1971 Austin Tasman & Kimberley: Design to Driveway
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1971 Austin Tasman & Kimberley: Design to Driveway

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By DavidBurrell - 04 February 2025

The 1971 “X6” Austin Tasman and Kimberley were designed by Australian David Bentley.

Retroautos® is privileged to showcase David’s initial X6 styling proposals from his private collection.

These sketches, many of which have never been published before, reveal that the X6 range of cars could have comprised a six-seater, six-cylinder, front wheel drive, family sized sedan, stationwagon and hatchback.

The sketches also prompt the question: what might have been the future of the British Motor Corporation Australia (BMCA) had the X6 sedan, wagon and hatchback have been released instead of the only the X6 sedan and, later, the P76?

David Bentley in his design office
The Leyland X6 Kimberley

David‘s design career began in 1960 at BMCA as an apprentice. His training program included working in the design office, adjacent to BMCA’s styling studio. David told me that:

“It was a dream of mine to work in the styling studio. In 1963 Romand Rodbergh was the newly appointed head designer. He had been hired from Holden and I was selected to join him as his assistant.”

As I highlighted in my Retroautos® story about Romand Rodbergh, and his pivotal role in design the P76, styling was not a high priority for BMCA nor BMC. (There is a link to the Rodbergh story at the end.) BMC’s technical director, Sir Alec Issigonis, made his view very clear in a 1964 interview with the New York Times. He said that as an engineer he revolted against car styling.

Sir Alec Issigonis stands beside his three creations

As a result of this indifference, BMCA’s styling studio was very rudimentary. David Hardy, another former BMCA designer, told me that:

They just didn't think of it (styling) as anything except what you do at the end to dress it up.”

(David Hardy was interviewed for the Shannons’ Design to Driveway series. There’s a link at the end.)

Further demonstrating the low priority given to styling, no designer was a member of the decision-making committees that oversaw product planning and colour/badge/trim/upholstery selection. In the book The Secrets of Style, which David Bentley co-authored with David Hardy, Tony Cripps and John Holt, it was revealed that one member of the colour selection committee was colour blind.

The Secrets of Style is a must-read book about car design at BMC and BMCA 

David Bentley clearly recalls his first task when he arrived in the styling studio.

“Romand thought BMCA’s colours were drab. My first work was the seats and colour trim for the 1964 Wolseley 24/80 and to develop new exterior colours and new vinyl materials for interiors for other models.”

The interior of the Wolseley 24/80

During 1965 Rodbergh and Bentley created sketches and scale clay models of three and five door hatchbacks to replace the Morris 1100. When shown to their engineering bosses they were told they had wasted their time. The hatchback idea later emerged as the 1969 Morris Nomad (which had been developed in the UK for BMCA) and the BMC’s Austin Maxi.

The Nomad and Maxi hatchbacks appeared five years after David and Romand suggested the idea for BMCA

Another rejected project was a considerably thicker steering wheel for the 1100, as part of a new facia design. David Bentley recalls that an engineer could not see the need for the thicker wheel, telling him that:

“Everyone steered the car with the spokes, not the rim.”

David also assisted in the design of the Austin 1800 ute, where he enabled the tailgate to be almost full width by rotating the Austin 1800’s horizontal taillights to vertical. It solved a problem the engineers had been pondering for weeks.

BMCA publicity photo captures stock being fed from an 1800 ute. I’m sure I’ve seen this farm worker recently

In 1966 David won a Rotary scholarship to study design at the Birmingham College of Art and Design. While at the art college he worked at BMC UK’s Longbridge (Birmingham) design studios. BMC also had another design studio in the old Morris facility at Cowley, Oxford.

In mid-1968, while David was working on the Austin Maxi project at Longbridge, he was sent to Cowley where he was tasked with completing the X6.

The X6 was being shaped in the UK because BMCA’s design studio was too rudimentary. The project had been started by Harris Mann, who was now fully occupied with the Morris Marina.

Mann had joined BMC from Ford UK in mid-1967, having been recruited by BMC’s new design chief, Roy Haynes, also an ex-Ford designer. Mann spent 15 years at BMC. His design legacy also includes the 1969 Zanda concept, Triumph TR7, Princess and Allegro.

