Wolseley 6/99 – a wonderfully British 50s classic car

Wolseley 6/99

The Wolseley 6/99 came in to replace the Wolseley 6/90 and was specced to suit the Wolseley customer who liked the bigger cars in the range.

The car, which hit forecourts in 1959, was a slightly different beast for Wolseley because for over 25 the brand had worked with Morris cars – deriving their cars from their current line up – but for the 6/99, they went with the Austin A99 Westminster shape.

I think the Austin was 10% cheaper – the highs and lows of badge engineering in full swing! In 1959, the car is advertised as being priced at £1,325 – 14 shillings and a tuppence.

Although the A99 was cheaper. There was also the VDP Princess which shared this body shape and that was more costly, which puts this delightful Wolseley we’re testing today squarely in the middle of the price bracket; well, if you’re going for civilian spec of course!

It was specced with the 2.9 litre C-Series six cylinder engine which gave 103bhp and was advertised with a top speed of 98 miles per hour, however, when Autocar put one through its paces in 1959, they managed to get 101 miles per hour.

Gearbox on this one is the Borg-warner auto which would’ve cost extra on a civilian car. On a standard car, you’d get 3 speed Borg-warner column change with overdrive.

You’ll see when we go out driving that this is no speed queen and the 0 to 60 is advertised at 14.4 seconds but Autocar reckoned they got 17.2 seconds with an overall MPG of 17 miles per gallon. Advertised I believe was 19 miles per gallon.

The car also offered Wolseley customers something different with the styling and design because this was the first top Wolseley with a unit-construction Monocoque body chassis coupled with Farina styling.

The car was also fitted with the independent front suspension/live rear axle combo which was expected by Wolseley customers – this was something they’d become accustomed to on the cars and worked well.

I comment on this on test later on, but it pulls up smartly because it’s been designed with discs to front and drums to rear – for those unfamiliar with this era of car – it was commonplace to have drums all round. Heck, there are cars in the 70s still sporting drums all round – so to have discs to front is quite the boon for the driver.

I also bemoan the vague steering later, which although is no worse than a lot of other 60s cars, was something people commented on at the time. It’s a cam and lever system on this.

Being only available for three years on paper, but not quite 36 months, it’s not surprising the production run is low – with just over 13,000 made in the three year life cycle.

The 4 door saloon body shape we’re testing today is the only shape available – being one of the large cars in the range the car was never sold as a two door variant.

The car was replaced by the Wolseley 6/110

Hello I’m Steph from my driver classic and today we are testing quite the classic because we are out in a Walley 699 now this is a rare bird anyway because they were only made from 1959 to 1961 this one’s in the middle because it’s from 1960 and you’ve probably

Noticed from the police signs on the front that it might not be your typical Walley 699 this is a police Metropolitan replica car and unlike a lot of the ones you see in films and on TV they seem to have really vital details missing this is an incredibly good replica it even

Has a zip in the headlining so I think today we’re going to get a really good feel for what it’s like to be out in a police car of this era and if you’ve noticed the gong and you’ve noticed all the bits don’t worry we’re going to demo

Those for you today as well I also just need to apologize that the filming might be a little bit more wobbly than usual because my gimbal has giving up the ghost on the way here and after driving 3 hours here I thought I’m not going to

Cancel the footage we’ll just push on so if you do know this it’s a little bit wobbler than usual I do apologize but hey look it’s a brilliant car I think you’re going to thoroughly enjoy it and let’s kick off with a walk Round the Walley 699 came into a place

The Walley 690 and was spect to suit the Walley customer who liked the bigger cars in the range the car which hit the Four Courts in 1959 was a slightly different Beast for Walley because for over 25 years the brand had worked with Morris cars so essentially what they did

Was we talk about badge engineering they would take whatever Morris had been working on and they would derive their cars from the current Morris lineup and create the Walley lineup but for the 699 they did it slightly differently because they broke with tradition and they went with the Austin A99 Westminster so

Basically took it and they ran with it however the Austin was 10% cheaper which is one of those highs and lows of badge Engineering in full swing and if you’re wondering how much the wasley was in 1959 the car is advertised at being priced at £ 1,325 14 Shillings and a tence I

Realized that this is a 1960 car and it’s a police car but I’m not entirely sure how much a 60 car would have cost but those are the 59 prices for you there although the A99 was cheaper there was also the vam BL princess which also

Shares this body shape and then that was more costly than the wolsley which then puts this Walley that we’re testing the $699 right smack bang in the middle of the price bracket well that’s if you’re going for the civilian car of course now this car has been specked out and all

