1954 Princess Vanden Plas - Barons Sandown Pk Tues 11th Dec 2018 For Sale by Auction
In 1947, Austin produced two virtually identical chassis, one for the A110 and the A120, used by Vanden Plas to produce the Princess at their Kingsbury works. Although Vanden Plas was by now wholly owned by Austin and much of the running gear and instrumentation was the same in the two cars, the Princess was the Austin flagship, with a higher specification leather, wool and burr walnut interior. The original Princess was powered by a 3.5-litre straight six engine. This was enlarged to a 4.0-litre unit without further modifications. The Princess was often built to order. Customers could specify the colour required and a range of different setups were available. These included triple or single carburetors and twin or single exhaust systems. Whilst the sportier multiple carb version performed better, it achieved only 12 to 14 mpg. The single carburetor version gave slightly better fuel consumption. Performance was good for a car of its size, with a top speed of 90 mph and acceleration 0 to 60 mph in 20 seconds. In 1950, the Limousine version was introduced. The chassis length and passenger area were enlarged to enable a pair of drop down seats to be mounted on the rear of the front seats and a glass division was standard. These early cars are now extremely rare, especially the saloon versions. Many of the saloons were converted for use as taxis in the late 1950s, fitted with Perkins diesel engines for better economy.
This 1954 Austin Princess Vanden Plas 4 Litre described by the vendor to be good condition all round, and to have been regularly used for wedding car hire. The car benefited from a respray, seats recovered, engine rebuilt and P100 headlights fitted in 2006. Since then the car has been regularly used for wedding car hire and for Classic Car Shows.
Please note that the badges and badge rail shown in the photos will not be included in the sale.
This advert has now been removed through sale or otherwise, please see the list below for similar live adverts
