Talbot Avenger: the last version of the Hillman Avenger

The Talbot Avenger was the name the Hillman Avenger carried from 1979 to 1981, after PSA Peugeot Citroën bought Chrysler Europe. The Avenger itself was a conventional rear-wheel-drive small family car engineered by the Rootes Group, sold since 1970 under the Hillman, Chrysler and finally Talbot names.

Talbot Avenger at a glance

The Talbot Avenger is the final version of the Hillman Avenger; based on one source (English Wikipedia).

History of the Talbot Avenger

The Avenger project was conceived in 1963; Roy Axe received his styling brief in 1965 and engineering began in 1966. It is a five-passenger car with two- or four-door saloon and five-door estate bodies, front engine and rear-wheel drive. As a completely new design it was conventional, straightforward and economical: the saloon was distinguished by its four doors, chair-height seating, four-link coil rear suspension and J-shaped “hockey stick” tail lights. It was one of the first cars to use computer-aided design for its unitary body and one of the first to address growing safety requirements, with a rigid passenger compartment, a front crumple zone, strengthened windscreen glass and a heavily padded instrument panel.

After its press introduction in Malta in early 1970, the car was built at the Rootes plant at Ryton-on-Dunsmore near Coventry, with bodies and panels shipped by train from Linwood in Scotland and powertrains from Stoke; manufacture moved completely to Linwood in 1976. Rootes sold the car as the Hillman Avenger from 1970 to 1975, then as the Chrysler Avenger from 1976 to 1978, and finally as the Talbot Avenger from 1979 to 1981. It also spawned badge-engineered variants around the world, including the Plymouth Cricket in North America, the Dodge 1800 and Polara in Brazil and the Volkswagen 1800 in Argentina.

The range grew over the years. At first there were four-door DL and Super models with the 1250 or 1500 engine and a 1500 GL; the GT arrived in October 1970 with a twin-carburettor 1500, and was replaced by the GLS with a vinyl roof and Rostyle wheels in October 1972. Five-door estates came in March 1972 and a two-door saloon in March 1973. In continental Europe the car was marketed first as the Sunbeam and later as the Sunbeam Avenger in some northern markets.

Despite its conventional underpinnings the Avenger was successful in motorsport. It won the 1971 Press-on-Regardless Rally in Plymouth Cricket form, the British Group 1 Rally Championship in 1975 and 1976, the British Saloon Car Championship several times and the 1976 Heatway Rally of New Zealand. By the time UK production finished in 1981 about 790,000 had been built; by 2016 fewer than 260 were reported to remain in use in Britain.

Design and features

• Straightforward engineering: a conventional front-engine, rear-drive layout with a coil-sprung live axle.
• Early CAD and safety work: computer-aided design for the body and a front crumple zone.
• Three badges: sold as Hillman, Chrysler and finally Talbot within eleven years.
• Motorsport record: rally and saloon-car championship wins in the 1970s.

Talbot Avenger versions

• Hillman Avenger (1970–1975): the original Rootes-badged range.
• Chrysler Avenger (1976–1978): the same car under Chrysler Europe.
• Talbot Avenger (1979–1981): the final PSA-badged version.
• GT and GLS: twin-carburettor 1500 models with the sportier trim.
• Estate and two-door: added in 1972 and 1973.

The Avenger sat below the Talbot 180 in the range, and its Rootes stablemate was the Talbot Sunbeam. More cars are in the Talbot collection.

Sources

• Hillman Avenger, English Wikipedia: development, models, production, motorsport