51-784: The Austin Westminster series are large saloon and estate cars that were sold by the British manufacturer Austin from 1954, replacing the A70 Hereford . The Westminster line was produced as the A90, A95, A99, A105, and A110 until 1968 when the new Austin 3-Litre took its place. Essentially badge-engineered versions of the Farina Westminsters were also produced using the premium Wolseley and Vanden Plas marques. 101,634 Westminsters were built. The Westminster name
102-452: A Borg-Warner overdrive unit was fitted as standard, or a Borg-Warner automatic transmission as an option. Power-assisted Lockheed brakes with 10.75 in (273 mm) discs on the front wheels were also new. An A99 saloon with automatic transmission was tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1960 and they recorded a top speed of 98.1 mph (157.9 km/h), acceleration from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 17.9 seconds and
153-548: A 6/110 version, and there was a Vanden Plas Princess Mark II with the C-Series engine, now uprated to 120 hp (89 kW). The same basic body was also used for a Rolls-Royce -engined Vanden Plas Princess , and the body even formed part of a prototype Bentley . The Westminster range was finally replaced by the Austin 3-Litre in 1968. 26,105 A110s were built. Saloon car A sedan or saloon ( British English )
204-578: A branch in Paris. In 1884 they moved from Brussels to Antwerp. With increased business they opened a branch in Brussels again in 1890. By 1900, they worked with De Dion Bouton, Berlier, Germain and Packard. By 1908 Carrosserie Van den Plas had a workforce of 400 men producing 300 special bodies a year, and that soon increased to over 750. The French branch ceased production in 1934 while the Belgian business
255-401: A car of this configuration is called a saloon ( / s ə ˈ l u n / ). Hatchback sedans are known simply as hatchbacks (not hatchback saloons ); long-wheelbase luxury saloons with a division between the driver and passengers are limousines . In Australia and New Zealand , sedan is now predominantly used; they were previously simply cars. In the 21st century, saloon remains in
306-425: A floor gearchange. The British Motor magazine tested a Westminster de luxe saloon in 1955 recording a top speed of 85.7 mph (137.9 km/h) and acceleration from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 18.9 seconds and a fuel consumption of 20.2 miles per imperial gallon (14.0 L/100 km; 16.8 mpg ‑US ). The test car cost £834 including taxes. The A90 designation had previously been carried by
357-679: A four-door station wagon from 1958 until 1960 in the Rambler and Ambassador series. In 1973, the US government passed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216 creating a standard roof strength test to measure the integrity of roof structure in motor vehicles to come into effect some years later. Hardtop sedan body style production ended with the 1978 Chrysler Newport . Roofs were covered with vinyl, and B-pillars were minimized by styling methods like matt black finishes. Stylists and engineers soon developed more subtle solutions. A close-coupled sedan
408-573: A fuel consumption of 23.0 miles per imperial gallon (12.3 L/100 km; 19.2 mpg ‑US ). The test car cost £1219 including taxes. The manual car cost £1148. A specially trimmed A99 was sold as the Princess 3-Litre , (note, not an "Austin" Princess – Austin was removed from Princess badging in August 1957 on the larger Princess IV ) and later under the Vanden Plas marque as
459-808: A plain Daimler Double-Six. Also in 1957/8, Vanden Plas were asked by Leonard Lord to add luxury fittings to a batch of Austin A105 Westminster cars, beginning the practice of using the company's skills and name for badge-engineered (and modified) luxury versions of many of the BMC (and later British Leyland (BL)) cars such as the 1100/1300 range and the Allegro (known as the Vanden Plas 1500, 1.5 & 1.7 from 1975 to 1980). The Vanden Plas works in Kingsbury , North London closed in 1979 and
510-513: A radio was still an option. Two tone paint and white wall tyres were introduced for visual effect. Very few short boot versions of the A105 were produced and they are now quite rare. The A90 was updated for autumn 1956 as the A95. Along with more power, the A95 was longer and now offered an estate model. Overdrive and an automatic transmission were new as well, something of a novelty in British cars of