The A9 699 were speced out with the 2.9 L C Series 6-cylinder engine it gives you 103 brake horsepower and it’s advertised with a top speed of 98 miles hour however autoc car put one through its Paces in 1959 when it was launched and they managed to get 101 mph so not

Too shabby the gearbox on this one that we’re testing here today is the Bor Warner automatic which if you’ve gone for that on the civilian car would have cost you extra on a standard civilian car you would have got the three-speed Bor Warner column change with overdrive

Now you’re going to see when we go out driving that this is no Speed Demon and the 0 to 60 is advertised at 14.4 seconds but auto car reckoned it was coming in at around 17.2 seconds on that 0 to 60 with an overall MPG of 17 m per

Gallon advertised I think they said well wolsley said you were going to get around 19 mes per gallon so there’s not really too much in that the car also offered wolsley customers something different with the styling and design because this was the first top wolsley with a unit construction mono body

Chassis coupled with the frea styling so a slight break from tradition all around really for the Walley customer but Walley customers were quite happy with it they quite liked it now the car was fitted with independent front suspension live axle combo now this was expected by wolsley customers because this was

Something they’ve been accustomed to on Walley cars for quite some time and was working quite well and now I do comment on this on test later on but it does pull up very smartly and that’s partially because it’s been designed with discs to front and drums to rear

Now for those of you that unfamiliar with cars of this era it was common place to have drums all around I mean goodness me there were cars in the 1970s still sporting drums all around so to have disc to front is well quite something for the driver and it’s quite

A thing to comment on for the time I also bemon the vague steering later on even though it’s quite common place for the era and it’s really no worse than a lot of other 60s cars but actually it was something that people commented on at the time with these and it’s a cam

And lever system on this car being only available for 3 years on paper but not not fully quite the 36 months that you get in three years it’s not surprising that the production run on these is low there were just over 13,000 made in the life cycle of the car now the four-door

Saloon body shape that we’re testing here today is the only shape available which is worth commenting on and being one of the large cars in the range it was never sold as a twodo variant it’s only available for a short amount of time and it was then replaced by the Walley 6

110 well I’ll tell you what we don’t get to go out and replica Vehicles very often and they’re never as nice as this there is so much thought attention care and detail put into this and it’s been really good fun not only driving it but finding everything and learning a little

Bit of History along the way now when I talk about that attention to detail we have got to start with this ZIP in the roof lining it’s a really good giveaway if you ever look at a vehicle and you want to work out quickly if you think it

Probably definitely was a police car or not you should have that zip in the headlining unless it’s being replaced um a lot of Morris Miner police vehicles used to get decommissioned repainted and quite often it’s one of the first giveaways that someone is in an old police car no anyway I’m rambling along

There’s lots to show you in this this is one of the most interesting cars we’ve taken this year now first of all I want to start with this radio so I don’t if you can see that at home there I love how it’s really been put together so

Thoughtfully now this would have been in use originally when the car was new and it would have lived over there and essentially one of the things I need to make clear as we go through this because you’ll see that you can’t reach everything as the driver is that going

Out in this vehicle was a Twan job and each man had their job so you’ve got your driver and he’s responsible for making sure you get to the criminal get to the incident and essentially don’t hit anything along the way and then you’ve got your second man sitting here

Now his job is just as important as driving because he’s responsible for talking through the radio communicating he’s also responsible for everything from your gong which we’ll explain in a minute right through to even tracking the speed which is uh why your speed out is angled away from you but let’s get

Into that in just a minute so you’ve got your radio there so your transistor radio telephone works with the box that you probably saw in the boot when we were looking around the inside of the car now this one sadly is decommissioned in this car however it

Still is sitting in here so it’s a nice detail to have and it would have originally worked with this box now this box was illuminated This little light up here that’s quite nice isn’t it so if they were out at night they could still see everything however all is not lost because

Because we have the backup and this does actually work now I said to Andrew the owner I said I’d love you to come on camera today but he said Stephanie I’m far better suit as being behind the lens today than in front of it and I said no

That’s fine but you must do a voice over so without further delay here’s Andrew demonstrating um the replacement transistor radio telephone attention people this is a message alien spacecrafts have been found under dunon green this is a message from the police car of authority obey the wolsley

And beware all Teddy Boys what a fantastic voice say and oh it just brings it to life now coming into the center let me show you what else we’ve got we’ve got the torch here now this is something that would have been in the car originally and then something that

