BL SPORTS CARS It may have been responsible for some alarming automotive own goals but the BL era also generated some of the most iconic British sports cars. Say the phrase, ‘British Leyland’, and often it is met with dismissive sighs or a mocking chuckle. It’s true, BL was hardly a bastion of good business practices, but it wasn’t all just beige Allegros and workforce strikes. In fact, despite the common narrative, the marque did have a few moments to be proud of, and arguably most of them were performance cars.
The MGB, for example, is one of the best-selling sports cars of all time. Meanwhile, on the ‘grand tourer’ end of the spectrum, Jaguar’s XJ-S was conceived while the Big Cat was on BL’s leash, and despite a tricky…