Austin A30 - 54

The Austin A30 is a compact economy car launched at the

1951 Earls Court Motor Show, London by the Austin Motor 

Company and produced by the newly formed British Motor

Corporation from May 1952 to September 1956. 

Introduced as the "New Austin Seven", it was Austin's 

answer to the Morris Minor.

At launch the car cost £507, undercutting the Minor by £62.

Styling

Though Austin had previously contracted the American industrial designer, Raymond Loewy in  the task, the designs of Holden 'Bob' Koto were discarded and the car we know was  eventually styled in-house by Ricardo 'Dick' Burzi. 

Features

The body structure was designed by T.K. Garrett, who had been an aeronautical engineer  before joining Austin. It was of fully stressed monocoque chassis-less construction, which  made it lighter and stiffer than most contemporary vehicles, the first Austin to be made in  this way. Inside there were individual seats at the front and a bench at the rear covered in  PVC with an option of leather facings on the seats. Evidence of economy was seen in only  having a single windscreen wiper, central combined stop/tail/numberplate lamp and a sun  visor in front of the driver only. A passenger-side wiper and sun visor, and a heater were  available as optional extras.  Originally only offered as a 4-door saloon, 2-door variants were introduced in late 1953, and  in 1954 a van and van-based "countryman" estate were made available. Despite having a  smaller loading capacity than the equivalent BMC O-type Minor based vans (60 cu ft / 1.70  m3 as opposed to 76 cu ft / 2.15 m3) the Austin van offered the same payload. Being slightly  lighter and stiffer, it was favoured by businessmen, and saw long service for many.  The A30 was replaced by the Austin A35 in 1956 with 223,264 examples having been built.  The A30 had a smaller rear window than the A35 and trafficators instead of modern  indicators, which popped out from the B pillar when operated by a knob mounted on the  centre of the dashboard. The car, along with the larger engined (and hence faster) A35, was quite successful in 1950s  saloon car racing, and some still appear in historic events. 

Performance

The car's newly designed A-Series straight-4 engine was state of the art for the time and  returned an average fuel consumption of 42 mpg / under 7L/100 km. With spirited driving  the A30 was able to attain a top speed of 70 mph (110 km/h) (factory quoted). In their road  test The Motor magazine achieved a top speed of 67.2 mph (108.1 km/h) and a 0–60 mph  time of 42.3 seconds. Braking was effected by a hybrid system, with Lockheed fully hydraulic  drum brakes at the front and a body mounted single cylinder operating rods to the wheels at  the rear, which despite being heavily criticised as being archaic and old-fashioned, were  reported as being quite acceptable. The rod system provided good handbrake efficiency and  was applied by a lever in an unorthodox position to the right of the drivers seat (Right hand  drive vehicles). Bumps were handled by independent coil springs at the front end and beam  axle/semi-elliptic leaf springs at the back.  A car tested by The Motor magazine in 1952 had a top speed of 62 mph (100 km/h) and could  accelerate from 0–50 mph (80 km/h) in 29 seconds. A fuel consumption of 38.8 miles per  imperial gallon (7.28 L/100 km; 32.3 mpg-US) was recorded. The test car cost £553 including  taxes. The optional radio was an extra £43 and the heater £9. Performance data need to be  seen in the context of fuel availability. Early in the Second World War "branded fuel"  disappeared from sale in the UK, and the nationally available fuel available at the beginning  of 1952 had an octane rating of just 70, which enforced relatively low compression ratios:  this reduced the performance available from all cars, especially small ones. In 1952 branded  fuels returned to the forecourts, available octane ratings began to increase, and compression ratios were progressively improved along with the performance figures of cars such as the  Austin A30 and its A35 successor.

Australian production

The A30 was produced in Australia by the Austin Motor Company (Australia) Pty Ltd from 1952  to 1954 and by its successor, the British Motor Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd from 1954 to  1956. 

1954

Engine 803 cc 4 cylinders Power 30 HP