You won’t be able to see right now is we’ve also got the original fire extinguisher and these were issued on all government issue Vehicles because I’ve got a disability vehicle in my fleet and that was issued with a fire extinguisher as well so it’s really nice that it’s still in here because quite

Often when you saw Vehicles taken out of use government vehicles they would strip stuff like that out um so it’s very rare that it’s still inside here so again just these little details that make it go from a nice card to a really special thing indeed you’ve got your switch for

Your police lights and that illuminates the plate at the front that says police so you can see that there and it also illuminates the plate at the back so I guess if you’re a criminal trying to get away least you had a bit of a faint idea because those bulbs aren’t the brightest

You’ve got your heater controls up here now these are fitted as standard into the vehicle um so in a civy car you would have had your heater as standard um because this is a police car and they’re saving a few quid um or Shillings that isn’t in here um and

You’ve got a clock in the middle there and we talk about what else is missing from a civvy car you’ve got no radio either so you won’t be listening uh to the Hit Parade as you drive along you will be needing to focus on the job in hand however

Quite often police when they were out and about would put all their cigarettes their matches everything else into their scraps of paper so it just became almost a pseudo glove box coming over from there you’ve got your amateur and you’ve also got this speedone now again I love

The fact that it’s angled away from the driver and it’s angled to the passenger so he needs to be looking and tracking that and there’s just a little reminder there of the car number as well the identifying number I just really like all the history inside here and I hope

You like it too I’m such a history geek so my thing and you know what I’ve just realized I realized that I haven’t demonstrated my favorite thing on this car which is the gong so just press this button here so sounds like my old school bell

Now the gong is what came before the two-ton siren I need to be need to be right with these facts now the gong was replaced in the metropolitan police force in the mid 1960s by the two-ton siren but there’s also a weird crossover period where you get both the gong and

The two-ton siren in the car and essentially the police had a bit of a rough guide on when to use each of them so the gong would have been for the Lesser staff so maybe getting somebody to move out the way or giving somebody a bit of a warning maybe somebody wobbling

About in a bike or somebody up to something in a car that they shouldn’t be almost to say wait you and then the two siren was for chasing down those bank robbers or getting to the scene of a crime nice and quickly and alerting people to the fact you’re there but in

This era we just have the gong again isn’t it nice and it’s still in here and it’s still connected and we can hear that coming in front of us we’ve also got the horn the horn sounds rather Majestic have a little listen God I love an old horn and then

On this we have an automatic transmission so it’s the bog waterer unit in this and you’ve got Park neutral drive low gear and reverse all very straightforward you’ll see it demonstrated when we go out for a little drive and you know what it does actually make driving quite pleasurable not

Having to fiddle around gears as we go also means you get your bench seat in here as well let’s get it started up so you can hear what she sounds like now I know on the 690 you’ve got the trafficators but on this you’ve actually got your flashing indicators as

You would expect on a more modern car unfortunately the little bulb inside here is gone but they are working sorry I’m ning away just have a listen have a listen from the outside too and then we’ll crack on out for a Drive right we’re about to go on our adventure don’t worry about seat belts there aren’t any in here which is why you’re not going to see me wear one um and apologies if it is a wee bit wibbly wobbly because we are relying on man power to hold the camera today and not

Gimbal power but bear with us because you’ll probably get a trer representative of what it is like to be sitting on that back seat so let’s Go now I must confess to you all at home this isn’t my first Ro IO with this car because a couple of years ago Andrew showed the car at Silverstone classic and he said oh Steph I’ve been given a chance to take around the track will you

Take around for me I said of course I will never driven this car in my life and the first thing that struck me and usually I get my first impressions bang on and for me I need to try and remember how I felt back then but I just remember

Getting in and thinking hey this car’s really easy to drive because bear in mind it’s over 15 ft long and 5′ 8 in wide well just over 5′ 8 in and I was a little bit intimidated because I thought that’s going to feel like a big old bird

But actually when you get into her and you’ll see as I turn there the steering’s not incredibly light but it’s not too bad she’s very very easy to drive and become a climatized to very quickly if you’ve driven a lot of older 60s stuff you’ll know that

Steering isn’t always as precise as you you might get in a modern car I wouldn’t expect it to be so it’s about where you would expect a 60s car to be it doesn’t feel Antiquated either now the one thing I will say is if you’ve ever seen a 699

Before you’ll probably notice that the dash in this is slightly different that’s because you know we were talking about the Austin and we were talking about the vandom pl this vandom plus sorry this has got the Austin Dash because that’s how they spec out the police cars so even though it’s got wle

