Austin X6 Kimberley & Tasman - Shannons Club TV - Episode 160
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- In this episode of Shannons Club TV, Mark Oastler and John Wright take a look at the unique family sedans which offered a front-wheel drive alternative to the traditional Aussie six - The Austin X6 Kimberley and Tasman.
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I had two of these and an 1800 Ute at one point. A brown manual Kimberley and a turquoise automatic Kimberley. That turquoise car was on WA reg XAX-294 and the automatic was was by far the better of the two. Great to drive, smooth and cornered like nothing else. Quietly still wish I had it. Seating in those was quite plush and the back seat was very comfortable to ride in. Good memories...
I was 18, I bought a Austin Kimberley outright. I liked to think of if it as a Mercedes at the right angle. My pet name for it was a lounge chair on wheels.
My first car was a Morris 1100. A wonderful little car. I upgraded (?) to an Austin 1800. The 1800 is so often declared a failure, but they sold more per capita here in Australia than anywhere else in the world. I actually don't mind the looks and I think I prefer the Mk1 to the Mk2. The steering was heavy, the interior spartan (especially on the Mk1) and the doors closed with a nasty hollow ring, but the ride was exceptional, the B series was a good motor and the handling and road manners were exemplary. I deeply regret never having owned a Kimberley or Tasman (or a P76 for that matter), but my deepest regrets relate to the many, many opportunities that BMC/BL repeatedly bungled. If only......
G'day to you, The Kimberley was the first Automatic I ever drove back in the early 70s,I was blown away by the interior, seats were so comfy on a long drive. Armadale West Aust.
You can see the similarities to the Austin 1800, if you look at the car from the top of the bonnet and boot lid up, it looks almost identical to the 1800 apart from the 6th window at the rear. my oldest sister's father in law had a Kimberley from brand new and had nothing but kind words for it. unfortunately, like the P76, quality was questionable in a lot of areas, something that let both cars down. I remember in my teen years, growing up in Gawler, S.A., in the early 80's, there was a local cop that was a die hard British Leyland fanatic and had the most immaculate Austin 1800 Mk ll you have ever seen. it looked like it had just left the factory, and was never seen unwashed, the paintwork was always spotless and sparkling. my local driving school at the time also had an Austin 1800 Mk ll that I had a few lessons in while on my learners and that was a beautiful car to drive.
Sad that this seems to be the last of this series.
Used to look forward to each one and largely unknown background detail of these Australian cars.
A great resource to refer people to when historic Australian cars are discussed.
I know. I loved *"Shannons Club TV".* I always looked forward to learning something new and interesting about cars, iconic and otherwise.
It would have made even more sense to sell the two together (P76 and Kimberley). They appealed to different segments of the market and where of different sizes. What is more? The development costs were already amortised. All they needed was a production strategy that allowed both to be manufactured side by side (even if in lower production volumes). Many of the things done by Leyland were really senseless!
These cars were actually doomed before they were even released- the company decided on a return to RWD in around 1968 at which point the X6 cars were relegated to "stop gap" status along with the 1500. So they were never going to get the investment they deserved.
I had a Mark II Kimberley manual. I loved the car. It was supremely comfortable. It handled better than any other car of its time. I had no overheating problems. The engine wasn't all that powerful but it drove very well
I'd love to own a Kimberley some day, purely out of sheer fascination. It's really unfortunate how BL had some of the best ideas of the era but managed to b****r up the execution every time.
Thanks for showing this rare car. Even generated some tourism from the UK earlier this year mainly to drive one.
Mr. Hub Nut ?
Love this series, good on ya guys. Keep up the good work! "-)
I had one when I was a lad. Beautiful sweet engine and had a bit of get up and go too
I remember seeing these around as a kid growing up in the 70's with the Hillman Hunters. Also remember the sticker on the back window as you showed of the "drop" driving on fluid in the earlier Austin's. Always hated the Kimberley name though.
I think the best feature was the suspension just fantastic cornering etc.
Top episode. Thanks
Thank you very much for the video
Very informative, always been interested in these but never seen one over here in the UK.
In New Zealand we got the Kimberly badged as a Morris. I owned one in the 80s. A handsome car. Mine was auto and it was slow.
Did the single carb Mk11 version suffer any noticeable drop in power and torque over the earlier twin carbed version, which must have breathed more air obviously, as in more cfm in, more power out??
At the time the Mk 2 single car was quoted as the same power.
Sounds like they found a better single carb to avoid the high fuel consumption of the twin carb easily getting out of tune.
The car got a bad reputation for high fuel consumption arising from this issue and dealers not wanting to spend time re tuning them.
As I mentioned earlier here is one BMC fan who earleir this year was so excited to be able to drive one of these that he made the trip mainly to drive it. Mr Hubnut :
th-cam.com/video/AYAPaah4piE/w-d-xo.html
But he also found out how the praised by John suspension can break, fairly easily as the owner is well prepared with the special displacer parts need to fix the collapsed suspension :
th-cam.com/video/54srbjkOvHw/w-d-xo.html
Good to see he did not sugar coat the realities of the car and that the owner had a reserve of parts.
The conclusion in the comments is that once you are not able to locate the special rubber based displacer parts, then the car is likely to be static or a parts car.
So with the collapse of Leyland here how did owners of "Float on Fluid" cars cope with deteriorating rubber based suspension parts?
When's the next episode?
When is this coming back
I saw a Tasman in original condition in the National Transport Museum in Inverell last week.
Are there going to be any further episodes of this series?
Hey Stephen, thanks for getting in touch. What a great series it was! Unfortunately episode 160 was the last in the series. -Ash
Shannon’s Insurance when are you going to do a video on the TE-TF Cortina & KB-KC Centura?
Hello Mervyn. Thanks for reaching out. I'll try to find this out for you and get back to you as soon as I have an answer. :) - Prab
Hi Mervyn, just an update. We only covered vehicles In this series that had both Australian road & race history (the TC-TD Cortina, Mk2 and the Lotus Cortina). At this stage, the current series is complete and we don’t have any plans to cover the TE-TF Cortina or the Centura.- Jess
@@ShannonsInsurance Hi Jess,
I really appreciate you getting back to me! Not all us classic car enthusiast care if theses Australian Built Cars have any racing history!
It’s the engineering and Australian know how that most of us are interested in!
TE-TF Cortina, KB-KC Centura and even the original TM Magna has a lot of Australian ideas! (TN Magna Wagon has an interesting story in itself!)
Other wise I love all your videos! Keep Up the great work! 👍
I was going to buy a Kimberley as my first car but my father wasn't happy and made me buy a Kingswood instead.