In 1947, Austin produced two virtually identical chassis, one for the A110 and the A120, used by Vanden Plas to produce the Princess at their Kingsbury works.

Although Vanden Plas was by now wholly owned by Austin and much of the running gear and instrumentation was the same in the two cars, the Princess was the Austin flagship, with a higher specification leather, wool and burr walnut interior.

The original Princess was powered by a 3.5-litre straight six engine.

This was enlarged to a 4.0-litre unit without further modifications.

The Princess was often built to order.

Customers could specify the colour required and a range of different setups were available.

These included triple or single carburetors and twin or single exhaust systems.

Whilst the sportier multiple carb version performed better, it achieved only 12 to 14 mpg.

The single carburetor version gave slightly better fuel consumption.

Performance was good for a car of its size, with a top speed of 90 mph and acceler...