B they still got that Austin layout inside which is from the lower car in the range but hey it doesn’t really touch any of the driving enjoyment although I would like a heater now as we come around I guess one of the things that I felt when I was at

Silverstone and one of the things I feel now is I really wish I had a pillow to sit on because the seats are about an inch or two to low for me to see over and I feel like a child driving dad’s car today because half the screen I can

See through the steering wheel down here and half it I feel like it’s up here but one of the things that you do get with this that I think you would probably get at any height is a really good degree of driving confidence straight away because

With that curved glass and we talk a lot about curved glass flat glass soon as they swap over to curved you get a lot more visibility and these thin pillars here it’s a really great time for motoring actually and the thin pillars to the back mean that you’ve got almost a 360°

Visibility for the car and you’ve got the wing mirrors as well so even though she’s big and that can feel slightly intimidating at first it doesn’t really it doesn’t really impede the Driving Experience because you’ve got so much visibility and you can see everything and you can gauge how big the vehicle is

And that makes everything so much easier the driving along I did think we’d perhaps have a bit more speed now even when I put my foot down if I can get it here yeah so look even as I put my foot down I’m just making sure I don’t break that speed limit

There um it doesn’t feel as powerful as I expected but perhaps if you have the manual box you might get a bit more Choice over your gears and then you get it feels a bit more powerful as you come along there’s something else I must mention which isn’t related to Driving

Experience at all is this Speedo which is the police Speedo and has been calibrated as such just one of those little things that I forgot to mention as we were talking through now in terms of your stopping power which comes to a stop very sharply

You can tell it’s a car that’s had a lot of money spent on its maintenance it drives so nicely and so well Andrew’s really taking good care of her um and also we are attracting a lot of attention today um and I love that because it would be remiss of me to make

This video and not me mention the fact that a lot of people probably know this car because it was in so many dramas TV programs and all the rest of it that were screened all over the world so when people see this car or bring back memories of things like carry on cab

Carry on cabie um well the carry-on series could you see the wolsley police car and that and I think it was that which cinched the deal for Andre it was those for memories that made him say that’s definitely the car for me and you know what it’s attracted so

Much attention that we had a man in a Maserati slow down earlier and he rolled down his window and was just smiling and staring at the car and it’s just Lovely isn’t it because you bringing back those memories for people and you get to experience it and it’s I’ll tell you

What it’s a blooming lovely car to drive because as you drive along there’s no rattles there’s nothing flapping about there’s no wind coming in through the side windows and stuff like that because you know what cars at Sia are just really real quality even the cheaper ones Walley cars were never cheap cars

Anyway they were Walley was a name that was favored by people like bank managers solicitors it was a quality name it was a name that people put a lot of trust into and they were so well built at the time but even now taking it out in

Today’s world in 2023 decades after it was made it still feels like a quality car the materials that it’s been made with have held up really well this really is and I’ve talked a lot about this in recent videos cars of this era were built and made so that people could

Keep them for far longer than they probably should have been on the road they were Quality Cars they were built to last this was when buying a car driving a car was special things weren’t just mass produced and you do feel that from the quality of the steering wheel

That’s in my hands to the driving experience as we come around these little country roads and it’s just so pleasurable and that’s why I love cars in this era for me this is a gold near of Motoring because they’re cars that are fast enough that you can keep up

With modern traffic you can fix it at home you see you can sort out bit yourself there’s a really great Community out there of like-minded people that not only remember the vehicles from brand new but also have owned them and so they’ve got plenty of experience with them and that I don’t

Know all of it culminates together to form such a brilliant experience with cars like this and I just I guess I wish that more people felt that passion because they are so easy to drive they are so easy to maintain there’s really no excuse for more of us not picking up

The keys to stuff like this now I think I’ve probably covered off pretty much everything I feel like I’m pulling us down memory lane now if you are looking to buy Walley the owner clubs are incredibly supportive I’ve met a lot of them at shows they’re very

Active there’s a great amount of support there so if you are looking for something with a Walley badge on the front of it whether it’s a $6.99 or something a little bit more commonplace like one of the volle badged Ado 16s don’t be put off by the age of the

Vehicle don’t be put off by lack of knowledge brilliant support is out there for you now that’s it for me today I’m going to be uh taking this lovely car home I guess I should probably mention as well the suspension as we come over these horrible roads because it’s very

Good indeed but yes anyway back to uh back to the point of the video it’s been a real pleasure having you alongside me today out in this vehicle um um I’ve had good fun I hope you’ve had good fun looking at it but until next weekend

When we’re doing a bit more on the marina in our Ruster recovery series and we’re taking out another car on test take care and drive safely