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Austin Allegros

This Memory is looking a little short on nostalgia! Have you got anything you could add?

My mum had an Allegro for a bit. I remember it was an appalling shade of orange and had a square steering wheel. Just one of the many reasons why BL went down the pan.


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Do You Remember Austin Allegros?

Do You Remember Austin Allegros?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    I learnt to drive in a '77 1.3 2 door in white with a blue vinyl interior. I was driving it on a provi licence at 17 before I'd ever had a lesson! (first drove on a road at 15 - so had a bit of experience!). Past my test soon after and as soon as I was legal bought the car I wanted, a mk 2 Escort, and sold the Agro to my mates mum! Looking back it was a good little car, fine tuned my driving skills to pass my test, learned car body repair fixing the rust holes and even gave it a bit of tasteful customisation in the form of some blue coach lines. The one thing it didn't teach me, how to drive a rear wheel drive car in the days before ABS and traction control leading to a few brown trouser moments in the Escort.
  • Anonymous user
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    Ahh...the Allegro!! Perhaps the only car that was more aerodynamic going backwards than it was going forwards!!
  • Anonymous user
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    They weren't known as 'All-aggros' for nothing!
  • Anonymous user
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    I STILL HAVE our old Allegro, so I don't need to remember her! A '79 estate, one of the last of the mk.2's, in sandglow, We've had her since '81 and she's one of the best cars we've ever had. I don't give a damn aout all the nasty things people say about Allegro's- she's versatile, economical, dead easy both to drive and work on, VERY roomy, and has only broken down 3 times in 30 years! Jeremy Clarkson can go bite his bum (actually, he used to have one himself)- no make of car that came third in the '74 Monte Carlo rally can be written off as no good! Culnara, very sorry to hear about Betsy- at least she had a quick end rather than lingering death by rst and neglect. Steve, don't give up hope re.your own Betsy- she may yet reappear, maybe as a New Age traveller's van or somesuch. Try tracking her down!
  • Anonymous user
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    Known forever as an 'All-aggro'! The only car that was more aerodynamic in reverse than forwards. A disaster on wheels (but then, BL had the Morris Marina, too. YOU pick the worst!)
  • Anonymous user
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    My first car was an Allegro estate in Russett Brown. It actually drove well and provided me with wheels for a couple of years.
  • Anonymous user
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    My mate had a Vanden Plas... about ten years ago! I think it was her grandads. I remember she used to not drive coz she had work on a Saturday and swan us around all the pubs....those picnic tables were so handy for 'interval' cans!
  • Action Man
    on
    My Sister had one in about 1979 and the 'Quartic' square wheel was completely mad. The old bloke next door to us had one of the Vanden-Plas versions with this enormous chrome radiator grille and shiny hub caps that he'd drive the quarter of a mile to the paper shop every morning. There's a car dealer in Broadmayne that has had one on sale for well over a year now, along with a Vauxhall Viva, but the're another story !
  • Anonymous user
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    My dad got a brown one and I was really embarrassed to be dropped off at school in it because it was brown and I called it the 'Poo' Car (how right I was)!!
  • Anonymous user
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    LOL @ comment about square steering wheel. In the mid 80's my mate had one and we used to go to different pubs in her car... we must've only been 17 and boy we had some fun... it certainly got us around.