In 1973, Leyland Australia announced that a range of new Leyland cars would replace all former Austin and Morris cars.  The Morris Marina was renamed the Leyland Marina and given four and six cylinder versions of the E series engine.  To compete with the locally produced Ford Falcon, Holden Kingswood and Chrysler Valiant there was to be a new Leyland car, for the Australian market alone, which was to be the Leyland P76.

Development work on the P76 began in 1969.  The development budget of A$21 million included the cost of refurbishing the production line.

One of the early prototypes was a front wheel drive car based on the Austin 1800 but using a Rover V8 engine.  This prototype did not proceed further; however, as it was considered to be mechanically too complex and its handling left a lot to be desired.  Following this experiment, the front engine, rear wheel drive format was decided upon.  The car was developed in both Australia and the UK in a joint operation and an engineering prototype was seen on the MIRA test track at Nuneaton.

Giovanni Michelotti styled the car, but Leyland Australia redesigned the front and rear ends – the rear end of the car was and still is the least popular aspect of the vehicle. The story goes that a Leyland executive saw the P76 plans, decided it needed a bigger boot and drew one on it there an then.  The P76's boot is large enough to take a 44-gallon oil drum - and you can still close the bootlid.

Leyland Australia’s financial position was worsening as a result of falling sales and P76 came to be the car that would make or break Leyland Australia.  When P76 was released in June 1973, Leyland Australia had accrued losses of A$30 million.  Management, however, were confident that P76 would be a success.

The car was offered with a choice of either the 6-cylinder engine used in the Kimberley (enlarged to 2622cc) or a V8 engine based on the well-known Rover engine (enlarged to 4416cc).  On paper, it looked as if the V8 was underpowered when compared to those of Holden, Ford and Chrysler but, as the car was considerably lighter than its competitors, it more or less matched their performance.

The names given to the paint colours make interesting reading.. They were:

• Am Eye Blue
• Aspen Green (Metallic)
• Bitter Apricot
• Bold As Brass
• Corinthian Blue
• Country Cream
• Crystal White
• Dry Red
• Hairy Lime
• Home On Th'Orange
• NV Green
• Nutmeg (Metallic)
• Oh Fudge
• Omega Navy (Metallic)
• Peel Me A Grape (Metallic)
• Plum Loco
• Spanish Olive

WHEELS magazine said in July 1973, "P76 is the most important new car this year….  for Leyland it is the most important car in the company's history.  It has cost $21 million and taken 500,000 miles of development and five years to get into the showrooms."   In a road test in the following month’s magazine, WHEELS said that "if Leyland Australia can't sell the new P76 in profitable quantities, then there is something wrong with the average new car buyer" adding that “once the assembly problems are overcome, the P76 is going to be a very good car."

The car was well equipped, with power assisted ventilated front disc brakes (still optional on its locally designed rivals), side impact protection bars in the doors and concealed windscreen wipers.  It was also comparatively light for a car of its size, so performance was good, especially with the V8.  Demand rapidly exceeded supply at launch, but quality control problems and strikes at component supplier reduced the number of cars sold.

Leyland Australia planned to extend the range by adding a P76 station wagon and a P76-based coupe.  There was also to be a new model developed from the Marina, which would be powered by an alloy V6 engine developed from the P76 V8.

In January 1974, the P76 V8 was named the 1973 WHEELS Car Of The Year.  "The totally new Leyland sedan emerged as a remarkably fine motor car," the magazine article read.

There were, however, problems – strikes and power cuts and a steel shortage delayed production and Leyland had to stockpile cars due to unavailability of parts.  And then the 70’s oil price rises encouraged the large car market to shrink.

The timing couldn't have been worse.  As well as the rising price of oil, there was a credit squeeze and to top it off, the cost of car imports, notably from Japan, was reduced to curb inflation.  British Leyland had problems of its own back home, so it was not in a position to offer financial assistance to help bail out Leyland Australia.  Faced with mounting debts and no prospect of help from the UK parent company, Leyland Australia went to the wall within 16 months of the P76 launch.  The Australian Government paid $25 million for the factory and for the remaining unsold cars, many of which ended up as State or Local Authority transport.

There was to have been a two door coupe version of the P76, known as the Force 7.  By the time Leyland Australia collapsed, 56 of the coupes had been built.  The Force 7 was a sporty hatchback with a huge load area and fold down rear seat.  All but 10 of the coupes were scrapped when Leyland Australia folded.  All the others were stripped of their mechanical components and the body shells were destroyed.  One was sent to Leyland in the UK for testing and another went to the Birdwood Mill Museum in South Australia.  The remaining eight were auctioned to the public in 1975.

There were also plans for a P76 station wagon.  One factory prototype of the station wagon survived.

The P76 was an excellent and advanced design, which, if circumstances were different, might have led Leyland Australia out the red ink, but it wasn’t to be.  The P76 was taken out of production in late 1974, when mounting financial problems led to the closure of the Leyland Australia factory at Zetland.

12,524 P76 sedans were produced before the Leyland plant in Sydney was closed.