - despite being a heavier car! They always used to say that FRONT WHEEL DRIVE would make steering heavier, so it didn't come in till later.

[@SmashingPistons]

These things just look old. Im pretty sure they looked old 5 years after they came out. lol

[@frankhope575]

Seat belt ?