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I left British Leyland in 1970 and went to London,
like all young Aussies do, to gain a bit more experience. BL at
Longbridge and Cowley didn't want to know, as most of them were
all on strike and weren't prepared to take me on. Fortunately, Sprinzels
of Lancaster Mews did, so I enjoyed three years with them before
coming home in 1973.
John Sprinzel had made his name tuning Sprites and MGs, and although
we specialised in sports cars, we sold the full BL range. I remember
the early Maxi with the cable gear shift (same as on our Morris
1500) and wondered why BMC hadn't learned with the 1800, as they
were almost as bad. (with them, you only had four gears to sort
out rather than five). However, I have never witnessed so vast a
change when the 1750 was announced at the end of 1970. For just
a little tidying up, and nice detailed work, the car just seemed
transformed. The original concept was obviously right, it's just
that the early execution was lacking somewhat.
John Sprinzel was
a well known rally figure and motoring journalist in the 1950's
and 1960's........ in 1960 he was British Rally Champion.
For more information about John's rallying exploits enter
"John Sprinzel" in your favourite search engine
and or click on the following websites.
spriteclub.com/st/st0498/story/htm
marathon.homestead.com/Page12.html
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| We just couldn't get enough Maxis to sell in the
three years I was there. There were always waiting lists, and we
seemed to have had very few warranty problems. To me it and the
1800 were Brtiain's most underated cars, and were never marketed
properly, so therefore their true potential was never realised.
At weekends, I used to deliver new cars all over England, Scotland
and Wales (I saw most of your beautiful country at someone else's
expense) and was heading up the M1 one morning in a Damask Red Maxi
1750 when fog set in. The result was a 52 car pile-up with me being
jammed in between a Renault 16 and a Morris Oxford. With only about
70 miles on the clock, I managed to drive the thing back to London
with stove in front and back. It was repaired and I think we used
it as a demonstrator.
Being a sports car dealer, we entered two cars in the London Sports
Car Show in early 1971. One was a Lotus Super Seven, the other a
Glacier White (?) 1750 with Geranium trim. The bumpers were painted
white and there were a few engine mods from BL Tuning. The car was
known as an Austin Maxi Lancastrian.............. we only ever sold
one, the one on show. It ended up belonging to Pam Sprinzel, John's
wife, who used it to cart her two Boxer dogs around. Wonder where
it is now? It would have been J reg and I think the first 3 letters
were EAN. There was a little Lancastrian badge stuck on the tailgate,
and I think on the sides somewhere.
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