561-574: A railroad train's club carriage (e.g.,, the lounge or parlour carriage). From the 1910s to the 1950s, several United States manufacturers have named models either Sedanet or Sedanette. The term originated as a smaller version of the sedan; however, it has also been used for convertibles and fastback coupes. Models that have been called Sedanet or Sedanette include the 1917 Dort Sedanet, King , 1919 Lexington , 1930s Cadillac Fleetwood Sedanette, 1949 Cadillac Series 62 Sedanette, 1942-1951 Buick Super Sedanet , and 1956 Studebaker . Sedans, as
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#1732800740832612-644: A roof. A one-off instance of similar coachwork is also known in a 1900 De Dion-Bouton Type D. A sedan is typically considered to be a fixed-roof car with at least four seats. Based on this definition, the earliest sedan was the 1911 Speedwell , which was manufactured in the United States. In American English , Latin American Spanish , and Brazilian Portuguese , the term sedan is used (accented as sedán in Spanish). In British English ,
663-422: A sedan can have four or two doors. Although the sloping rear roofline defined the coupe, the design element has become common on many body styles with manufacturers increasingly "cross-pollinating" the style so that terms such as sedan and coupé have been loosely interpreted as "'four-door coupes' - an inherent contradiction in terms." When a manufacturer produces two-door sedan and four-door sedan versions of
714-414: A specific category of automobiles, have had serious social consequences shaped by their design and use. Their compact and fuel-efficient nature has made them a preferred choice for urban and suburban settings, promoting individual mobility. However, this accessibility has contributed to increased urban sprawl and car dependency. Sedans, like other private vehicles, encourage dispersed living patterns, reducing
765-685: A subsidiary of the Austin Motor Company in 1946 and produced Austin's A120 Princess model on the Austin Sheerline chassis. From 1958, this began to involve chassis assembly and Austin, now BMC , recognised Vanden Plas as a motor manufacturer in its own right by dropping Austin from the name and so enabled Nuffield dealers to sell the Princess. In 1960, the Princess became the Vanden Plas Princess. Austin
816-587: Is a Stretch-Limousine . In the United States, two-door sedan models were marketed as Tudor in the Ford Model A (1927–1931) series. Automakers use different terms to differentiate their products and for Ford's sedan body styles "the tudor (2-door) and fordor (4-door) were marketing terms designed to stick in the minds of the public." Ford continued to use the Tudor name for 5-window coupes, 2-door convertibles, and roadsters since all had two doors. The Tudor name
867-534: Is a passenger car in a three-box configuration with separate compartments for an engine, passengers, and cargo. The first recorded use of sedan in reference to an automobile body occurred in 1912. The name derives from the 17th-century litter known as a sedan chair, a one-person enclosed box with windows and carried by porters. Variations of the sedan style include the close-coupled sedan, club sedan, convertible sedan, fastback sedan, hardtop sedan, notchback sedan, and sedanet. A sedan ( / s ɪ ˈ d æ n / )
918-457: Is a body style produced in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Their two-box boxy styling made these sedans more like crossover vehicles than traditional three-box sedans. Like other close-coupled body styles, the rear seats are farther forward than a regular sedan. This reduced the length of the body; close-coupled sedans, also known as town sedans, were the shortest of the sedan models offered. Models of close-coupled sedans include
969-423: Is a car with a closed body (i.e., a fixed metal roof) with the engine, passengers, and cargo in separate compartments. This broad definition does not differentiate sedans from various other car body styles. Still, in practice, the typical characteristics of sedans are: It is sometimes suggested that sedans must have four doors (to provide a simple distinction between sedans and two-door coupés ); others state that
1020-503: Is independent at the front using coil springs and wishbones and leaf spring and anti-roll bar on the live axle at the rear. The four-speed transmission has synchromesh on the top three ratios and from 1955 an overdrive unit could be specified. The interior, with leather trim on the de luxe version and PVC on the standard model, has a split bench front seat arrangement, although individually adjustable, which if necessary could seat three people abreast. When only two are carried there are, on
