Austin

The Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of Cars and Lorries from 1905 and rose to be a major motorcar brand.

Cars

• 1905 Herbert Austin (1866–1941), later Sir Herbert, the former manager of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company founded the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge. The first car was a conventional 5 litre four cylinder model with chain drive with about 200 being made in the first five years.

• WW1 Austin grew enormously with government contracts for everything from artillery to aircraft and the workforce expanded from around 2,500 to 22,000.

• After the war Herbert Austin decided on a one model policy based around the 3620 cc 20 hp engine and versions included cars, commercials and even a tractor but sales volumes were never enough to fill the vast factory built during war time

• 1921 The company went into receivership in 1921 but rose again after financial restructuring

• 1922 To expand the market smaller cars were introduced with the 1661 cc Twelve and later the same year the Austin 7, an inexpensive, small and simple car and one of the earliest to be directed at a mass market. At one point it was built under licence by the fledgling BMW of Germany (as the Dixi); Japanese Datsun; as Bantam in the United States; and as the Rosengart in France.

• A largely independent U.S. subsidiary operated under the name American Austin Car Company from 1929 to 1934; it was revived under the name "American Bantam" from 1937 to 1941.

• With the help of the Seven, Austin weathered the worst of the depression and remained profitable through the 1930s producing a wider range of cars which were steadily updated with the introduction of all-steel bodies, Girling brakes, and synchromesh gearboxes but all the engines remained as side valve units.

• 1938 Leonard Lord joined the company board and became chairman in 1941 on the death of Herbert (now Lord) Austin.

• WW2 During the Second World War Austin continued building cars but also made trucks and aircraft. The post war car range was announced in 1944 and production of it started in 1945.

• The immediate post war range was mainly similar to that of the late 1930s but did include the 16 hp significant for having the companies first overhead valve engine.

• 1952 Austin merged with the Nuffield Organisation (parent company of Morris) to form the British Motor Corporation (later British Leyland) with Leonard Lord in charge. Austin were the dominant partner and their engines were adopted for most of the cars; various models amongst the marques would soon be badge-engineered versions of each other.

• 1952 Merged with Morris to form British Motor Corporation

• 1952 Austin entered into a legal agreement with Nissan Motor Company of Japan, for that company to assemble 2000 imported Austins from partially assembled sets and sell them in Japan under the Austin trademark. The agreement called for Nissan to make all Austin parts locally within three years, a goal Nissan met. Nissan produced and marketed Austins for seven years. The agreement also gave Nissan rights to use Austin patents, which Nissan used in developing its own engines for its Datsun line of cars. In 1953 British-built Austins were assembled and sold, but by 1955, the Austin A50 – completely built by Nissan and featuring a slightly larger body with 1489cc engine – was on the market in Japan. Nissan produced 20,855 Austins from 1953-59.

• 1959 With the threat to fuel supplies resulting from the 1956 Suez Crisis Lord asked Alec Issigonis to design a new small car and the result was the revolutionary Mini launched in 1959. The principle of a transverse engine with gearbox in the sump and driving the front wheels was carried on to larger cars.

• 1963 launched the 1100

• 1964 Launched the 1800

• 1969 Launched the Maxi

• 1973 Launched the Allegro

• 1980 launched the Metro

• 1982, the car division of the by now somewhat shrunken British Leyland company was rebranded as Austin Rover Group, with Austin acting as the "budget" and mainstream brand to Rover's more luxurious models. Sports models were often badge-engineered Austins with an MG badge. However, the continuing bad publicity associated with build and rust problems on the Metro, Maestro and Montego models meant that the badge was dropped, with the company becoming the Rover Group.

• 1989 The last Austin-badged car was built

• The rights to the Austin badge passed to British Aerospace and later to BMW when each bought the Rover Group. The rights were subsequently sold to MG Rover, created once BMW had tired of the business. Following MG Rover's collapse and sale the Austin name is now owned by Nanjing Automobile Group — along with Austin's historic assembly plant in Longbridge. At the Nanjing International Exhibition in May 2006, Nanjing announced that the Austin name might be used on some of the revived MG Rover models, at least on the Chinese market. However, Nanjing are for the moment concentrating on reviving the MG brand.

Tractors

1920 produced a tractor for direct ploughing

Commercial

The Austin Motor Co produced Lorries from 1910 to 1968 at Birmingham

• 1913 Produce first 2 ton lorry developing 29hp
• 1938 The Austin Motor Co commenced manufacturer of range from 30cwt to 5ton
• WW2 The K2 / K3 / K5 range of vehicles produced in large volumes for the Army
• 1952 Merged with Morris to form British Motor Corporation

Aircraft

• 1916 Built a prototype of the Austin-ball AFB1 single-seat fighter to a specification by Albert ball a fighter ace.

• Followed up with the AFT3 Osprey Triplane and Greyhound biplane fighters

• 1919 The Whippet was a single-seat biplane designed by John W. Kenworthy. Only five were built ay the Northfield Works.

• 1920 Built the Kestral to Air Minestry specification

None of the planes were successful so avaition was left to concentrate on the automotive business

Lorries

• 2,000 trucks went to the Army in the war and design changes were made in 1917.

Buses

• Austin had it's own bus fleet for transporting staff for some years.
• A smaller chassis was offered for a time in the 1920's, a conventional design with the engine mounted over and forward of the front axle.
• Bodied as a 17 seater bus with a four speed gearbox and cost £775. Electric light was extra.
• Austin did not appear in the PSV market until 1939 when the K series goods and passenger models were released.
• Few K-types were built and production was soon switched to military requirements.
• 1947 it's main passenger model was launched called the CX.
• The last Austin's to be badged as such were the 440EA, a 19-seater with Ascough Clubman bodywork, and the 550FG which formed the body of a small 24-seater coach originally from 1969.
• By 1971 both these models were sold as Leyland Redlines.

Sources of Information

• British Lorries 1900-1992 by S. W. Stevens-Stratten. Pub. Ian Allen Publishing
• ritish Aircraft Manufacturers since 1908 by Gunter Endres. Pub 1995
• [1] Wikipedia
• The Engineer of 10th December 1920 p582
• Ian Allan - British Buses Since 1900 - Aldridge and Morris