'All the fives' was the Maxi's high technology tag line when launched - with a five door hatchback body and five speed gearbox, Austin's new mid-range fighter really did seem to have it all.
Sadly, the technology might have been there, but the executive was a little less than marvellous, and this avant garde car failed to sell as a result. During its twelve-year production run, it did win quite a few friends, though...
Five-star car misses the boat
HE Austin Maxi was created out
of the desperate need to replace the ageing Farina
saloons, which had been selling steadily since their launch in 1958. Originally,
the
ADO17 had been conceived for the task, but due to a certain amount of project
drift Alec
Issigonis' final solution proved too large and too fast – and weren't really
up to the task of replacing these important mid-liners. Sadly, the Oxford and
Cambridge
saloons were fighting a rearguard action against the Ford
Cortina – but didn't have the armoury to do the Ford-fighting job their
long production run had forced them into.
When it became clear the ADO17 was not selling, a plan was put into place. BMC decided the only way forward was to produce a brand new car to fill the gap between ADO16 and ADO17.
Serious work on the new car began in mid-1965 – and before the Maxi's project code of ADO14 was dreamed-up, it was known internally as the ADO16 3/8. The implication of that tag was obvious – the new new car's wheelbase was roughly three-eights of the way between the two cars, exactly 100 inches.
Of course, it didn't long for this agreeable baseline to fall apart. The first major decision (taken by George Harriman himself) to upset the applecart, was to use the 1800's doors. They might have been effective doors, but pretty they weren't, and more worryingly, their use would force the new car's wheelbase close to 106-inches – massively longer than the Cortina.
More alarmingly, it also meant all Austin-badged cars between 1.5- and 3-litres would feature similarly styled centre sections.
New engine, new factory...
ADO14 would result in being an project because of the adoption of a new engine and gearbox. Any money saving measures adopted in the design of the body would have quickly been negated.
A requirement in any effective Cortina-fighter needed to be an engine range spanning 1.3- to 1.5-litres. This ruled out the A-Series stright away - as it had only recently been stretched to 1.3-litres in the Mini Cooper, and engineers felt that was the limit of development. Reflecting BMC's bold ambitions of the time, it was decided that an all-new engine was needed. As Alec Issigonis headed up the project, nothing less than cutting edge would do - so it featured an overhead camshaft and plenty of upgrade potential an anticipation of future events.
As the marketing department were forecasting sales of 6000 Maxis a week, it was decided the new engine needed a new factory to build it - located at Cofton Hackett, near Longbridge. The site of the plant was exactly right (Cofton Hackett is on the main road out of Longbridge), but sadly, the planning was all wrong.
The engineering of the E-Series engine was compromised in order to facilitate upward expansion – Issigonis decided upper range E-Series engines should have an extra pair of cylinders, not more engine capacity, as more usually the case. That meant it needed to be ultra compact in order to fit transversely into the engine bays of BMC's front wheel drive range. Engineers facilitated this by the adoption of siamesed cylinder bores, meaning there was no water jacketing between the pots. This design had advantages, but it meant the four-cylinder version was seemingly stuck with a 1500cc ceiling.
A change of tack
During
the early stages of development of BMC's Cortina fighter, George
Harriman decreed the company would no longer enter into direct competition
with Ford - a statement which immediately rendered the ADO14 as it was developing
redundant.
Turning a set-back into an opportunity, BMC engineers took decided to radically alter the focus of the new car. Because ADO14 was no longer a Cortina rival, the 1.3-litre version was abandoned. All further development would be concentrated on the 1485cc E4- and 2227cc E6-Series versions. Hindsight has us ruing this chain of events - had the 1.3-litre version remained, it would have resulted in a 2-litre E6 engine – perfect for products British Leyland would subsequently offer.
ADO14 would also become a high-technology showcase for BMC's capabilities - and that led to the decision to design a five-speed gearbox, the famous hatchback rear end, and its adaptable and spacious interior. Product Planners were beginning to see a British version of the Renault 16, and liked what they saw, because it was better – having benefited from several years' further development over the 1965-vintage Renault.
Those doors
A closer look at the rear of the four-door Maxi bodyshell
A major problem for ADO14 designers was how to give it a palatable style when it had been lumbered with those ADO17 doors. The result was an unappealing situation which made it almost impossible to make the new car significantly smaller than the ADO17 (that car that was already blessed with compact front and rear overhangs).
That resulted in a crisis of confidence over the ADO14's looks - and along the way, it received a couple of hasty makeovers.
The first was in 1967. When became clear British Motor Holdings (BMC's parent company, since the purchase of Jaguar in 1966) was deep in the mire, Joe Edwards ended up poring over the company's affairs. When it came to the ADO14, he came to the conclusion its looks simply didn't add-up, and was well-aware of the commercial significance of the new car, and that the whole future of BMH may hinge on its success.