1071-684: The Chrysler Imperial , Duesenberg Model A , and Packard 745 A two-door sedan for four or five passengers but with less room for passengers than a standard sedan. A Coach body has no external trunk for luggage. Haajanen says it can be difficult to tell the difference between a Club and a Brougham and a Coach body, as if manufacturers were more concerned with marketing their product than adhering to strict body style definitions. Close-coupled saloons originated as four-door thoroughbred sporting horse-drawn carriages with little room for rear passengers' feet. In automotive use, manufacturers in
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#17328007408321122-534: The London Motor Show alongside the British business. In 1923 the rights to the name and the goodwill were purchased by the Fox brothers, who incorporated Vanden Plas (England) 1923 Limited. They moved the business from Hendon to Kingsbury and built on the contacts that had been made with Bentley . Between 1924 and 1931, when Bentley failed, Vanden Plas built the bodies for more than 700 of their chassis. In
1173-638: The Vanden Plas Princess . A Wolseley version, the 6/99 , was also produced. Production ended in 1961 with the introduction of the larger A110. 15,162 A99s were built. The final major update arrived in 1961 with the A110 Westminster. This version had an extended (by 2 in/51 mm) wheelbase, which allowed more space in the rear compartment as well as improving the roadholding, a floor-mounted gear lever. 13 in wheels were substituted in 1964's Mark II models. Wolseley produced
1224-620: 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 Vampire jet fighter. With peace in 1945, the company looked to restart its old business when a new customer came along. Austin wanted to market a chauffeur-driven version of its in-house-built large 4-litre Rolls-Royce-size A110 Sheerline luxury car and approached Vanden Plas. Vanden Plas became
1275-614: The 1630s. Etymologists suggest the name of the chair very probably came through varieties of Italian from the Latin sedere , or the Proto-Indo-European root " sed- " meaning "to sit." The first recorded use of sedan for an automobile body occurred in 1912 when the Studebaker Four and Studebaker Six models were marketed as sedans. There were fully enclosed automobile bodies before 1912. Long before that time,
1326-421: The 1930s the company became less dependent on one car maker, and supplied coachwork to such as Alvis , Armstrong Siddeley , Bentley, Daimler , Lagonda , Rolls-Royce and Talbot. The company also updated its production methods and took to making small batches of similar bodies. With the outbreak of war in 1939, coachbuilding stopped and the company returned to aircraft work, manufacturing the wooden framework for
1377-681: The 1948–52 Austin Atlantic . 25,532 A90 Six Westminsters were built. In May 1956, for a brief period only, a derivative of the A90 Six Westminster was announced which was a short boot version of the A105 and had the twin SU carburettor/102 hp version of the 2.6-litre C series engine with overdrive as standard. In October 1956 the A105 received the longer wheelbase with overdrive as standard and automatic transmission as an option. Twin fog lights, heater and wheel trims were standard although
1428-585: The A95 with different grille, trim, and badges and a bench front seat was assembled and sold in Australia as the Morris Marshal from 1957 until 1960. An A105 saloon with overdrive tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1956 had a top speed of 96.3 mph (155.0 km/h) and could accelerate from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 15.4 seconds. A fuel consumption of 22.0 miles per imperial gallon (12.8 L/100 km; 18.3 mpg ‑US )
1479-758: The Daimler brand in North America, as well as Jaguar. From that point, Vanden Plas was used in North America instead of Daimler on Jaguar's top luxury models. Ownership of the Vanden Plas name stayed with the Rover Group , so when Jaguar was sold off, it was obliged to stop using Vanden Plas in the United Kingdom, although it continued to do so in America. Within the UK a Daimler Double-Six Vanden Plas became
1530-406: The UK business was bought by The Aircraft Manufacturing Company which was based at Hendon near London. In 1917, Vanden Plas (1917) Ltd. was incorporated. After the war it seems to have been a struggle to get back into coachbuilding and in 1922 that company was placed in receivership. The exclusive UK naming rights seem to have been lost, because in the early 1920s the Belgian firm was exhibiting at
