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Biography
dablink|For other uses, see Vanden Plas (disambiguation) .Refimprove|date=June 2008 Vanden Plas is the name of a company of coachbuilder s who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from various subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group .
Belgium
It originated in Belgium in 1870 as Carrosserie Vanden Plas founded by Guillaume van den Plas and his three sons, Antoine, Henri and Willy, with bases in Antwerp and Brussels.
United Kingdom
The company first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1906 when Métallurgique cars were imported with Vanden Plas coachwork. In about 1910 Warwick Wright (now Peugeot dealers), a British motor retailer, purchased the United Kingdom rights to the Vanden Plas name and established Vanden Plas (England) Ltd.
Aircraft
During World War I the company became involved in aircraft production and was bought by Airco|Aircraft Manufacturing Company based at Hendon , London. In 1917 a new company, Vanden Plas (1917) Ltd., was formed. The company seems to have struggled to get back into coachbuilding and in 1922 went into receivership. The exclusive UK rights purchase seems also to have gone as in the early 1920s the Belgian firm was exhibiting at the London Motor Show alongside the British company.
Bentley
The rights to the name and the goodwill were purchased by the Fox brothers who moved the company from Hendon to Kingsbury and built on the contacts that had been made with Bentley Motors Limited|Bentley . Between 1924 and 1931, when Bentley failed, Vanden Plas built the bodies for over 700 of their chassis.
In the 1930s the company became less dependent on one car maker and supplied coachwork to such as Alvis Cars|Alvis , Armstrong Siddeley , Bentley, Daimler Motor Company|Daimler , Lagonda and Rolls-Royce Limited|Rolls-Royce . The company also updated its production methods and took to making small batches of similar bodies.
With the outbreak of war in 1939 the company went back into aircraft work and coachbuilding stopped. During the War the company manufactured the wooden framework for the De Havilland Mosquito, one of the most successful aircraft of the Second World War. After the war the company continued its association with De Havilland and manufactured parts for the DH Vampire jet fighter.
Austin
With peace in 1945 the company looked to restart its old business, but a surprising new customer came along. Austin Motor Company|Austin wanted to produce a large Rolls-Royce-size luxury car and approached Vanden Plas.
In 1946 Vanden Plas became a subsidiary of the Austin Motor Company and produced Austin's Austin Princess|A135 Princess model.
From 1958 this also began to involve chassis assembly and the Austin (now British Motor Corporation|BMC ) board recognised Vanden Plas as a motor manufacturer in its own right. In 1958/59 Austin was dropped so the Princess could be sold by Nuffield dealers. In 1960 the Princess became the Vanden Plas Princess.
Badge engineering
Also in 1957/8, Vanden Plas were asked by Leonard Lord to add luxury fittings to a batch of Austin Westminster|Austin A105 Westminster cars, beginning the practice of using the company's skills and name for badge engineered (and genuinely improved) luxury versions of many of the BMC (and later British Leyland (BL)) cars such as the BMC ADO16|1100/1300 range and the Austin Allegro|Allegro (known as the Vanden Plas 1500 and 1700). The proposed Vanden Plas version of the Morris Marina|Marina did not go into production.
From 1985 to 1989, Austin Rover made upmarket Vanden Plas models within its Austin Metro|Metro , Austin Maestro|Maestro and Austin Montego|Montego ranges; a limited edition of 500 only models were produced at Longbridge called the Austin Metro VP 500. The name is now used only on North American Jaguar cars.
In 1992, a Japanese company recreated the Vanden Plas 1100/1300 look on the Nissan Micra K11. This involved replicating the front and rear of the Vanden Plas, complete with two tone paint scheme as sported by the original model in the 1960s.
Daimler
Production of the Vanden Plas Princess limousine stopped in 1968 when it was replaced by the Daimler DS420 Limousine (Jaguar had acquired Daimler Motor Company|Daimler in 1960) built by Vanden Plas on a lengthened Jaguar Mark X platform. The DS420 was produced at the Kingsbury Lane Vanden Plas factory until it closed in November 1979.Coachbuilding in 1979 - Vanden Plas. Robert Vickers. London's Industrial Archaeology No.5 1994 p.10ff
The overall holding company board decided in 1967 there was insufficient in the group advertising budget to cope with marketing the Daimler brand in North America as well as Jaguar. This decision was later changed but Vanden Plas is used in North America instead of Daimler on Jaguar's top luxury models. Ownership of the Vanden Plas name stayed with the Rover Group , and Jaguar was obliged to stop using it in the United Kingdom, though it continues to do so in America. Within the UK a Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas became a Daimler Double Six.
The last UK market British car to bear the Vanden Plas name was the Rover 75 .
China
The rights to the design of the Rover 75 cars and the MG Group (which had formerly been MG Rover) were purchased by a Chinese firm, Nanjing Automobile. Ford purchased the Rover name from the Rover Group's previous owner BMW to protect the Land Rover brand from Shanghai Automotive who wanted the Rover name for their 75-based car (Ford was at this time owner of Land Rover — and Jaguar). The Vanden Plas name (for outside North America ) and many other Leyland names were purchased by Nanjing Automobile (Group) Corporation|Nanjing Automobile .
# http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/vandenindexf.htm Vanden Plas history & models at "The unofficial Austin Rover resource"
External links
http://www.austinmemories.com Austin Memories
http://www.co-oc.org/ The Cambridge-Oxford Owners Club
British LeylandBritish Car Industry Category:Luxury motor vehicle manufacturers Category:Rover Category:Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom Category:Vehicle manufacture in London