Because of this, he ordered a restyle of the front end. Ex-Ford Design Director, Roy Haynes was tasked with giving the ADO14 a more definite identity – and landed it with a suspiciously Cortina-esque grille and headlight arrangement. Edwards could not order the designers to go any further because, the majority of the body panels had been signed-off and Pressed Steel was already in the process of building body presses.
The car would not prove to be the saviour of BMH.
As events transpired, the ADO14 ended up being the first car launched by the newly-formed British Leyland Motor Corporation. When Donald Stokes took over the ailing company in January 1968, he looked at the Maxi and decided it needed more work to be made a saleable proposition. That resulted in its second pre-launch facelift. So little could be done by this point, all that was chaged was the interior – giving it some semblance of habitability - and some very minor exterior detailing.
Making it all work...
Stokes
drafted in Harry
Webster (cruelly pushing Issigonis aside in the process) from Triumph to
put right what he saw as the ills of Austin-Morris. Prime suspect on that list
was the Maxi.
So many faults were identified by the new management that Harry's team would end up having their work cut out trying to make good and mend the Maxi. Top of the list of problems for many was the new car's appalling cable-operated gearbox (pictured left). In the end, the engineers did much pre-launch tinkering to make the gearbox work, but knew that curing its ills would neccessitate a new linkage design.
These weren't the only problems – by December, Webster was also hearing loud and clear from his engineers the message that the 1485cc E-series engine wasn't up to the task of shifting the Maxi's bulk. He tasked them with developing more a powerful version (not an easy task given the unconventional nature of the engine block design), and this would take time.
As with the adoption of new gear linkages, the 1748cc variation of the E-series engine would need over a year to be made production-ready and ended up adding £1 million to the final cost of the ADO14 development programme.
Stokes agonized over the Maxi, questioning whether it should be launched at all. But in the end he decided there was no option but to push the 'launch' button; the car needed to go because of all the investment ploughed in to the new Cofton Hackett engine facility.
So, the laughably optimistic product planning by BMC back in 1966 had saved the new car's bacon under the auspices of BLMC's new management regime - ironic really. Stokes pushed forward with the launch - pencilling in a date Spring of 1969. Webster's modifications would have to wait until it was feasible to incorporate them as a series running improvements to the Maxi.
Getting Maxi off the ground
Like the Mini and 1800 before it, the Maxi was designed in a very functional way. It is a pleasing shape in retrospect, but in the style conscious 1960s, it was not what buyers wanted. (Picture kindly supplied by Graham Arnold)
The influence of Roy Haynes' ex-Ford design principles are clear to see in the Maxi's interior. Unlike Issigonis' earlier offerings, the Maxi interior was more obviously design-led. In fact, it was almost a clone of the designs offered by Ford at the time. (Picture kindly supplied by Graham Arnold)
In terms of marketing the Maxi, it would fit in perfectly with the plans that Stokes had for the Austin marque and how it fit into BLMC overall strategy.
BLMC's management was not shy in coming forwards with a long list of the sins of BMC in the past, the chief among those being that of badge engineering. In August 1968, the policy was set in place by Stokes that no new British Leyland cars would be badge engineered. Within the group, Austin's role would be to represent the high technology end of the market whereas Morris would be developed into a marque that produced cars to fight Ford head on.
Because the ADO14 fitted into the former category perfectly, it was an obvious candidate for the Austin namemplate, and therefore was introduced to replace the Austin A60 only (the Morris Oxford would have to live on for another two years). In his heart of hearts, Stokes knew that the Maxi wasn't good enough, and his strategists were telling him so: their projections were that the Maxi would - at best - take a 4 per cent share of the UK Market.
But by this time, it was envisaged that the car would only be in production for a few years, to be replaced by the sweeping range of new Leyland-engineered cars.
Mixed reception from the press
And here it is - the Maxi's raison d'etre: the huge, practical and versatile boot. Here was an area that the Maxi had an advantage over all its rivals, including the vivacious Renault 16.
As it was, the Maxi was launched in Estoril, Portugal in May 1969 and it was immediately apparent a new management regime was running the show. Harry Webster briefed the assembled journalists on the Maxi's finer points, and not the old 'Austin' design team. Webster had his work cut out selling the Maxi to the assembled press, and this was to prove even more traumatic after they actually drove the new car.
To say that the initial driving impressions were underwhelming is an understatement: journalists came away with the distinct feeling that not only was the Maxi was underpowered, it also suffered from heavy and low geared steering. The failing that overshadowed all others, though, was the appalling gear change: of course, the Maxi offered the advantage of a 5-speed gearbox, but the badly engineered cable operated shift resulted in a bad gear change. Many testers were left with the uneasy feeling that they never really knew whether it was going actually slot into gear or not. Gearchanging should never be stressful – in the Maxi, it was.
Nevertheless, these shortcomings aside, the Maxi was an interesting concept with a great deal to recommend it. For a start, it was wonderfully commodious. Like the Issigonis-engineered cars that preceded it, the Maxi was blessed with keen roadholding and tremendous ride quality. Unlike its older counterparts, however, the Maxi was also a quiet and long-legged motorway cruiser, thanks to its overdriven top gear. Unlike its principle rival, the Renault 16, the Maxi’s hatchback arrangement was straightforward in the extreme. It also had the added advantage of being able to fold all the seats down flat (to make some kind of lumpy double bed).
