Vintage streetscape shots are always in demand here, so if you have any, please post them at the Cohort. This fine one was posted by John Lloyd, and he says it’s in some suburb of Melbourne “around 1974”. So what have we got here?
The main attraction is of course the very handsome Mazda Luce (aka: 1500/1800), built between 1966 and 1972. It was penned by no less than a young Giorgetto Giugiaro, then working at Bertone. It’s one of the finest sedans of its kind at the time, and could easily be imagined with an Alfa Romeo grille on the front. This car really put Mazda on the map, and I saw several of them in Vienna when I was there in 1969, my first sighting. Apparently some small numbers of them were sold in a few select places on the West Coast, like in Washington, and perhaps California, as Mazda was first testing the waters on the other side of the Pacific.
The white car is an Austin Kimberly, an Australian development of the 1800 “Landcrab”, with an E-series six cylinder. No, the price is not $100; that’s how much the down payment was.
On the right is a Rambler; these were assembled locally at the time. And on the left is a Ford XA GT, at least according to the comments left at the posting.
Nice cars and photos indeed, thank you. I always wondered what Australia looked like before the Toecutter, Lord Humungus, and Aunt Entity took over the place from the pox-eclipse.
Left to right, HT Holden Mazda 1800 Luce Austin Tasman/Kimberly, Rambler. Oddy enough the 1500 and 1800 Luce share nothing mechanically even the axles have different splines. NO Falcons present in that photo.
The Mazda looks like a Triumph Dolomite with the roofline from BMW 1800. The BMW like roofline looks so much better than the vynle top on the Triumph.
Dollies had the C pillar covered in vinyl from the factory, the roof covering was optional.
It strange that they had such a treatment on a sports sedan. Too bad Mazda didn’t have a 16 valve engine like the Dolomite Sprint. Leaves the Mazda all show, no go. A Mazda guide I have quotes R&T mag as the car doing 0-60 in 17.5 seconds with a top speed of 85. This was with the manual 4sp. Nice wheels though, Wolfrace?
Mazda had an SS of these, but it wasn’t much chop. They were also considering a rotary, but only the FWD coupe got that.
No hump on the bonnet makes this one a 1500.
Aunger wheels
Good eye… I had the same reaction. Wouldn’t take much to place a BMW grill on it and be briefly convincing as a “mini” Braveria.
Wonderful simplicity of line, cohesive shapes. Would love to see a car today with that kind glass area. Can we have that back please?
Thanks for the pictures and the story.
I don’t think the Mazda made it to the UK but I found an Austin Kimberley in Blackpool in the late 80s in the Stanley Park area.It was sharing the garage space of an American car fan with an orange 440 6 pack Superbird.
I’m afraid I never paid much attention to the Kimberley when there was a Superbird to check out.I’ve never seen another Kimberley since though from what I’ve read it was a dud(of which there were many) from Australian Leyland.
A school friends parents bought a Kimberly to replace their rusting 66 Chev Impala lucky for them they didnt trade the Chev as the Kimberly spent more time at the dealers having faults rectified than at home, turns out it was kinda typical.
The Kimberley looks very staid compared to the competition. I can’t imagine Mad Max,AC/DC or Rose Tattoo ever being in one.
Considering it used Those Doors, it could hardly help looking staid!
Oh dear,”Let’s use as much from the old car as possible and hope no one will notice” A BL deadly sin that made it down under.I was secretly hoping that Australian Leyland had a few great cars but they seem to have had as many flops as BL
Easy to understand because the doors are one of the most expensive parts of the car body to engineer.
Wasn’t there a version of the Kimberly sold in the UK, perhaps a Wolesley?
There was a Wolsley 6 cylinder land crab,also Austin & Morris versions.
Gem, the Kimberley/Tasman was actually just a new nose, tail and C-pillar on the old 1800 body, with a more conventional dash and the E-series six up front. Trouble was, the Big Three cars were much bigger and better-looking. The Austin duo kind of fell between two stools size-wise, as well as driving the ‘wrong’ wheels and having a reputation for being hard/expensive to work on.
Shame that BL didn’t pick up the Aussie body from us.
I photographed a Kimberley parked next to my work a few weeks ago; full article coming soon!
Thats what I’d call a find, Ive not seen one since finding CC.
Nice. I reckon the Alfa shield grille would have spoiled the face of the Mazda. Bryce is right; HT Holden not XA Ford.
The Mazda’s design was originally “commisioned” by Alfa, but they decided to pass on the design.
BTW, count me as another fan of vintage street sides.
I’ve got an in depth piece coming up soon on the history of this design. There’s no evidence it was an Alfa commission. It’s possible Alfa got first dibs on it and passed, but the piece will show that this was never really going to be accepted by Alfa.
And a wagon in the wild … today! Can’t help but see a four door 3.0 CSi in the sedan.
Rarely see these now, quite a spot of luck finding a wagon.
KJ in Oz
$100 for a Kimberley/Tasman? It might have just been the deposit, but that was all it was worth! Those Mazdas were hardly a great drive but at least they screwed them together well, and were easy on the eye….
Look a lot like the Alfetta Sport Sedan, also Giugiaro, I believe.
The Mazda’s a 1500. 1800s had a scoop on the hood. The Austin’s a Kimberley; you can tell from the lights visible through the Mazda’s windows. Tasmans had two round headlights, a wide grille and IIRC no chrome side strips.
BTW, the Mazda’s number plate would be about a ’76 issue, definitely later than ’74. My October ’74-built Cortina got an IAG plate.
AMC Rebel 1967-70 sold as a Rambler Rebel in Aus. A mid sixties wagon is reflected in the window maybe an HR Holden.
The Mazda 1500/1800 was also quite common in the Vancouver area when I was growing up there.
That car absolutely screams early 70s Bavaria.
Take away the distinctive Bimmer grill and you have a 1972 Fiat 124 Coupe front end.