HMC- Return of the Cheeky 500

[lesapandre]

Yes Nanjing. Be nice to think of them taking MINIs off the production line  for some serious VDP treatment in a brick factory by men in brown coats - maybe. it could become a touristic attraction.

[AnthonyG]

There was a MINI Goodwood (I think) - from around 2012.

It was a MINI trimmed at the Rolls Royce factory with leather, walnut, Wilton carpet etc. If memory serves the price was something ridiculous like 40k. 

[HMC]

The A30 has arrived just after breakfast. Soz for awful parking ...... but in a car this tiny it doesn’t really matter

 

[lesapandre]

Traditional car in Traditional Street. Is that the original reg? Lovely thing. Lucky you. They sip fuel. 

If want to go back to the future try some metal plates with the raised white plastic letters. Original position of the front plate wd have been under the front bumper on a bracket.

It would originally been trafficators only. Do they still work - flashers added later?

Funny thing is the car looks more relevant these days than it did - tall with a small footprint and superb economy - a kind of 50's Smart. 

First job try the brakes - they can be a bit lax!

[gadgetgricey]

Looks great. You could probably fit that nose first onto the pavement

[egg]

Fantastic.

Didn't Bulgin also hate the MK3 Fiesta RS turbo for being vulgar, or is that a false memory?

[HMC]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Fantastic.

Didn't Bulgin also hate the MK3 Fiesta RS turbo for being vulgar, or is that a false memory?

He did- he said halitosis would be it’s calling card IIRC

[HMC]

First drive and an FTP in “rush hour”....

Just out of fuel. I used  @Six-cylinder ‘s rover 216 to grab a can of petrol and we were under way again. 

[HMC]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

 Is that the original reg?

It isn’t- it’s an un used Scottish index that according to my book was often issued 1989-93 as required. SSK is a bit more catchy than the more recent YUL / YUN etc ones that usually give the game away.

Thanks to @LightBulbFun I know now a bit more ...

FXG was a Middlesborough CBC number from 1956 so that’s where it started out life. 

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, HMC said:

First drive and an FTP in rush hour....

Just out of fuel. I used to @Six-cylinder ‘s rover 216 to grab a can of petrol and we were under way again. 

It will do the 216 good to give it some use.

[Six-cylinder]

3 minutes ago, HMC said:

First drive and an FTP in rush hour....

Just out of fuel. I used to @Six-cylinder ‘s rover 216 to grab a can of petrol and we were under way again. 

It will do the 216 good to give it some use.

[LightBulbFun]

16 minutes ago, HMC said:

is a bit more catchy that the more recent YUL / YUN etc ones that usually give the game away.

and its a AAAxxx plate  

it always makes my teeth itch when I see a plate robbed vehicle on an "age related plate" but the DVLC/DVLA gave it a xxxAAA plate, when the vehicle is from 1950 or something such!

thats not very age related is it! given the first Reverse plate, 1000E was not issued until 1953!

(at least Pre 1931 vehicles are issued appropriate AAxxxx registrations by the DVLA...)

[lesapandre]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

It isn’t- it’s an un used Scottish index that according to my book was often issued 1989-93 as required. SSK is a bit more catchy than the more recent YUL / YUN etc ones that usually give the game away.

Thanks to @LightBulbFun I know now a bit more ...

FXG was a Middlesborough CBC number from 1956 so that’s where it started out life. 

SSK is not a bad replacement number - looks 'right'. 

Yes I recall the petrol gauges were always a bit 'approximate'!

[HMC]

Just been to the shops. It’s quicker than 28bhp  has any right to be so I’m suspecting a later a series has been dropped in- will investigate.

[anonymous user]

Useless bit of information, the Austin of England badge on the back is the same size and same fixing pin spacing as the Austin Healey script badge. I fitted one to my A35 to confuse people.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

When I was a small child on holiday in the South of France in the late '70s, I remember my dad talking to a fellow who had driven down there in an A30, all the way from the North East of England with his wife and two children. They were camping somewhere IIRC. I wasn't particularly impressed - but my father was (his first car was an A35), which is why I remember it.

In those days it was a 'thing' for people with a powerful car to do the journey from Cheshire where I lived to the South of France in one day. You could do some real speed back then. It was an anathema to my dad who preferred gentle touring with lots of stops, but he had a couple of friends who did it, one of whom had a Mercedes 450SEL. I was far more impressed by the idea of powering down in one day in a big V8 - but I remember my father saying the guy making the same or longer journey in an A30 four-up with luggage was far more of a feat.  Forty years later, I agree with him.