All that the Maxi really needed in order to become a good car was more power, an acceptable gear change and, most importantly, a well-styled body.
Project Aquila: the stylish Maxi.
This design produced by Chris Field as a result of a 1972 Daily Telegraph young
designers competition was based on the Maxi's running gear. This design proposal
was made-up into a full-size car(below). Although BLMC donated the Maxi, the
exercise still cost the newspaper a cool £26,000. If the idea that the Maxi
was an excellent car crying out for a more stylish body, it is most potently
demonstrated here. Also, note the striking similarity between this car and a
1977 sketch
for the ADO99 project by Harris
Mann.
Buyers didn't love it, either...
Unfortunately, the Maxi was greeted with total apathy from the British car buying public – and it is easy to see why. For a start, most people failed to understand the Maxi; it was a great concept let down by fairly fundamental detailing, not least the styling. Whereas the Cortina (despite what Harriman may have decreed, it was a rival to the Maxi) was crisply-styled and was availble in a multitude of options, the Maxi was a one-model show: 5-doors and 5-speeds, take-it-or-leave-it...
By the end of its first year on the market, the Maxi was being produced at a rate of 400 per week; a far cry from the 6000 originally envisaged. Because of its undoubted failure, and the new management's disapproval of the car, the planned lower-priced down-spec (possibly Morris-badged) four-door saloon version was dropped. The Maxi four-door was developed in parallel with the five-door car, but when it came to it, the cost of bringing the car into production would prove prohibitive – especially as the Marina was looming on the horizon.
Maxi HL looking good – and although the cosmetic adjustments over the original 1500 were small, engineering changes transformed the car.
Eighteen months later and after a lot of back-room work on the car, the 1750cc E-series version of the Maxi appeared, along with the new rod-operated gearchange - and at that point, the Maxi started to come good as a car. The new version was no less odd-looking and the steering was just as heavy and low-geared, but at least the Maxi now had a reasonable turn of speed and one could now engage gear without the constant fear of wrong-slotting it.
But in reality, as far as Maxi development was concerned, that was about it: the twin-carburettor Maxi HL appeared later on, including a useful hike in power to 91bhp. Beyond that, the Hydrolastic suspension was replaced by Hydradagas and in doing so, the Maxi was brought into line with the rest of the Moulton-suspended range. Finally, in 1980, the Maxi was further, cosmetically facelifted – new bumpers, wheeltrims and interior trim brightened the car, but did not significantly improve it. It was left completely untouched to battle through the Seventies – and it has to be said that although the Maxi never sold in any great numbers, settling down to a steady 20-30,000 a year in the UK, it did pick up a loyal following in the UK.
The Maxi catered to the family man who needed space aplenty and as such, there were few cars that could offer anything approaching its space efficiency. Most car magazines tended to view the Maxi as a small estate car and so, its appeal was unfortunately severely compromised – those that did not and compared it with the Renault 16 (the Maxi's only real rival during its life) found it wanting in too many departments to mount an effective challenge to the charismatic French car.
Looking at the size and weight of the Maxi, it is actually shorter and lighter than the 1998 Ford Focus, but manages to have considerably more room inside – which demonstrates that BMC certainly knew how to obtain the most interior room for any given package. That is manages to beat the Focus – state of the art in 1998 – for packaging speaks volumes for the concept. The ultimate shame for British Leyland was that although the concept of the Maxi was fundamentally a good one, its execution (especially at the start of its life) was quite simply, rubbish.
Maxi 2 incorporating cosmetic improvements appeared towards the end of the car's life, in 1980.
British Leyland could have rescued the car by redesigning the body and interior and pushing this redesigned Maxi as a product to sit in the range where the Allegro finally ended up. The reason for this abandonment of the Maxi is easy to see – it was seen as a product of BMC and, therefore, something from the past - and by the time of its launch, the newly installed British Leyland management was already busying itself planning for the launch of the new company's first car: the Morris Marina.
As Alec Issigonis himself said in 1964, an advanced design only becomes a successful one when, others copy it for themselves.
The fact that so few rival designers produced an answer to the Maxi speaks volumes about the car.
1969 Austin Maxi 1500 in "Outdoor pursuits" mode
Maxi Production figures (Cowley)*
| 1968/69 | 1969/70 | 1970/71 | 1971/72 | 1972/73 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,294 | 27,618 | 35,742 | 62,783 | 55,357 |
| 1973/74 | 1974/75 | 1975/76 | 1977 | 1978 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41,639 | 33,132 | 43,983 | 32,479 | 38,567 |
| 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | Total produced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 27,490 | 15,778 | 12,435 | 450,297 |
* Calendar of years:
1968/69 to 1974/75 (October to September)
1975/76 (October 1975 to December 1976 – 15 Months)
1977 onwards (January to December)