And now for something competely different

[coop12g295]

As I mentioned in Technical I now own an A40
The car is a 1960 mk1 sal 1 lady owner from new and 70000 miles
its been garaged for the last 20 years since she died i've only had
it a week and its already running.Its a bit quirky as it has had hand
controls from new throttle and servo clutch on right of wheel brake is
an arm up from the floor on the left of the seat.I'll get some pics soon

[austinisuseless]

Despite my user name , I have always liked the old Austin A40. My uncle used to buy wrecks and used to help him take them apart and recycle the bits for sale - quite a few A40s went through his hands. But he mainly used to be involved in Rootes cars - Hillman, Sunbeam, Singer and the posh ones I can't remember the name of now. He pulled apart quite a few early Sunbeam Rapier convertables - they go for a fortune these days. If only we knew....

that's it, Humber, the posh Rootes cars.

Here's one, a Humber Armoured car - what the prime minister of Afghanistan goes to work in, each morning....

[mk1]

I drove over 1,000 miles round Zimbabwe in an Austin A40!

They are cracking cars & much under-remembered.

I supect they may also be the first british built hatch back. Another auto revolution that BMC failed to follow up!

[austinisuseless]

A40s could be where the traveller and countryman names came from. But neither was an estate - one had a boot, and one had a boot with a flip up back window, the traveller. As you say, hatchback like.

[Tim]

'Traveller' is Morris' name for its estates, Austin's estates were 'Countryman'. I think the first use of the Countryman name was on the A40 Devon/Dorset based estate in 1949, but maybe it was used on the 7 or 10 before the war.

There are quite a lot of the Devon/Dorset aged A40s in Australia, there are two or three countrymen (?) on ebay at the moment, but very few of the Farina A40s. There's the odd tourer around too.

Tim

[mk1]

Tim is correct The use of the terms Traveller & Countryman both predate the Mini by many years. These were terms used for any longer wheel base "shootingbrake" type versions of BMC cars dating back to at least the start of BMC in the early 50's.