Vanden Plas Princess

The Princess is a badge engineered variant of the Austin A99 Westminster, manufactured by BMC from 1959 to 1968 and marketed under the Vanden Plas marque.

The model was launched in October 1959 under the name Princess 3-litre.[1] From July 1960, these vehicles bore the name Vanden Plas Princess 3-litre, Vanden Plas having become a badge-engineered brand in its own right instead of being known as a coachbuilder for cars of other manufacturers. The 3-litre was superseded by the Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R in 1964.

The Princess was a great deal smaller and less than 44 per cent of the price of the older Princess IV Saloon, which was also to continue until 1968.

Princess 3-litre

The 3-litre was largely identical to the Pininfarina

Vanden Plas Princess R

The Vanden Plas Princess R with its Rolls-Royce all-aluminium 175 bhp engine was announced in August 1964. With an unusually high power to weight ratio the car gave easy cruising at 90+ mph and was capable of 112 mph.

In addition to exterior alterations, the R featured an 6 cylinder aluminium Rolls-Royce FB60 engine, a short-stroke version of the B series engine: 4, 6 and 8 cylinder units of which more than 30,000 had already been produced. The 6-cylinder engine weighed only 450 lb.[8] The engine resulted from more than two years technical collaboration between BMC and Rolls-Royce, and featured a cubic capacity of 3.909 L. Over-square: bore was 95.25 mm, stroke 91.44 mm; with a 7.8:1 compression ratio its output was 175 bhp @4,800 rpm. Twin SU carburettors were fitted. Both block and head were aluminium, tappets were hydraulic self-adjusting operating on overhead inlet and side exhaust valves. The counterbalanced crankshaft ran in seven bearings.[9]

The 4-litre R featured polished walnut fascia padded top and bottom, leather upholstered seats with fully reclinable backs and deployable polished picnic tables for the rear passengers. A new automatic transmission was provided, Borg-Warner model 8, its first use in a British car and Hydrosteer variable ratio power steering accompanied wider tyres. Externally the fog lamps were moved up by the grille, and rear tailfins were replaced with small corner-ridges.[10]

Engine specifications

Pricing

The background to the pricing was that from April 1961 tax relief on company cars was allowed only up to £2,000.[8]

The new car was priced on a par with the Jaguar Mark X (albeit only the manual transmission model of the Jaguar) and 50 per cent more than its apparent predecessor the 3-litre car. It was a major change of market positioning aimed at the growing prestige and executive market in Europe and the United States. However, its close appearance to its predecessor and its pricing (near to that of the Jaguar, which was bigger with a far more advanced chassis design and more prestigious, though itself without a useful market in the United States), resulted in slow sales.

£1,346 (discontinued Vanden Plas Princess Mark II)
£1,994 Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R
£2,022 Jaguar Mark X
£5,517 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III[10]

aka	Austin Princess 3-litre (Australia) ‡R2R‡
manufacturer	BMC
production	1959–1964
assembly	United Kingdom: Kingsbury
engine	2.9 L C-Series I6
class	Full-size car
layout	FR layout
body style	4-door saloon
successor	Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre R
predecessor	Austin A105 Vanden Plas
designer	Pininfarina
related	Austin Westminster Wolseley 6/99
length	187.75 in
width	68.5 in
wheelbase	1959–1961: 84 in 1961–1964: 86 in‡R3R‡
height	59 in

Vanden Plas Princess

Princess 3-litre

Engine specifications