Wolseley 6/110
Top of the class
by Patrick Quinn

This month, Patrick is right at home in an English luxury car of the 1960s, the six-cylinder Wolseley 6/110.

Nineteen sixty-two was a period when the British Motor Corporation focused strongly on brand loyalty. More so in the UK than here in the antipodes, motorists would purchase the marque that their parents owned and probably stay with it for most of their motoring life. Motorists were very status conscious, as well. If your father had always driven a Wolseley, there was no way you would own an Austin or Morris. You might go up the status ladder, perhaps to a Vanden Plas, but never down.

The marketing staff of BMC were acutely aware of how the British motoring public thought, so they catered for all rungs of the status ladder. Morris for the motoring masses, then Austin, following by the more-upmarket Wolseley and then the Vanden Plas for those who wanted the ambience of leather and burl walnut. For those who wanted more sporting spice, there was the Riley derivatives or even the MG. The latter causing much chagrin to the deer stalker and flat hat brigade. There was always the exception, like when BMC tried to upgrade motorists' views of Austin with the release of the Princess line.

It seemed like excellent marketing at the time. Cater to marque loyalty, give purchasers the leather and the wood. More performance, too, if required. However, the bodies remained relatively the same and the mechanicals might be a little different ,with the addition of a second carburettor. Now, around 40 years later, we look back with the benefit that only comes from knowing what happened to the once-great British Motor Corporation. We snicker and brand it all as the worst excesses of badge engineering. However, for a time it worked and the order books were full to overflowing.

I don't know if Australian motorists of the period were as class-conscious as our British counterparts. Sure, we were very much interested in comfort and style. The Holdens of the day were available in differing levels of accoutrements, but to the average motorist, it was still a Holden. The same goes for the BMC cars of the period. You might have purchased a Wolseley because you liked the timber dash and leather seats, not because the guy around the corner had an Austin.
Today, it's a very different scene with vehicle owners acutely aware of the status underlying a BMW, Hyundai or a Lexus.

Passion
"I am passionate about older cars," said Mike Bristow, owner of our featured Wolseley 6/110. "My first older car was a P5 Rover but I let that go a couple of years back. I have been interested in Wolseleys for as long as I can remember because I have fond memories of an older Wolseley that my grandfather once owned. I made up my mind that I would keep my eyes and ears open for something suitable. I also joined the Wolseley club so that I would hear first hand when a suitable car came up for sale.

"Then, just on a year ago, I saw the 6/110 advertised for sale by the Toyota dealer in Seymour, Victoria, and I was on the phone immediately. They had just taken it in on a trade and would let it go for $2,000. I let them know that I was in Sydney and very interested in the car and managed to get the name of the previous owner. My next call was to the president of the Wolseley Car Club to see if he knew the car and the owner. Well, the car wasn't known but the owner had been a long-term Wolseley owner and I was told that if the car had belonged to him, it should be in reasonable condition.
"I didn't need any further assurances. Just a few minutes later, I was back on the phone to the Seymour Toyota dealer and said that I wanted to buy the car there and then. I think there was a little bit of scepticism on his side but that soon changed once I gave him my bank account details."

Reliability
"In just a few days, I was boarding a coach for Victoria to pick up the car," Mike said. "The trip back to Sydney was a dream. Actually I wasn't the slightest bit concerned about the car's reliability, especially after what I had heard from the club here in Sydney. There was no noticeable drop in oil, and the water level stayed the same for the whole journey. The only fault I noticed on the trip was a slight tendency for the car to veer to the left. This I later found out was caused by worn king pins.

"Cosmetically, I would say the car is fine. I'm not too sure of the correct name for the paint colour, but it's somewhere between the underside of a mushroom and perhaps a rose quartz. Whatever, the paint is just okay and some time in the future it will need a complete body and paint restoration.

