Vintage Thing No.84 - Wolseley 1500

Although looking dignified in black, many Mk1 Wolseley 1500s were spectacularly two-tone. Their lines seem to suit that sort of paint job

Wolseley - ah! the name - it sounds to me like a slightly sozzled English bank manager, Captain Mainwaring's disreputable brother. Wolseley could be an adjective for wobbly wooziness whereas it is really a name synonomous with quality motoring and advanced aero-engine manufacture. Fought over by the William Morris and Herbert Austin for its expertise in overhead camshaft designs, the marque of Wolseley became a luxury Morris as British motor manufacturers emulated the American big 3 in its marketing structure as well as its mass production techniques. Wolseley subsequently  suffered the indignity of badge engineering under BMC but survived as a make of motor car until 1975.

And straight from the stranger than fiction department, woolly old Wolseley has its origins in sheep shearing equipment. There used to be one of these machines preserved in a garden at Trewint, just off the A30.

It's because I like the name of Wolseley so much that I featured it in The Wormton Lamb, where every BMC product is re-badged as a Wolseley. This meets with considerable success because the citizens of Wormton understood the Wolseley virtues.

This is a very smart interior on a Mk1 Wolseley. I don't think I'd change the wheel for a sportier one.

Through its lengthy career, the Wolseley remained an aspirational vehicle within reach of the masses. Despite a flirtation with sports cars in the thirties resulting in the Wolseley Hornet, they were not high performance motor cars but upright and respectable, smelling inside of leather and wood polish. For many years they kept their own ohc engines but latterly the valves went downstairs in search of production rationality. As my Uncle Tom, used to say, "If you got a Wolseley, you'd really arrived" and this continued even when they were little more than booted Minis and idiosyncratic Landcrabs. Despite the liberties taken with the good name, many types of Wolseley retained a degree of their own identity and one of the better ones was the Wolseley 1500.

This is the Mk2 version with internal bonnet and bootlid hinges and a new chrome flash on the wing. (Photo Charles 01)

The Wolseley 1500 is the less sporty relation of the Riley 1.5 and both have their origins in a replacement for the irreplaceable Morris Minor. I can remember my dad being outpaced by the Riley version once, when we had either an 1100 Escort Mk1 or a 1250cc Hillman Avenger. See how I've forgotten which one of our family cars it was but remembered the performance of the Riley?

As evidence of the downright ornery-ness of the British buying public, fewer people bought the Riley than the Wolseley. BMC made 103,394 Wolseley 1500s and only 39,568 Riley 1.5s. But I can't talk. Instead of having a Riley, which not only goes faster but looks nicer and has a tacho, I've had two Wolseley 1500s. As usual, though, I didn't try too hard to get them. They sort of found me.

The first one had been standing for something like 6 years in Zelah, literally in sight of all the traffic that passed through the village on the old A30. As a child, I used to car spot registration numbers with a preference for black and white plates and noted this car among all the others. Six years later, and having just passed my driving licence, I noticed this old car was still in exactly the same spot.

Discreet enquiries revealed it to belong to an elderly couple who knew my grandparents and when I asked them if they wanted to sell it they gave me the car. In fact they gave me a very early Austin A30, too, of the AS3 variety, which lay in the field behind the Wolseley.  Goodness knows how long that had been there.

Years of exposure to the elements, thanks to a broken driver's window did this to my first Wolseley 1500. There was nothing much to weld to even if I had a grinder and a welder, which I didn't. Anything can be saved but sometimes a man's gotta know his limitations. Note boyish attempts at using Trustan 23 rust converter on what there is left of the floor

The Wolseley had been used as a gate in a village land dispute. At some stage it had suffered a broken driver's window as someone forcibly moved it away from the gateway it was faithfully guarding. After that the weather got in and, by the time I arranged for a neighbour to drag it home, the sills and floors had rotted away. Its back was broken and another neighbour who welded cars advised me not to bother. After giving this advice a stiff ignoring, I realised it really was too far gone. I was also pursuing my further education so wasn't around to repair it. Eventually, I let my mother sell it for scrap along with the A30, which was so rusty the lower front suspension arms had collapsed. I retained some parts of these cars for many years afterwards, though, and my interest was briefly rekindled whenever I fell over an engine or rear axle in the shed.

Rusty panels everywhere. Working on it in the open didn't help, either. How much better set up I am today!

Unfortunately, I don't have very good photos of these cars. They were tucked in close to edge when I got them home and what photos I do have just show what a terrible state they were in.

The Wolseley seemed quite large and luxurious to someone who drove a Hillman Imp (VT No. 40). And when it rained the faded red paintwork was revealed to be actually two-tone - maroon over purple! When new in 1958, it must have looked sensational and I've never seen a similar colour scheme on one before or since.

