Austin A40 Farina
Encyclopedia
- See Austin A40Austin A40A number of different automobiles were marketed under the Austin A40 name by the Austin Motor Company between 1947 and 1967.Austin's naming scheme at that time derived from the approximate engine output, in horsepower...
for other (previous) AustinAustin Motor CompanyThe Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles. The company was founded in 1905 and merged in 1952 into the British Motor Corporation Ltd. The marque Austin was used until 1987...
A40 models.
The Austin A40 Farina was a compact car
Compact car
A compact car , or small family car , is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini but smaller than or equal to a mid-size car...
introduced by the British Motor Corporation
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
in 1958, replacing the earlier A40 Devon.
It combines many of the virtues of a saloon and estate car in one body. There is more headroom for the rear passengers because of the angular instead of curved lines of the roof, while as a two-seater it provides an exceptional amount of luggage space. The normal luggage boot has a tail board that lets down (the rear window remains fixed) and the space behind the rear seat is usually covered by a tonneau cover. This can be removed, and the rear seats folded to permit the whole of the back of the car to be used for luggage. The body has been designed and developed over a period of three years in consultation with Pinin Farina, the Italian coachbuilder. Austin Attraction The Times, Thursday, Oct 23, 1958; pg. 6; Issue 54289; col F FROM OUR MOTORING CORRESPONDENT.
and model for millions of cars its brilliantly elegant and refined design was by Pininfarina
Pininfarina
Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...
of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. At a time when Turin auto-design studios were, for the most part, consulted only by builders of expensive "exotic" cars, the manufacturers
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation, or commonly known as BMC was a vehicle manufacturer from United Kingdom, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
made much of the car's Italian styling, with both "Pinin" Farina
Battista Farina
Battista "Pinin" Farina was an Italian automobile designer, the founder of the Carrozzeria Pininfarina coachbuilding company, a name associated with many of the best-known postwar sports cars....
and his son Sergio
Sergio Pininfarina
Sergio Pininfarina is an Italian automobile designer, like his father Battista Farina. After joining his father at Carrozzeria Pininfarina, he quickly became integral to the company, and during his career oversaw many of the designs for which the company is famous...
being present at the car's UK launch.
The car was a popular choice, in modified form, for competition work. Several examples are still to be seen taking part in historic saloon racing.
The name
The A40 designation had been used on previous Austins, but the "Farina" suffix was new with this car; it was later applied to larger Austins which were also 'styled by Pininfarina' but, regrettably, with much more input from Longbridge.The Farina name was not used in Sweden, where the car received the name "Futura" because a mix-up with a common type of brown sugar with a similar name was believed to be unavoidable.
In competition 1959
In the January 1959 Monte Carlo RallyMonte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
driven by Pat Moss
Pat Moss
Pat Moss, after her marriage Pat Moss-Carlsson, was one of the most successful female auto rally drivers of all time, scoring 3 outright wins and 7 Podium Finishes in international rallies. She was crowned European Ladies' Rally Champion five times...
and Ann Wisdom the A40 won the Coupe des Dames, Houbigant Cup, RAC Challenge Trophy and Souvenir Award, "L'Officiel de la Couture" and was 2nd in class for standard series production touring cars up to 1000 c.c. The little car was 10th in General Classification.
The production version of the Mini
Mini
The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout influenced a generation of car-makers...
was demonstrated to the press in April 1959.
In the closing stages of June's Alpine rally, Coupe des Alpes, Moss and Wisdom lost the use of first gear on their A40 and were obliged to retire having completed the second stage of the rally still "clean".
In August that year in practice at Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch
Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit near West Kingsdown in Kent, England. First used as a dirt track motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently holds many British and international racing events...
Dr G C Shepherd broke the saloon car record in an Austin A40.
Mark I
Presented as a Saloon at the London Motor Show in October 1958, the A40 Farina was intended to replace the Austin A35Austin A35
The A35 was a small car sold by the British Motor Corporation under the Austin marque in the 1950s.-Design:Introduced in 1956, it replaced the highly successful Austin A30...
, and was a capacious thoroughly modern small car, with a brand new distinctive notchback
Notchback
Notchback is a styling term describing a car body style, a variation of three-box styling where the third distinct volume or "box" is less pronounced — especially where the rear deck is short or where the rear window is upright...
shape and headroom in the back seat. It was a saloon, the lower rear panel dropped like a then conventional bootlid, the rear window remaining fixed.
The Countryman appeared exactly a year later in October 1959, and differed from the saloon in that the rear window now lifted up and had its own support while the lower panel was now flush with the floor and its hinges had been strengthened. It was a very small estate car
Station wagon
A station wagon is a body style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door , instead of a trunk lid...
with a horizontally split rear opening having a top-hinged upper door and bottom-hinged lower door. October 1959 also saw the standardisation on both cars of self-cancelling indicators and the provision of a centre interior light and, in early summer 1960, a flat lid was added over the spare wheel in the rear luggage compartment.
At launch the car shared the 948 cc A-Series straight-4
Straight-4
The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
used in other Austins including its A35 predecessor. The suspension was independent at the front using coil springs with a live axle and semi elliptic leaf springs at the rear. The drum brakes were a hybrid (hydromech) arrangement, hydraulically operated at the front but cable actuated at the rear.The front drums at 8 in (203.2 mm) were slightly larger than the 7 in (177.8 mm) rears. Cam and peg steering was fitted.