Mann’s Zanda concept car was portrayed as the future design direction for BMC. The Princess’s styling was based on the Zanda concept

Right from the beginning of the X6 project, BMCA insisted that it be based on the Austin 1800, because it was to be a stop gap car until the P76 arrived. To save money they wanted the maximum carry over of the 1800’s structure, especially the doors, glass and pillars.

If anyone was in doubt about the X6’s limited life, then Modern Motor confirmed it in their December 1969 edition when it ran scoop photos of the X6, a year ahead of its release. They said:

“The car is, we're told, only an interim model, and will be followed a couple of years later by what has been described as a ‘really sensational sedan’ ".

BMC’s chairman Lord Stokes confirmed the Modern Motor story in a Sydney Moring Herald report, dated 24th January 1970, when he revealed the development of the P76.

Stories printed in Modern Motor and the Sydney Moring Herald confirm the temporary status of the X6

Mann, however, wanted to make major changes. To hide the 1800’s contours, lighten its heavy appearance and add “visual” width, Mann flattened the bonnet, pushed the headlights out to the edge of the fenders, created a narrow grille and thinned the bumper bars. He reshaped the doors, changed the fenders, enlarged the glass areas and lowered the roof line. And that was when David was called to Cowley by visiting BMCA executives.

A selection of Harris Mann’s sketches for the X6
More of Mann sketches, which would have dramatically changed the appearance of the X6

The BMCA executives were not impressed with Mann’s ideas, and with him now focused on the Marina, it was David’s task to re-align the design with the original brief. He also sketched a wagon and hatchback, which never progressed beyond what you see here.

David’s proposals, in side view. They adhere to most of the Austin 1800’s overall structure, yet provide enough differentiation
These sketches reveal David’s efforts to make X6 look as wide and as low as possible within the 1800’s structure using multiple horizontal creases and headlights located at the ends of a narrow grille
Wagon alternatives. One suggests a raised roof with windows, similar to the Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser wagon

What David’s sketches reveal is a tantalising glimpse of an alternative Australian automotive landscape, circa 1971-72, with BMCA’s family sized, front wheel drive, six-seater, six-cylinder sedans, wagons and hatchbacks competing with Falcons, Holdens and Valiants.

These side views sketches show the variations possible within BMCA’s tight requirements. One has a definite Rover P6 appearance, with a sloping front end and finned rear fenders

Perhaps BMCA’s future would have been very different had they had given styling the priority it obviously needed, had they been able to retain talented designers like David Bentley and had they focused on developing the Tasman/Kimberley range—sedan, wagon and hatchback—instead of cloning the Holden/Falcon/Valiant.

All that exist of the X6 hatchback idea are these drawings

In late 1968 after completing the Tasman/Kimberley, David returned to Australia. Not convinced there was a future career with BMCA he resigned and joined Carl Neilsen’s design consultancy. Later, he worked at Hunters Douglas designing aluminium furniture. David then established his own consultancy, where he had a long association with Jakab Industries developing specialist vehicles for the armed forces, ambulances and Australia Post. Together with model maker Stuart Phillips he developed after market body kits for Mazda, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. In 1977 Leyland Australia commissioned him to design and build the Grand Turismoke concept car, based on a Mini Moke.

David’s Grand Turismoke during construction and at the Melbourne Motor Show

David also created sketches of the P76 for Wheels magazine in 1974, when editor Peter Robinson, asked him how the car could be made more appealing with minimal changes. David then contributed a series of design evaluation stories for Wheels. In the early 1990s David transitioned to his other passion, boat design. His marine design consultancy is now known worldwide.

What I find impressive is what David was able to achieve within such tight restrictions demanded by a company that did not believe styling was important. It is tribute to his design capabilities that the 1800 and X6 look so different, and that he was able to do so much with very little.

A comparison between the 1800 and the production Tasman/Kimberley reveals how much David was able to achieve with so little room to move. It is a testament to his design capabilities

More reading and viewing on Shannons Club about the X6 and P76.

Romand Rodbergh: P76 designer

David Hardy: Leyland Australia—Design to Driveway

Classic Garage: X6 Tasman and Kimberley

Racing Garage: X6 Tasman and Kimberley

Retroautos® is written and published with passion and with pride by David Burrell. A special thanks to David Bentley and David Hardy. All stories and images in Retroautos® are copyrighted. Reproducing and/or downloading them in any format is prohibited. Retroautos® is a registered trademark. Reproducing and/or downloading it in any format is prohibited.