Time Machines: Austin

Time Machines: Austin

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Time Machines: Austin
Time Machines: Austin
Photos by -Autonet.ca
GLEN WOODCOCK
Published: 21 08 2011

1950 Austin A40 Devon

Call it fate, or destiny, but some people and some cars are just meant for each other.

Ray Ward of Keene, Ont. isn’t really into old cars; for more than 50 years he’s been a motorcycle buff and still rides a Honda Gold Wing. But 10 years ago he started looking at vintage cars, especially those from his past. Nothing appealed to him until about two months ago when he found a 1950 Austin A40. Immediately, he knew this was the car for him.

View another article from Time Machines.

You see, Ray’s father operated Ken Ward’s Garage and Farm Implements in Claremont, Ont. and sold Nuffield tractors plus the complete line of British Motor Corp. (BMC) products - including Austin and MG - from the late 1940s into the early 1970s.

“I grew up with these cars,” Ray says, with a wave of his hand toward the A40. “I’d probably driven them thousands of miles before I was 16 and at the age of 14 I was doing a valve job before dinner.”

The A40 isn’t one from his dad’s dealership - it was sold new in Peterborough, Ont.

“It had been in one family until two years ago,” Ray says, “and had been in storage for most of the past 25 years. The body is solid, and there’s no rust.”

The A40s were Austin’s first new sedans - or saloons as they’re called in the U.K. - post-Word War II. The four-door version was the A40 Devon and the two-door was the A40 Dorset, which was dropped after 1949 because of poor sales. Almost half a million were made from 1947-52 when they were replaced by the A40 Somerset.

They were the biggest selling imports in Canada in those pre-VW Beetle days, and growing up in Toronto I remember they seemed to be everywhere. As a kid, I thought the “Flying A” hood ornament was cool. Still do. You don’t see them much any more, even at old cars shows, because many of the ones that didn’t rust out were turned into dragsters in the 1960s - a fate also shared by another import from the U.K., the equally lightweight 1949-53 Ford Prefect.

Power was provided by a 1,200 cc OHV inline four - the same engine found under the hood of Austin-built 1954-55 Nash Metropolitans. The four-on-the-floor transmission combined with the engine’s 40 hp to give the Devon a top speed of 70 mph (110 km/h). Acceleration was leisurely, to say the least - 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in about 37 seconds - but fuel economy was excellent for the day - 34 mpg (8.4 L/100 km).

Ray says his 1950 model “drives wonderful at 50 mph and will do 60 with a good tail wind.”

For its day, and its size (just 153 inches long overall, with a 92.5-inch wheelbase), the Devon rides on big 16-inch wheels and tires. Stopping power from the four-wheel drum brakes is adequate because the car weighs just 2,130 lbs. (966 kg).

So far, Ray has done nothing but drive the car, which is all original except for a recent paint job that is “close to the original colour.”

“The chrome needs replating,” he says, “the wheels were painted black, and should be body colour, and I need new hubcaps because someone painted the old ones silver.”

The interior, however, is in good original condition. Like most of these cars, it’s brown leather with real wood accents, and exudes that wonderful smell of vintage cowhide when you open the driver’s door.

Although Ray is still into bikes - and is planning an East Coast trip on his Gold Wing later this summer, the A40 seems to have infected him with the old car bug.

Now he’s looking for a companion vehicle, and has his eye on a 1974 MGB for his wife.

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