Peter Fletcher

  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact

Our burnt orange lemon

January 27, 2011 by Peter Fletcher

A Leyland P76 Super

It was Car of The Year in 1973, the Leyland P76. Motoring writers gushed with unbounded exuberance about the latest dream family car, available as it was with either six cylinder or powerful V8. The P76 was to be the new benchmark, the Aussie designed car that others were sure to follow.

The seventies never apologised for outlandish style. Men wore tight, purple flairs and equally tight-fitting floral body shirts. Women teased their hair and pulled on boots and short, short minnies. Kitchens overflowed with lime green and mission brown and burnt orange. The same burnt orange as our shiny new P76.

Ours was the Deluxe model. Its thumping 4.4 litre v8 motor could pull 60 miles per hour in a first gear. That’s what Dad said and he was proud of it! The big saloon could fit four across the vinyl bench seat in the front and even more in the back. This was a car designed in a big country, for big families.

The motoring writers got one thing right. The P76 had a big boot, so big in fact it could hold a 44-gallon drum with room to spare. We never tried that, but it was good for a few dogs, a sheep or two or even a couple of kids playing dare devil. It was our little game, to lock ourselves in the blackness of the P76 cave and feel our way to the release latch. Pop, and we were free.

While the motoring writers were being kind we were kind of cool. Car of The Year remember! But our status as cool was to be short-lived. Soon the writers turned, embarrassed by their poor judgement and over exuberance, branding the P76 a lemon.

I too jumped off the bandwagon, into an XP Falcon that had been rolled but still drove ok.

But Dad, a proud man, stubborn even, drove on, and on, and on. For 277 000 miles – that’s miles, not kilometres – he drove, proud behind the wheel of a burnt orange lemon.

Tweet

Image source: The Official APANA blog

Take a moment to share:

  • Tweet
  • Email

Related posts:

  1. The 5000/365 Report – Sunday Jan 30 January is nearly over and my blogging and stair-climbing is...
  2. My new computer I’ve finally done it – I’m now the proud owner...
  3. Closing in on 1000 As of Sunday my tally for the year is 920...
  4. 2012 – The year of Speed! 2011 was the year of Jacob’s Ladder. It resulted in...
  5. How a sore calf helped me write this post I’m nursing a sore calf. That means I’m not running....

Filed Under: Personal Tagged With: lemon, Leyland, P76

Comments

  1. Edwin says

    March 29, 2014 at 5:52 am

    I drove in that p76. It was sad that such enthusiastic acclamation was replaced by the tag.

About Peter

Speaker, trainer and coach. I write about living, loving and working better. Love a challenge. More...

Subscribe

Get the latest posts delivered to your inbox.

Recent Posts

  • Perth property market report
  • Mandating madness: The case against compulsory e-conveyancing
  • PEXA: Stop treating conveyancers like idiots
  • Page 1 of 365
  • Looking back, looking forward

Top Posts & Pages

  • Foucault on power relations
  • Why saying "You've got potential" can be the worst thing to say
  • Foucault on Confession
  • Blog
  • About Peter Fletcher
  • Contact
  • Altimeter Report: The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing
  • Deconstructing queer theory | Steven Seidman
  • Databases as discourse | Mark Poster
  • Business Coaching

Location

You can find me at Residential Settlements in Burswood.

5/170 Burswood Road
Burswood WA 6100

Let’s catch up

If you're ready to take your business to the next level, get in touch with me now.

Send me an email using the contact form or call me direct on 0419 538 838.

Connect

Connect with me on one of these social networks.
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021 · Agency Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.