Austin of England

 

This Austin A30 was parked by the Esplanade in Terrigal today. I have seen it driving and parked around the town a few times recently. It is not on historic plates and it looks as if it is being used as a regular or even a daily driver.  

The A30 was manufactured by the Austin Motor Company from 1952 to 1956 when it was superseded by the A35. The A30 was surprisingly advanced for its time. It had a monocoque body and the newly designed 803cc A Series engine. By today's standards the performance was awful  (0 -100kmh was 42.3 seconds!) but in the immediate post war period petrol was very low octane so this was a major factor. I am sure the performance is better today with modern fuel although an egg timer is still probably useful for timing acceleration.

The A30 was assembled in Australia at the Austin Motor Company of Australia assembly plant in West Melbourne from KD ( knocked down) kits of parts shipped from England. At that time thousands of KD kits were being shipped all over the world by Austin and their major competitor, and later BMC partner, Morris. The kits were like IKEA flat pack furniture although unlike IKEA often parts were missing due to supply problems when the kits were packed. Local suppliers supplied parts such as tyres and batteries in more advanced markets such as Australia.

Standing on the street the A30 looks tiny. Look at the size of the Jeep in front of it. I cannot imagine driving it in today's traffic on a regular basis. Visualise trying to jump into a line of traffic or onto a roundabout with that sluggish performance. It would be frustrating for you and the drivers behind you. The brakes must be woeful by modern standards and as for safety and crash performance, well best not to think about it. 

What must it have been like to drive an A30 on Australian roads in the early 1950s? Outside the main cities and larger towns most of the roads were dirt. There was no airconditioning and tyres were poor quality so punctures were frequent. The headlamps would be like a pair of candles. If you hit a kangaroo it would probably come off in better shape than the A30.

 Imagine packing a family into that tiny car-with their luggage and camping gear and driving from Sydney to Terrigal. A journey of just 100km but back then there was no motorway only the very narrow, winding Pacific Highway and there was no bridge across the Hawkesbury -just a ferry with long lines of vehicles waiting to cross. "Are we there yet ?" would have been a very frequent refrain. It must have been a very long journey. 

An unusual curiosity and I would be interested to hear its full story.