Austin A30

The A30 was a compact car produced by Austin Motor Company in the 1950s. Introduced in 1951, it was Austin's answer to the Morris Minor. The bodywork, designed by an aeronautical engineer, was fully stressed monocoque construction, which made it both lighter and stiffer than more contemporary vehicles. Its newly-designed A-Series straight-4 engine was state of the art for the time, which returned an average fuel consumption of 42 mpg / under 7L/100 km. Via a (relatively speaking) rapid one-two shift, followed by screaming it right out to hit third and then again rapidly hitting fourth, the A30 was able to attain a top speed of 70 mph (113 km/h). [Factory quoted] Braking was effected by a hybrid system, with fully hydraulic drum brakes up front and frame cylinder rod brakes at the rear - which despite being heaviliy criticised as being archaic and old-fashioned, was inevitably reported as being quite acceptable - as well as providing better handbrake efficiency (from a less orthodox to the right of the drivers seat handbrake) than many more contemporary vehicles. Bumps were handled by independant coil springs at the front end and beam axle/semi-elliptic leaf springs at the back.

Despite originally only being offered as a 4-door saloon, 2-door variants were introduced in 1953, and in 1954 a van and van-based "countryman" estate were made available, which would also later become the basis of a rather odd looking utility. Despite having a smaller loading capacity than the equivalent O-type Minor based vans (60 cu ft / 18.3 cm3 as opposed to 76 cu ft / 23 cm3) the Austin van offered the same payload. Being slightly lighter and stiffer, it was favoured by businessmen, and saw long service for many. An A35 Van (with a number of inconsistencies) recently appeared in the big screen debut of Wallace and Gromit. It was replaced by the A35 in 1956 after having sold nearly ¼ million units.