Find of the Week: 1966 Vanden Plas Princess

Lest you think the trend toward mainstream car manufacturers branching into luxury territory was a new thing when Honda and Toyota did it with their Acura and Lexus brands in the 1980s and 1990s, let us introduce you to the Vanden Plas Princess.

The Princess started out as a big sedan built by British automaker Austin, which farmed out the luxury "badge engineering" of certain versions of the car to Vanden Plas, a coachbuilder that had its start in Belgium in 1870. After Vanden Plas became an Austin subsidiary, the latter decided to make the former a separate marque, with the Princess being its marquee model.

The Vanden Plas Princess got a shot in the arm in the mid-1960s when it ditched its British Motor Corporation-built 120-hp engine in favour of a 4.0L Rolls-Royce six-cylinder notable for all-aluminum construction and a then-significant 175-hp power output.

It's a thusly-motivated car we're featuring as our latest Find of the Week, listed for sale in the nation's capital for an asking price of $12,000.

Historically, most badge-engineering exercises have centred around making an affordable car look more expensive, and a prominent grille was key to making the Vanden Plas Princess look more prestigious than the comparatively plain Austin A110 on which it was based. To us, this grille calls to mind the look of vintage British luxury sedans like those of Jaguar and Bentley, which we would guess was a calculated design decision.

Our seller doesn't provide very much information in the ad itself, but does include a link to a website that provides a few nice details. One of those is the fact that this model was apparently the only non-Rolls-Royce production car to use one of that company's engines.

The big inline six in question came to the Princess with a Borg-Warner automatic transmission, a drivetrain supposedly capable of a 12.7-second 0-100 km/h acceleration sprint, a 175-km/h top speed and a fuel consumption rating of 18.8 L/100 km.

That website also hosts a wealth of photos of this lovely car, including a few that reveal a handful of flaws we'd expect on a car that actually gets driven, like some rust on the body, cracks in the finish on the wood dashboard and front seats fitted with aftermarket covers to hide what is described as well-worn leather on the bottom cushions.

Photos of the rear seats shows a spacious cabin with leather in very nice condition, and pull-down tray tables the likes of which are surprisingly uncommon in luxury cars even now. The glove box door houses what passed for cupholders in 1966 (a pair of metal divots in the backside of the panel), and there is photographic proof the compartment is indeed more than large enough for a pair of gloves.

Intriguing exterior details include what would be considered a capless fuel filler by today's standards: a piece on the underside of the locking flap appears to seal the filler opening from the elements. Among the photos is what initially looks like a throwaway showing a knob labelled "Selectaride" next to the ignition switch. According to what information we were able to find, that's a self-levelling suspension system with electrically adjustable dampers that was an option in the Princess.

Photos of the undercarriage support the seller's claim that while the car is used regularly, it has not been recently winter driven, if ever. The 13-inch wheels are shod with Motomaster tires, the store brand sold by auto parts retailer Canadian Tire, suggesting that despite the car's age, replacement rubber would not be hard to come by.

The engine bay looks tidy for a 51-year-old car, but that's what we'd expect from a vehicle with a little more than 60,000 km on it.

The seller's web site also has a number of short videos showing the car being driven from within and without, the engine starting and idling and walkarounds of the car's exterior and engine bay.

We feel like $12,000 is a nice price for a vintage British luxury car; we found a 1967 Jaguar 420 for sale in northern Ontario for the same amount, a deal that also strikes us as pretty attractive given the Jag's sleeker lines and its better-known pedigree.

But if you're in the market for something truly unique on Canadian roads, we think our latest Find of the Week could be the crown jewel of a budget-oriented vintage car collector's fleet.