[Faker]

That a30 is simply glorious!

[xtriple]

My wife had (has?) a major wide on for A30/A35s. I bought her one for her 30th birthday and it came with a complete garage load of spares - windscreens front and rear, lights, pumps, just about enough to build several more, even body panels.

Sadly and to my eternal shame, I just couldn't bond with it in any way. I bought an Ital 1.3 to transpose all the mechanicals including brakes, engine/gearbox and even after that, I still hated the little bastard. One afternoon the next door neighbor came home with huge cutter so I cut the roof off the A30.

Like I said: I had plans.

The 'plan' came to nought though and I ended up GIVING all the spares to the club and flogging the rest on eBay.

[bigstraight6]

I like these little Austin’s, it certainly seems to look at home in the genteel surrounds of Tavistock. I had a drive in one of these a few years ago and the interior space for the driver was good, much better than the original Mini or Fiat 500 both of which I have also driven and found very cramped.

[Richard_FM]

One of my aunts had an A30 as her first car.  She never liked driving it long distances because of the 3 speed gearbox & small fuel tank.

Later she changed it for an A35 which had 4 speeds but still best suited to around town driving.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I thought all A30/35s were 4 speed, every days a school day. I had an A30 that I never actually drove as it was destroyed in a fire . Had a couple of A40s including a MK1 with the dodgy A30 back brakes, which only became an issue when reversing too quickly.

[wuvvum]

I always thought these were all 4-speed too.  Only car in that class which I remember as being 3-speed was the 100E.

[wuvvum]

3 hours ago, Magnificent Rustbucket said:

In those days it was a 'thing' for people with a powerful car to do the journey from Cheshire where I lived to the South of France in one day. You could do some real speed back then. It was an anathema to my dad who preferred gentle touring with lots of stops, but he had a couple of friends who did it, one of whom had a Mercedes 450SEL. 

You could still do it up until the early 2000s - I remember driving down to Grenoble in the Saab 9000 Turbo I had at the time - once I got past Paris I'd set the cruise control to 120 and just sit there until the péage at Lyon.  I still got overtaken even at that speed.

[lesapandre]

Yes I had one. 4-speed. Maybe the aunt never found 4th - hence it was a bit busy. When I bought my Trafic van the seller sold it because he did not get on with the wooley gear change. "Is it 5-speed" I asked. The answer that came back was no - but yes it is 5...just very difficult to find.

[Richard_FM]

I’ve only been told about it in passing so maybe my dad was getting some details wrong.

[lesapandre]

The thing about Len Lord at Austin is that he had a real hunch about what sold. So the A30's  were proper cars - in that they were big cars in miniature - they were always 4-speed. Some excellent detailing like the flying A bonnet latch and little side lights - really did not scream economy. These were an aspirational little car at the time. The survival rate is pretty good for a car that stopped production in 1959 (van soldiered on to 1968). Probably more survive than any other 50's BMC?

Lord did not always get it right - the Atlantic was a bit of a poor seller - but he invented the Austin Healy brand and of course bought VDP into BMC and got Issigonis to do Mini.

[wuvvum]

15 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Yes I had one. 4-speed. Maybe the aunt never found 4th - hence it was a bit busy. When I bought my Trafic van the seller sold it because he did not get on with the wooley gear change. "Is it 5-speed" I asked. The answer that came back was no - but yes it is 5...just very difficult to find.

I had that with an Iveco Daily once.  Seller was adamant it was 4-speed - he'd owned it for 4 years and never found the dogleg first.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

9 minutes ago, Richard_FM said:

I’ve only been told about it in passing so maybe my dad was getting some details wrong.

After a bit of googling , it seems that A30’s didnt have synchro on 1st and ‘4 speed synchromesh “ was a sales feature of the A35, perhaps that’s where the confusion stems from.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

2 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I had that with an Iveco Daily once.  Seller was adamant it was 4-speed - he'd owned it for 4 years and never found the dogleg first.

I once drove to Manchester and back in a rented Mondeo Ghia Tdi without realising it was 6 speed. In my defence it was dark.

[lesapandre]

Yes on a lot of these 50's cars 1st was seen as a 'starter gear' or for steep hills etc.