1. Austin A60 Cambridge - Registration KJC 692
It doesn't seem too many years ago that a drive around North Wales would provide sights of Farina-designed classics in regular use with their (usually) elderly owners at the helm. Go now and nearly all have gone. Most Austin Cambridges (and other BMC Farinas) have disintegrated thanks to rust, and most of the others destroyed in banger racing 'events'. KJC 692 was quite a new car when this photograph was taken, although perhaps not new enough to prevent a minor leakage of coolant under the front of this one. Still, no problems for the owner of this classic Austin, as he's a paid up AA member if the grille badge is anything to go by - assuming he'd renewed his membership!
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Pininfarina did the main styling design work for BMC, echoing many of the design elements that he'd also apply to Peugeot's 404, another of his creations. The Austin A55 had been a success for BMC, but by the late 50s it was looking a bit long in the tooth, and needed a re-vamp. BMC employed Farina to draw up a design that would go on to be adapted for a number marques in the BMC stable. The A55 Cambridge Mk2 hit the dealerships in 1959 (an example of the A55 Cambridge Mk2 here), the first of the larger Austin Farinas (the A40 had been launched the year before).
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In 1961 the revised A60 Cambridge was launched, with an enlarged 1622cc B series engine, and a tweaked body line, most obviously a trimming-back of the pronounced rear wing fins of the first cars. The car shown below looks like just such a beast to me, being an early-ish example of the A60 Cambridge (this model continued to 1968). A volumous estate version, known as the Countryman, was also sold but in much lower numbers than the saloon, resulting in good survivors being quite thin on the ground. Other variations on the large Farina them included the Morris Oxford, Wolseley 15/60 and 16/60, MG Magnette, Riley 4/68 and 4/72, and even the stretched Westminsters and larger VDP 4.0R Princesses.
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2. Austin Cambridges old and new(er).
Thanks to Graham for this next photograph, in which a brace of Austin Cambridges that belonged to his parents are parked, at a jaunty angle alongside a narrow track. To the left is an A40 or A50 Cambridge, registered MSF 796 (note the stick-on demister panel in the rear screen). Compared to the previous A40 Somerset model, the A40/A50 Cambridge was an altogether boxier offering, although nothing like as square-jawed as the car that went on to replace it - the A55 Cambridge Mk2, which gave way after a couple of years to the version shown here, the Austin A60 Cambridge. This black example was registered HOV 542E, purchased new from the Birmingham Co-Op at the beginning of 1967. As with the earlier car featured below, the new A60 in Graham's photo also had a wing mirror on the driver's side only.
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Return to Old Photographs of Cars - Page 4.
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A photo featuring an A60 Cambridge parked alongside a Morris Minor, can be seen here. Memories of working on an A60 in the early 1960s, sent to the Motoring Memories section of the site, can be read here.
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