"Mechanically, the car is in excellent condition. The engine is the same as what was fitted to the Austin-Healey 3000 and drives through a Borg-Warner B35 three-speed automatic. I have had a few mechanical jobs done over the last 12 months. Butler and Rudd at Brookvale organised for the twin SU carburettors to be rebuilt, and also fitted new king pins. Then I had the cylinder head converted to run on unleaded petrol by David's Auto at Wetherill Park in south-west Sydney."

Have a go
"I am the sort who will give anything a go," Mike said. "I wanted to give the Wolseley interior a lift, as most of it had suffered from water marks and the like. So I removed all the door trims, cleaned inside and then repainted it all with vinyl paint, including the hoodlining. Next came steam cleaning of the carpets and I changed that colour, as well. I was very pleased with the result.

"There was a bit of rust in the rear guards that I had repaired by a panel beater friend, and I had a go at the rust inside the two front doors. I managed to touch up the paintwork with some paint that was colour matched by another friend. It will do for the moment but the body does need work and a complete respray, as it's mostly covered by crow's feet. I just love fiddling with the car and getting various things to work properly. Last week, I pulled the fuel gauge apart and managed to get that working. Next comes the clock, which I have removed and will pull apart."

Learning curve
"Owning the Wolseley is very much a learning curve for me," Mike said. "It's got just 55,000 miles on the clock and I have given it just one oil change since buying the car. I wasn't too sure what was the correct type of oil to use, so I wrote to Penrite and they came back with a most helpful response. Then I visited Coventry Auto and managed to purchase six oil filters, which was every one they had.

"I know it's a lot of work and will cost quite a few dollars but I am very keen on returning the car to showroom condition and then I'll enter it in concours, shows and the like. In the meantime, I use the Wolseley about once a week. The Wolseley Club is very active and there are events almost every week. It's great to get together with other enthusiasts."

Taking care
For expert advice on taking care of the Wolseley 6/110, we had a word with Eric Rudd of British car specialist Butler and Rudd. Eric started his career as an apprentice working on British cars and remembers the larger BMC six-cylinder cars with some affection.

"They are really no different than most British cars of the 1960s," Eric says about taking care of the Wolseley. "The 6/110 has the three-litre 'C' Series engine block that was fitted to the Austin-Healey 3000. However, the cylinder head is different and is what's called the gallery head, which features an in-built inlet manifold. It's the same head that was fitted to most of the 2.6 and 3 litre 'C' Series-engined saloons. The transmission is the excellent Borg-Warner B35 that was also fitted to the Wolseley 24/80 and Austin Freeway. If anything, I think it's a bit light for the heavier 6/110.
"The body is the same as fitted to the Austin A110 and Vanden Plas Princess, although the Wolseley version is more upmarket than the Austin and not as far as the Vanden Plas. With a little care, cars like Mike Bristow's will give him many years of enjoyable motoring.

"We replaced the king-pins on Mike's car. You would think that the front end should be the same as most BMC cars of the time, such as the big Healey, but such parts as the king-pins are unique to the Wolseley and others, like the Austin A110 and A95. We had no problem sourcing those parts but some are getting a little difficult to find, especially the Lucas electrical components that are unique to the Wolseley, and its timber dash.

Servicing
"Regular servicing is very straight forward," Eric said. "The oil should be changed every 3,000 miles and the filter every second time. Plugs and points should also be changed at 10,000-mile intervals. While the automatic transmission is a little light on, an annual service of adjusting the bands and changing the filters and the fluid will ensure it continues to give good service. There are also quite a few grease nipples that have to be attended to regularly, even monthly if the car is used frequently.

"Like most British cars of the period it's important to keep an eye out for rust. Metal clips were used to hold the windscreen surround and chrome strips and even from new, the clips would scratch the paintwork, with rust forming over time. The door bottoms, sills and floors should be regularly checked as well.

"Mike's Wolseley is a pleasure to drive but could do with power steering, as it's a bit heavy. All in all, it's a good car."

Thanks Eric. Sadly we don't see that many of the large BMC saloons on the road these days. Pity, for in their day they offered sensible and comfortable motoring. Come to think of it, they still do.