Austin A35 Two-door Saloon

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Following the success of the pre-war Seven, Austin placed enormous importance on their new post-war small car range.

Lord Austin employed a design consultancy run by Raymond Loewy in the USA. His influence on car design is legendary and one of his top men, Bob Koto, was dispatched to England for four months to help style the new baby Austin.

Prior to his arrival, Lord Austin had also purchased an interesting one-off design built by Ian Duncan. He ran a small business making bodies for Healey and Alvis cars, and had come up with a monocoque front-wheel drive design. Along with his prototype, he was contracted to the engineering department at Longbridge and started work on the chassis design. The outcome of their labours was the Austin A30, a small car with four seats which proved an instant success in the car-starved post-war marketplace.

In 1956 the A35 was announced, an updated version of the A30 with a larger rear window, painted grille and indicators replacing the old semaphore signals. Under the bonnet the 803cc engine was replaced by the 948cc A-Series mated to a new gearbox with remote change. It was enough to continue the strong sales until the arrival of the all new A40 in 1959. Autocar tests showed a top speed of 72mph, with 0-60mph taking 30 seconds. Fuel consumption was a modest 41.5 mpg.

This pretty little 1958 two-door model has had just six owners in total, the last three having owned it since 1984. They haven’t given it much exercise, the car having covered just 11,000 miles over the last 27 years according to the 17 old MOTs on file. It has an old style logbook and current V5 and is both tax and MOT exempt. Described by the vendor as a good car in need of a few small tidying jobs, it has great potential and looks particularly good value at the suggested guide price.

A35s have become very popular competition cars of late, as anyone who has seen their recent giant-slaying performances in the St Mary’s Trophy race at the Goodwood Revival meeting will testify, humbling much larger machinery with their sheer agility in the hands of drivers like Martin Brundle, Matt Neal and Tony Jardine. There is even a one-make race series for them, offering a fixed-cost package with only modest upgrades allowed to the cars – what fun that would be!

AMENDMENT: Please note that this car has no brakes so will require recommissioning before use.