1963 WOLSELEY 6/110

1963 WOLSELEY 6/110.
The Wolseley 6/99 and 6/110 were the final large Wolseley cars. Styled by Pininfarina with additions by BMC staff stylists, the basic vehicle was also sold under two of BMC's other marques as the Austin A99 Westminster and Vanden Plas Princess 3-Litre. Production began in 1959 and the cars were updated and renamed for 1961. The Wolseley remained in production as the Wolseley 6/110 through to 1968.

The cars were also marketed in Denmark as the Wolseley 300.

There were two other Farina-designed car lines launched by BMC at the same time — the compact Austin A40 Farina and midsized Wolseley 15/60 and derivatives. Although similar looking, the latter shares no body parts and few other parts with the big Wolseley.

Wolseley moved from Gerald Palmer's swooping curves to Farina's sharper angles. Interestingly, the Farina body looked its best in upscale form - so the Wolseley was more of a visual success than its Austin and Morris counterparts. The 6/110 was another BMC badge-engineering exercise, sharing its engine and bodyshell as the Austin Westminster and the Vanden Plas 3-Litre, with a few small alterations. The 6/110 boasted more power, improved handling from a Panhard rod rear end suspension set-up and, power-assisted steering. No wonder the police loved them.

Wolseley 6/110
The 6/99 was replaced by the Wolseley 6/110 in 1961. The wheelbase was increased by 2 inches (51 millimetres) and the seating slightly altered to give 3 inches more rear seat legroom compared to the 6/99. It used the same engine but now tuned to give 120 bhp (89 kW). For manual transmission cars, the gear lever was moved from the steering column to the floor. Hydrosteer variable ratio power steering and air conditioning were options from July 1962.

A Mark II model was released in 1964 with smaller 13-inch (330 mm) wheels and a 4-speed transmission with overdrive available as an option. Production of the Mark II ended in March 1968. Only the Austin was replaced directly, with the unsuccessful Austin 3-litre, which remained in production until 1971. Luxurious Wolseley and Vanden Plas versions of the 3-litre both reached prototype stage, but went no further.

CC rating: 2,912cc 178 ci (2.9L) C-Series I6

NZ First Registration: 26-Mar-1992