1581-462: The United Kingdom used the term to develop the chummy body, where passengers were forced to be friendly because they were tightly packed. They provided weather protection for extra passengers in what would otherwise be a two-seater car. Two-door versions would be described in the United States and France as coach bodies. A postwar example is the Rover 3 Litre Coupé . Produced in the United States from
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1632-464: The United States from the early 1950s into the 1970s provided at least a 2-door hardtop model in their range and a 4-door hardtop. The lack of side bracing demanded a strong, heavy chassis frame to combat unavoidable flexing. The pillarless design was also available in four-door models using unibody construction. For example, Chrysler moved to unibody designs for most of its models in 1960 and American Motors Corporation offered four-door sedans, as well
1683-522: The de luxe model, fold down centre armrests at the side of each seat. The de luxe model also has a central fold down armrest in the rear. The handbrake control is under the dash on the right hand side of the steering column which also carries the gear change lever. A heater is fitted as standard on the de luxe model but optional on the standard version. The Austin Motor Company also produced a brochure for an A90 Six Westminster police car which featured
1734-482: The density of communities and limiting opportunities for local social interactions. This can lead to a decline in neighborhood growth and an increase in reliance on cars for even short trips, increasing environmental and health concerns through CO2 and Greenhouse Gas emissions and reduced physical activity . Furthermore, while sedans are a practical solution for families and individuals, their role in encouraging road-centric urban planning has been criticized for reducing
1785-519: The front and rear of the Vanden Plas, complete with two tone paint scheme as sported by the original model in the 1960s. The last UK market British car to bear the Vanden Plas name was the Rover 75 at the beginning of the 21st century. 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
1836-407: The long-established names of particular motor races. In other languages, sedans are known as berline ( French ), berlina ( European Spanish , European Portuguese , Romanian , and Italian ), though they may include hatchbacks. These names, like the sedan, all come from forms of passenger transport used before the advent of automobiles. In German , a sedan is called Limousine and a limousine
1887-488: The marque switched to Abingdon. From 1982 to 1989, Austin Rover made upmarket Vanden Plas models within its Metro , Maestro , Montego and Rover SD1 and SD3 ranges. The name is also used in North America on Jaguar cars otherwise branded Daimler in other markets between 1982-2008. In 1992, a Japanese company recreated the Vanden Plas 1100/1300 look on the Nissan Micra K11. This involved replicating
1938-436: The mid-1920s to the mid-1950s, the name club sedan was used for highly appointed models using the sedan chassis. Some people describe a club sedan as a two-door vehicle with a body style otherwise identical to the sedan models in the range. Others describe a club sedan as having either two or four doors and a shorter roof and therefore less interior space than the other sedan models in the range. Club sedan originates from
1989-495: The name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group , being last used in 2009 to denote the top-luxury version of the Jaguar XJ (X350) . The business began in 1870 in Brussels, Belgium , initially making axles later producing horse-drawn carriages. It was founded by Guillaume van den Plas, a blacksmith, and his three sons, Antoine, Henri and Willy, who later set up
2040-521: The same fully enclosed but horse-drawn carriages were known as a brougham in the United Kingdom, berline in France, and berlina in Italy; the latter two have become the terms for sedans in these countries. It is sometimes stated that the 1899 Renault Voiturette Type B (a 2-seat car with an extra external seat for a footman/mechanic) was the first sedan, since it is the first known car to be produced with
2091-463: The same model range. Several sedans have a fastback profile but a hatchback-style tailgate is hinged at the roof. Examples include the Peugeot 309 , Škoda Octavia , Hyundai Elantra XD , Chevrolet Malibu Maxx , BMW 4 Series Grand Coupe , Audi A5 Sportback , and Tesla Model S . The names hatchback and sedan are often used to differentiate between body styles of the same model. To avoid confusion,
