To accommodate its larger six-cylinder engine, the 6/80 was 7 in (180 mm) longer than the 4/50.

It also had larger brakes with 10 in (250 mm) drums compared with the 9 in (230 mm) ones of the 4/50 The 'six eighty' was something of an anachronism, built in the traditional style that flagship Wolseley buyers loved, yet the underpinnings were intended to be almost cutting edge for an immediate postwar saloon.

It had prewar style radiator, centre hinged bonnet, split windscreen, small oval rear window, and traditional elegant styling with a hint of running boards, and from inside the driver sat in leather seats and peered over the Wolseley hallmark of a polished wood dashboard, down a long high bonnet to the flying W symbol – all dated features by the early fifties, yet it had a monocoque chassis, springless torsion bar suspension, twin telescopic shocks, column gears and powered by a feat of engineering in the shaft driven overhead camshaft big 6.

Wolseley had needed to produce a new p...