In 1959 the Austin Motor Company presented the A110 Westminster, a large 6 cylinder saloon, of which the body was designed by Pinin Farina. Farina’s first job for Austin was the new A40 which was presented one year earlier. Further to those cars Farina also redesigned the middle class A55/A60 Cambridge, and these designs became very popular, and under the BMC banner were the subject of intense badge engineering, by using MG, Wolsely, Morris and Austin badges for basically the same car.
The introduction of the Westminster coincided with a new version of the Austin Princess, the top model in the range. The new Princess used the bodyshell of the A110, but was built by Vanden Plas and fitted with all the luxury to be expected in the top class. Shortly after its introduction, the Austin Princess was renamed Vanden Plas Princess, which was introduced as the 1960 model. Leather and wood galore, it was a typical example of British style. Technically the car still featured a separate chassis clothed with the Farina body. The engine produced a meager 108 BHP, which did not result in impressive performance.
This was partly rectified in 1964, when the car was fitted with a 4 litre 6 cylinder Rolls Royce engine, which had been intended for an armoured car that was never produced. The all alloy engine feature side exhaust valves but inlet valves were fitted overhead. The engine produced 175 BHP and it was the first Rolls Royce engine for which an official power figure was given. Pinin Farina redesigned the body, reducing the rear fins, and making the kink in the rear door a little less obvious. A 3-speed Borg-Warner autobox was standard.
The engine proved to be difficult and costly to maintain but the car was a very comfortable and fast enough vehicle for its time. Production stopped in 1968 and 6555 cars were made.
Shown here is a freshly restored example which was very willingly opened to us by its proud owner. During the process a former employee of the Rolls Royce Factory joined in and told the owner all sorts of interesting details about the engine..
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