Austin Westminster - Misplaced Pages Continue
2142-536: The same model, the shape and position of the greenhouse on both versions may be identical, with only the B-pillar positioned further back to accommodate the longer doors on the two-door versions. A sedan chair, a sophisticated litter , is an enclosed box with windows used to transport one seated person. Porters at the front and rear carry the chair with horizontal poles. Litters date back to long before ancient Egypt, India, and China. Sedan chairs were developed in
2193-692: The side of the body; most bodies were in sombre colours such as black or maroon. The A99 Westminster appeared in 1959 with new Pinin Farina -designed bodywork. Pininfarina had also re-styled Austin's compact A40 and mid-sized A55 Cambridge ranges the year before. Under the bonnet was the 2.9 L (2912 cc) C-Series straight-6 engine with twin SU carburettors from the Austin-Healey 3000 . This engine produced 103 hp (77 kW) in Westminster tune. A three-speed all-synchromesh manual gearbox with
2244-472: The term hatchback sedan is not often used. There have been many sedans with a fastback style. Hardtop sedans were a popular body style in the United States from the 1950s to the 1970s. Hardtops are manufactured without a B-pillar leaving uninterrupted open space or, when closed, glass along the side of the vehicle. The top was intended to look like a convertible's top. However, it was fixed and made of hard material that did not fold. All manufacturers in
2295-448: The time. Both the A95 and A105 were produced together until 1959. 28,065 A95s and 6,770 A105s were built. The Westminster name was dropped from the sales literature for the A95 and the A105 although, oddly, the drivers' handbooks still used the name Westminster to title the illustration of the saloon. The estate version was named Countryman. Nevertheless, most enthusiasts still refer to them as Westminsters. A badge-engineered version of
2346-402: The viability of public transportation and active transport modes like walking and cycling. In cities heavily dependent on sedans, air pollution, noise, and traffic fatalities often increase, posing public health risks and environmental challenges . Vanden Plas Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly
2397-561: Was active until 1949. The coachbuilder's name first appeared in the United Kingdom in 1906 when Métallurgique cars were imported with Carrosserie Van den Plas coachwork. The first Vanden Plas company in England was established by Warwick Wright (now Peugeot dealers) in 1913, building bodies under license from Carrosserie Van den Plas Belgium. During the First World War UK activities were switched to aircraft production, and
2448-487: Was also used to describe the Škoda 1101/1102 introduced in 1946. The public popularized the name for a two-door model and was then applied by the automaker to the entire line that included a four-door sedan and station wagon versions. In the United States, the notchback sedan distinguishes models with a horizontal trunk lid. The term is generally only referred to in marketing when it is necessary to differentiate between two sedan body styles (e.g., notchback and fastback) of
2499-591: Was joined in BMC by Jaguar with its new subsidiary Daimler. Production of Princess limousines ended in 1968 when they were replaced with Daimler DS420 limousines (Jaguar had acquired 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. The British Leyland board decided in 1967 there were insufficient funds for marketing
2550-552: Was previously used by the Austin Motor Company in the 1930s for a four light version of the 16/6 and the Heavy 12/4 . The A90 Six Westminster was introduced at the 1954 London Motor Show at the same time as the small A40/A50 Cambridge saloon range. It used the new BMC C-Series straight-6 engine with single Zenith carburettor which, at 2.6 L (2639 cc), produced 85 hp (63 kW). The suspension
2601-406: Was recorded. The test car cost £1109 including taxes. The A105 was the first mass-produced Austin family car to be specially upgraded by coachbuilder Vanden Plas , following the success of the large A135 Austin Princess limousine. This was done after a personal request from Leonard Lord in 1957. Changes included significant new interior fittings, and a grey stripe bearing the "Princess" crown on
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