An important development following the formation of British Leyland in 1968 was to set up a complete styling studio, initially based at the Pressed Steel plant in Cowley and later merged with Longbridge studio. This gave the Austin-Morris division a central styling studio based on the American practice.

The first chief Stylist Roy Haynes, with his deputy Harris Mann, headed a team which styled a variety of Austin-Morris models from Marina to the Metro, as well as the TR7 sports car. One of the studio's first excercises in 1968-1969 was this show piece, the Zanda, which was also intended to demonstrate the Pressed Steel body plant's newly developed computer-aided design techniques. The Zanda was Harris Mann's concept of a sports car which would use the transverse power pack from the Austin Maxi to drive the rear wheels, an idea later revived as ADO 21, another intriguing project which might have become an MG. The Zanda never got further than this realistic mock-up, made of glassfibre reinforced ployester over the original clay model.

source: Heritage Motor Center