If you look closely at the picture of my Imp with the Mini van side next to it on Hillman Imp (VT No. 40) you can just make out the sad remains of my first Wolseley 1500. I had no MIG welder or grinder back then.

The man responsible for this car's good looks is reckoned to be Dick Burzi. He's somewhat in the shadow of Gerald Palmer, who did the Wolseley 6/90 and its smaller sibling the 4/44 and, of course, the associated Riley and MG variants. I regret to say that I know of no other cars credited to Dick Burzi but I like what he achieved with my Wolseley and also the Riley 1.5.

Palmer produced several studies for the Minor replacement but one day Leonard Lord told him "Dick Burzi and I have designed this new Minor at Longbridge!"

Palmer left BMC shortly afterwards.

According to Paul Skilleter in his book on the Morris Minor, the front end treatment was the work of Sid Goble. I think the Riley version works especially well and there were Morris and Austin versions for Australia but these don't have the same old style radiators or presence on the road. For example, the Wolseley's radiator badge lights up when you turn on the headlights. Why don't modern cars do this?

Both Burzi and Goble probably had inputs to other BMC cars but Issigonis and Palmer were the big names of the time and their work remains unsung apart from this particular design.

This is the final version of the Wolseley 1500, with wider side grilles to the front panel.

Both Riley 1.5 and Wolseley 1500 used the BMC "B" series engine in its 1489cc ( 73.025 x 88.9mm) size but the Wolseley spec was much more cooking than the Riley with just a single carb. The Riley had bigger drum brakes, too, and I robbed these off a Riley in a scrapyard at Carharrack for my Minor, along with its twin SU carbs. The idea was to create even more of a Q-car out of my Wolseley than a Riley 1.5.
The Wolseley put out 50 bhp and the Riley managed 68 on big valves and its twin SU carbs. Both types seem to have shared the same camshaft, though. Most exotic engine among the B series family was the MGA twin cam with 108 bhp but that engine really ought to be in an MGA (if you could find a homeless one)

The Mk3 was also modernised with the rear lamp clusters from the Austin A40, so Pininfarina had a hand in the facelift (although he probably never knew this). They don't sit quite happily on the Burzi lines, though.

The B series engine is heavy, though, as I found out when it came to removing the unit in my free Wolseley. I made some sheer legs, the borrowed winch jammed, then the winch suddenly unjammed and the sheerlegs collapsed. Against oily fingers blood looks almost fluorescent. I subsequently discovered the 1489cc B series engine was almost as heavy as a Rover V8 so you can guess what I began fantasised about, especially as a hillclimbing Riley 1.5 got a mention in the motoring press during the early eighties. I fancied there was more potential for surprise with the Wolseley than a Riley, despite the latters more sporting mien, due to the Wolseley's more dignified styling. I saw the the glove boxes being filled with supplementary gauges that would only be revealed as the precursor to some inferior motorcar being burnt off.

These boyish plans might still come about.

"Buy Wisely, Buy Wolseley." So I bought Wolseley but still may not have bought wisely.

Back in the early 90s I saw another Wolseley 1500 for sale and bought it cheaply with a few weeks tax and ticket. It was another 1958 version, with the external bonnet and boot hinges and the very upright front end and smaller side grilles. This one was all black but had the same leather interior as my old one except for the driver's seat, which was an old blue vinyl affair from a Morris Minor. But it needed work and, as I was living up the line still, I took it off the road and it suffered somewhat in storage.

But it's now in the dry and awaiting its turn. A few years ago a work colleague said she'd had one and would I like a complete interior for £50? It was an exact match for my car, too, so maybe God drives a Wolseley. I have also acquired an MGB engine and overdrive gearbox to fit into it. The idea is to keep as much Wolseley-ness as possible while improving on the performance of a Riley, making a late fifties version of the Triumph Dolomite Sprint if you like.

Every Wolseley 1500 I've had tried to tell me it needed more power

You see, I've moved on from the Rover V8 idea, much as I still like it,because this it should prove easier to do and result in a more balanced package. The back axle will need uprating nut I have heard of a twin pin diff conversion and there are Morris Minor halfshafts that fit that are reckoned to be unbreakable (if not quite affordable right now)

My black Wolseley 1500, the day after I got it and still road legal

I've got a lot of welding to do but have already done the rear wheelarches on it. Sills appear for sale occasionally but at £125 a pop for each side I'm still holding out for some new-old-stock. I've got glassfibre front wings and would really like a GRP panel radiator panel, too. With a new cross member, floor repairs and sills, this old car will rise again in the not too distant future but will have to wait for some other projects to be completed before it takes its turn.

I shelled out on repair panels for the rear arches soon after I got the car. I like to start at one end and work my way to the other.

But it's day will come. Did I mention I've got disc brakes for it, too?