Individual seats were fitted in the front, with a bench at the rear that could fold down to increase luggage capacity. The trim material was a vinyl treated fabric. Options included a heater, radio, windscreen washers and white wall tyres. The gearchange lever was floor mounted and the handbrake between the seats. The door windows were not opened by conventional winders but pulled up and down using finger grips, a window lock position was on the door handle.
A de-luxe version tested by the British magazine The Motor in 1958 had a top speed of 66.8 mph (107.5 km/h) and could accelerate from 0-50 mph (80.5 km/h) in 19.5 seconds. A fuel consumption of 38 mpgimp was recorded. The test car cost £689 including taxes of £230.
Mark II
An A40 Farina Mark II was introduced in 1961. It had a 4 in (102 mm) longer wheelbase to increase the space for passengers in the back seats, and the front grill and dashboardDashboard
A dashboard is a control panel placed in front of the driver of an automobile, housing instrumentation and controls for operation of the vehicle....
were redesigned. The Mark II had more power (37 hp/28 kW) and an SU replaced the previous Zenith carburettor but was otherwise similar mechanically. An anti-roll bar was fitted at the front. The 948 cc engine was replaced in the autumn of 1962 by a larger 1098 cc version with an output of 48 bhp. The car now shared its engine with the recently introduced Morris 1100
BMC ADO16
ADO16 is the codename for the development of what became the Morris 1100, a small family car built by the British Motor Corporation and, later, British Leyland...
, although in the A40 it retained the "conventional" north-south orientation of the earlier unit. An improved gearbox was fitted at the same time.
Further changes were minimal. However, in 1964 a new facia with imitation wood veneer covering was fitted. This version of the model remained in production through to 1967. The brakes also became fully hydraulic, replacing the semi cable operated rear system that the Mark I had inherited from the A35. Nevertheless, the introduction at the end of 1962 of the similarly sized Morris 1100
BMC ADO16
ADO16 is the codename for the development of what became the Morris 1100, a small family car built by the British Motor Corporation and, later, British Leyland...
, followed by an Austin badged counterpart a year later, left the A40 looking cramped on the inside and outclassed in terms of road holding and ride; sales of the A40 Mark II progressed at a slower rate than had been achieved by the Mark I.
A Mark II was tested by The Motor in 1962. The updated version had a higher top speed of 75.2 mph (121 km/h) and faster acceleration from 0–50 mph (80.5 km/h) of 17.4 seconds. The fuel consumption at 36.5 mpgimp was slightly higher. The car cost £693 including taxes of £218.
Engines
- 1958–1961 - 948 cc A-Series I4Straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
, 34 hp (25 kW) at 4750 rpm and 50 ft·lbf (68 Nm) at 2000 rpm - 1961–1962 - 948 cc A-Series I4Straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
, 37 hp (28 kW) at 5000 rpm and 50 ft·lbf (68 Nm) at 2500 rpm - 1962–1967 - 1098 cc A-Series I4Straight-4The inline-four engine or straight-four engine is an internal combustion engine with all four cylinders mounted in a straight line, or plane along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft....
, 48 hp (36 kW) at 5100 rpm and 60 ft·lbf (81 Nm) at 2500 rpm
Innocenti
InnocentiInnocenti
Innocenti was an Italian machinery works originally established by Ferdinando Innocenti in 1920.After World War II, the company was famous for many years for Lambretta scooters models such as LI125, LI150, TV175, TV200, SX125, SX150, SX200, GP125, GP150 and GP200.From 1961 to 1976 Innocenti built...
also produced A40s under licence from BMC. They began producing knock-down kit versions of the A40 in 1960 but soon progressed to produce the entire car in Italy. Innocenti's A40 Berlina and Combinata corresponded to the saloon and Countryman versions of the Austin A40 Farina.
The cars began using the larger 1098 cc engine in 1962, being renamed A40S at that time. For 1965 Innocenti also designed a new single-piece rear door for the Combinata. This top-hinged door used struts to hold it up over a wide cargo opening and was a true hatchback
Hatchback
A Hatchback is a car body style incorporating a shared passenger and cargo volume, with rearmost accessibility via a rear third or fifth door, typically a top-hinged liftgate—and features such as fold-down rear seats to enable flexibility within the shared passenger/cargo volume. As a two-box...
– a model never developed in the home (United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) market. 67,706 Innocenti A40 and A40S cars were produced.
Australian production
The A40 Farina was also produced in Sydney, New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
by the British Motor Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd from 1959 to 1962. These Australian assembled vehicles had a very high degree of local content.
Appearances in film and media
In the film The Fast LadyThe Fast Lady
The Fast Lady is a 1962 British comedy film, directed by Ken Annakin. The screenplay was written by Henry Blyth and Jack Davies, based on a story by Keble Howard.It marked the film debut of Julie Christie.-Plot:...
, the unlikely hero Murdoch Troon, takes his first driving lesson in an Austin A40 Farina. In the movie, The Pink Panther, the crook who steals the dog drives an A40 Austin Innocenti.
External links
- Austin Memories—History of Austin and Longbridge
- A40 Farina Buyers Guide Advice on buying the A40 Farina, at oldclassiccar.
- The unofficial Austin-Rover site section on the Farina A40
- The unofficial Austin-Rover site buyers' guide on the Farina A40
- The A40 Farina Club based in the UK