Your trouble, Rich, is that you are too easily pleased. you might get a bulge in your pants looking at one, but the British public turned their noses up: Just ten thousand were made and sold in four years before BL gave up on it.
The Austin 3-Litre is a British saloon car that was introduced by Austin at the London Motor Show in 1967. It became apparent that the company was not geared up to producing the car: none seem to have been sold that year, but by July 1968 it was reported that the cars had begun to leave the factory. In July 1968, with cars beginning to emerge from the plant, the manufacturers were asked to detail improvements reportedly implemented since the car's "launch" the previous October. Mention was made of modifications to hydraulic valves in the rear suspension, and it was stated that there was a new final drive, though this was actually the same final drive included in the launch information the previous October.
Codenamed ADO61, the car was intended to be in the 3-litre executive class unlike the visually similar (but smaller) front-wheel drive ADO17 range, the 125 bhp 3-litre engine (a 7-bearing modification of the C-Series with twin SU carburettors) drove the rear wheels through a conventional 4-speed gearbox. The car used Hydrolastic suspension with self-levelling hydraulic rams at the rear and was praised for its excellent ride and handling. But Alec Issigonis, who designed the front-wheel drive cars, had no part in the 3-Litre, which he was reportedly keen to point this out.
Luxurious Wolseley and Vanden Plas 3-litre versions both reached prototype stage, but went no further. A small number of estate models were built however, converted by Crayford. In the early days of British Leyland proposals for a Rover-branded version were considered to replace the Rover P5 3-Litre but these did not progress beyond the drawing board.
Sales were very poor. The standard version had been withdrawn by 1969 while the de luxe version soldiered on until the model was discontinued completely in May 1971, after less than 10,000 had been produced. It suffered from a perception that it was merely an enlarged ADO17 "Landcrab" (indeed, it gained the nickname "Land-lobster.")
Anyone of you lot like to give an opinion on why this oh so gorgeous car didn't go down too well with Joe Public?
Personally, I blame that self appointed keeper of the nations morals, Mary Whitehouse. If you were seen in an Austin 3 litre, expect a midnight knock on the door, whereupon two burly members of the "Thought & Decency" police would haul the car's owner off to The Nick. The charge? Public indecency. There was no defence, all they had to say if you protested was. Somebody saw you coming.
