Description
H&H Classic Auction @Pavilion Gardens | Buxton, Derbyshire
27th Nov, 2024 13:00
1969 Vanden Plas Princess 1300
Registration No: UJB 664G
Chassis No: VAS2/ 21878M
MOT: Exempt
Just 78, 000 recorded and credible miles on the odometer
Significantly improved while in current ownership
Benefitting from a full engine overhaul in 2021 with minimal mileage since
Handbook, workshop manuals and a box of spares included in the sale
Inspired by a bespoke Morris 1100 that Fred Connolly had commissioned from coachbuilder-turned-manufacturer Vanden Plas, BMC tasked its Kingsbury-based subsidiary with replicating Mr. Connolly’s car to gauge public reaction at the October 1963 Earls Court Motor Show. Sporting a revised radiator grille, two-tone Green paint, and sumptuous Champagne Beige leather and walnut veneer interior, the resultant machine attracted a deluge of enquiries. Entering production in April 1964, the Vanden Plas Princess 1100 boasted a twin-carburettor 1100cc engine, four-speed manual gearbox, front disc brakes, and Hydrolastic interconnected suspension. Priced at £896 (£195 more than the MG 1100 with which it shared a powerplant), the newcomer also featured a West of England cloth headlining, Wilton carpets, reading lights, rear picnic tables and individual folding front seat armrests. In an age of coachbuilt Minis by Wood & Pickett and Radford etc, the Vanden Plas, with its ‘shrunken Rolls-Royce’ cabin, proved a strong seller, with the 1300 version launched in Autumn 1967.
Manufactured in 1969, the Vanden Plas offered was road registered on the 17th April that year. Finished in Midnight Blue paintwork with a complementary Grey leather interior upholstery, the Princess boasts options such as the four-speed automatic transmission and heated rear windscreen. Offered for auction now having a recorded mileage of c. 78, 000 credible miles, ‘UJB 664G’ was lavished with a full engine overhaul by Kingsthorpe Precision Engineering in 2021 to the sum of c.£3, 700 in total and has covered minimal mileage since its completion (approximately 500 miles). Other notable works have included a full new carpet set in 2020, and in the last year, a new exhaust, carburettor, fuel pump and cosmetic improvements, as well as refurbished wheels with five new tyres and servicing. Offered with a history file containing a collection of invoices and a current V5C document showing eight former keepers.
