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Riley Kestrel – Press Images
The launch of the Riley Kestrel went hand in hand with the Wolseley 1100 which we’ve featured for the last 2-days but there seems to be more behind the Riley story...
...today we’re posting official press images of the Riley Kestrel and just as with the Wolseley, “Confidential Until Official Release Date” is printed on most of them with no actual date given, although someone did hand write Sept 1965 on one image – so, we have no exact date for the launch of the Riley Kestrel. Tomorrow we’ll share with you some other, rather interesting images.
There’s one other thing about today’s images – three of them have a vehicle registration of COP 315C, so too did three of the Wolseley 1100 images we featured 2-days ago – pretty typical of the BMC!
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Wolseley 1100 – Promotion
Once the Wolseley 1100 had been launched to the general public the BMC had to go about advertising the new model...
...as far as we’re aware only two adverts appeared specifically promoting the Wolseley 1100 which in 1965 made a 4-model line up for Wolseley.
We’re the global umbrella for the ADO16, the BMC/British Leyland 1100/1300 – in well over 60 countries and with a Facebook Group of over 2,850 members! You can join us too; the only ADO16 club with a FREE membership level: www.ado16.info/membership-join
Lovely ad, BMC and Rootes were good at these small luxury cars
Still got one
Wolseley 1100 – Press Images
A couple of days ago we wrote about the introduction of the Wolseley 1100 which is generally understood to have been launched to the general public at the 1965 Earls Court Motor Show in London which opened on the 20th of October but there’s more to it than that...
...these days it’s reported that the Wolseley 1100 was launched in September, 1965 and certainly the production records that we have from British Leyland (Austin-Morris) Limited that date back to at least 1971 confirm production started during September, 1965.
The earliest advert showing the Wolseley 1100 that we know of appeared in Motor magazine, week ending 2nd of October. As for the earliest press images, they merely stated “Confidential Until Official Release Date” with no actual date given!
We’d certainly like to hear from you if you have any evidence for an actual release date.
We’re the global umbrella for the ADO16, the BMC/British Leyland 1100/1300 – in well over 60 countries and with a Facebook Group of over 2,850 members! You can join us too; the only ADO16 club with a FREE membership level: www.ado16.info/membership-join
It would of course be normal for production to begin some time before the official launch - to build up a "launch stock" so dealers would have a car to display - and for press events etc. On "niche" cars like the Wolseley 1100 Iaunch stock would be quite modest, but I'd expect them to start building production cars at least a month in advance.
Dead right Chris Cowin. I remember working on the pre production Maestro's in 1981. Production was started fully in 1983. Same with Montego which pre production started 1983 and launched 1984.
Island and Toga 😍 not that I’m in any way biased, you understand…..
Early Wolseley 1100s looks so nice with their two tone colour schemes.
This week’s cover image – it probably can’t be said that the 1969 film, The Haunted House of Horror was a great watch but at least it did feature a 1965, Austin 1100.
This week’s cover image – it probably can’t be said that the 1969 film, The Haunted House of Horror was a great watch but at least it did feature a 1965, Austin 1100.
The cars that ate Paris shows a few ado16 on a terror run!
