My motoring life with
Austins goes right back to the dawn of my motoring journey, the far off days of 1987, when
mum inherited a 1960 A40 Mk1 from her Uncle down in Exmouth.
This was about the time I was
learning to drive on her equally venerable (and rare now) all steel Mini estate, another
fine BMC production, this time of 1966 vintage. Sadly GVU146E, a tartan red example of
Issigonis' classic little shopping trolley, no longer survives, but memories of the
steamed up sliding windows remain to this day. As the Mini was starting to fall apart, dad
decided that the A40 would make a fine replacement for mum's regular shopping trips.
However she hated the way it lurched around corners at an alarming rate (at least when
compared to the tweaked Mini I've mentioned) so she was none-too-reluctant in passing it
over to my custodianship, at about the time I took my test. I'm sure the only reason I
passed my driving test first time was that the examiner didn't want to renew his
acquaintance with this venerable old (seatbelt-free) Austin. So when I'd passed, I put the
old girl into immediate use, my red Triumph Spitfire being a
long way from hitting the road. 820FTT provided some characterful, if slow, 'A' level
student transport, and many's the time a note was pinned to the common room noticeboard,
requesting the old grey Austin be removed from the teachers' staff car park - needless to
say, these notices were largely ignored, 'cos I'd have had to park it out on the road,
with all manner of decaying rotboxes for company, which would never do.
Suffice to say, this A40 holds the record for being the longest I've
ever owned one particular car. I still have her to this day, currently semi-dismantled in
the garage, awaiting some TLC on the bodywork front. I must have put 30-40000 miles on her
when I was using the Austin as everyday transport, taking me all over the place, including
numerous visits to Wales, and autojumbles such as Newark over in Nottinghamshire. She's
taken part in many classic car shows, including some over in Llandudno (N Wales) and more
local events such as Tatton Park and Astle Park. Changes have been minimal over the 12 or
so years I've had her .. the crossplies were replaced with radials, and for a long time
she ran with a peppy 12G295 cylinder head, courtesy of a long-since departed MG 1100 that
dad had way back when summers were long and skirts were short :-) Occasionally she has
been semi-retired from frontline duty, when another vehicle has come on stream, such as
the Spitfire, or the XJ12L, but never has she been far from the
open road.
To aid her resurrection to glory, I've spent all the
time I've owned her hunting down spares that might come in useful one day. After 10 years
of looking I finally found a genuine BMC grille support channel, that had alluded me til
then. Also over the years I've acquired a new front section, sills, chromework, grille and
miscellaneous mechanical parts. However if anyone has some spare front steel wings
available, please let me know!!! I know they're rare, but somewhere someone will have
some!
March '02 update: Slow progress is being made to the metalwork up front, I removed the front valance
area last year, and have spent some time this last week cleaning up the area below the radiator, and fettling
up the new BMC repair panels I have had in stock for a while now, including a super-rare grille support channel,
a panel it took me the best part of 10 years to locate at an autojumble in 2000!
New: Are you interested in A40s? read my new Austin A40 Buyers Guide here!
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