Austin A40 Somerset
Discussion
My fathers bought another!
This one is a runner though and quite amusing. Bought in England and driven back to France with me in tow. Well most of the English journey was done on the back of an AA relay truck!.
I went back there for a weeks holiday and spent that week getting the brakes up to scratch! It was actually a real pleasure to work on although 53 years old - knuckles did get scrapped. I'm back there for christmas and plan to overhaul suspension and fit the stainless exhaust from our donor car. Hopefully the GF won't mind this garage time!
Cruises at a mind boggling 46mph, still turns heads though.
This is also being restored; the project has moved on - new chassis rebuilt suspension and body welding has taken place. However most of car is kept in boxes!! It's a 1958 2CVAZ (ripple bonnet) rare!. 425cc and about not much power. 57km/h is the top speed.
Note the structural rigidity!
This one is a runner though and quite amusing. Bought in England and driven back to France with me in tow. Well most of the English journey was done on the back of an AA relay truck!.
I went back there for a weeks holiday and spent that week getting the brakes up to scratch! It was actually a real pleasure to work on although 53 years old - knuckles did get scrapped. I'm back there for christmas and plan to overhaul suspension and fit the stainless exhaust from our donor car. Hopefully the GF won't mind this garage time!
Cruises at a mind boggling 46mph, still turns heads though.
This is also being restored; the project has moved on - new chassis rebuilt suspension and body welding has taken place. However most of car is kept in boxes!! It's a 1958 2CVAZ (ripple bonnet) rare!. 425cc and about not much power. 57km/h is the top speed.
Note the structural rigidity!
Edited by simes205 on Tuesday 19th December 08:42
crankedup said:
What a lovely inoffensive looking car that Austin is, rare sight on our roads too. Its back in the days when road rage and congestion charges were not even Sci fi.
Yes I suppose it is; incredibly innocent too. It's fun being in it too..no seatbelts no nothing in fact! Even when we were waiting in laybys for the AA to pick us up (in the UK) we had people stopping to tell us how their dad had one etc etc..
It was very well put together the metal bodywork is very thick compared to a modern and to that the 2CV. Apparently the 1200 engine from the Devon was put into this only this weighs a lot more. She struggles really at speed so it's best to keep the speed down otherwise headgasket problems are quite frequent.
The 2CV is quite cool with many more innovative things than the Austin. Speed sensative wipers (driven by the speedo cable gear!) and the steering gear is housed within the cross tube of the front suspension. Lots of well thought out ideas very well packaged and executed all to keep weight to a minimum. I'm looking forward to driving this one.
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