The Austin A30 is a

small family car The C-segment is the 3rd category of the European segments for passenger cars and is described as "medium cars". It is equivalent to the Euro NCAP "small family car" size class, and the compact car category in the United States. In 2011, the C- ...

produced by

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

from May 1952 to September 1956. It was launched at the 1951 Earls Court Motor Show as the "''New'' Austin Seven" and was Austin's competitor with the

Morris Minor The Morris Minor is a British economy family car that made its debut at the Earls Court Motor Show, London, in October 1948. Designed under the leadership of Alec Issigonis, more than 1.6 million were manufactured between 1948 and 1972 in th ...

. At launch, the car cost £507 (equivalent to £15,793.36 in 2019) undercutting the Minor by £62.

Styling

Though Austin had previously contracted the American industrial designer, Raymond Loewy in the task, the designs of Holden 'Bob' Koto were discarded and the car we know was eventually styled in-house by Ricardo 'Dick' Burzi.

Features

The body structure was designed by T.K. Garrett, who had been an aeronautical engineer before joining Austin. It was of fully stressed

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

chassis-less construction, which made it lighter and stiffer than most contemporary vehicles, the first Austin to be made in this way. Inside there were individual seats at the front and a bench at the rear covered in PVC with an option of leather facings on the seats. Evidence of economy was seen in only having a single windscreen wiper, central combined stop/tail/numberplate lamp and a sun visor in front of the driver only. A passenger-side wiper and sun visor, and a heater were available as optional extras. Originally only offered as a 4-door saloon, 2-door variants were introduced in late 1953, and in 1954 a van and van-based "Countryman" estate were made available. Despite having a smaller loading capacity than the equivalent BMC O-type Minor based vans (60 cu ft / 1.70 m³ as opposed to 76 cu ft / 2.15 m³) the Austin van offered the same payload. Being slightly lighter and stiffer, it was favoured by businessmen, and saw long service for many. The A30 was replaced by the

Austin A35 The Austin A35 is a small family car that was sold by Austin from 1956 until 1968. About 280,897 A35s of all types were produced. Design Introduced in 1956, it replaced the highly successful Austin A30. The name reflected the larger and more ...

in 1956, by which time 223,264 A30s had been built. The A30 had a smaller rear window than the A35 and

trafficators Trafficators are semaphore signals which, when operated, protrude from the bodywork of a motor vehicle to indicate its intention to turn in the direction indicated by the pointing signal. Trafficators are often located at the door pillar. Histor ...

instead of modern indicators, which popped out from the B pillar when operated by a knob mounted on the centre of the dashboard. The car, along with the larger-engined (and hence faster) A35, was quite successful in 1950s saloon car racing, and some still appear in historic events.

Performance

The car's newly designed A-Series

straight-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

engine was state of the art for the time and returned an average fuel consumption of 42 mpg / under 7L/100 km. With spirited driving the A30 was able to attain a top speed of (factory quoted). In its road test ''

The Motor ''The Motor'' (later, just ''Motor'') was a British weekly car magazine ''Car'' is a British automotive enthusiast magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. International editions are published by Bauer Automotive in Republi ...

'' magazine achieved a top speed of and a 0–60 mph time of 42.3 seconds. Braking was effected by a hybrid system, with Lockheed fully hydraulic drum brakes at the front and a body-mounted single cylinder operating rods to the rear wheels, which despite being heavily criticised as archaic and old-fashioned, were reported to be quite acceptable. The rod system provided good handbrake efficiency and was applied by a lever in an unorthodox position to the right of the driver's seat (Right hand drive vehicles). Bumps were handled by independent coil springs at the front end and beam axle/semi-elliptic leaf springs at the back. A car tested by ''

'' magazine in 1952 had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0– in 29 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car cost £553 including taxes. The optional radio was an extra £43 and the heater £9. Performance data need to be seen in the context of fuel availability. Early in the Second World War "branded fuel" disappeared from sale in the UK, and the nationally available fuel available at the beginning of 1952 had an octane rating of just 70, which enforced relatively low compression ratios: this reduced the performance available from all cars, especially small ones. In 1952 branded fuels returned to the forecourts, available octane ratings began to increase, and compression ratios were progressively improved along with the performance figures of cars such as the Austin A30 and its A35 successor.

Australian production

The A30 was produced in Australia by the Austin Motor Company (Australia) Pty Ltd from 1952 to 1954 and by its successor, the British Motor Corporation (Australia) Pty Ltd from 1954 to 1956.

Engine

* 803 cc BMC A-Series engine inline 4. * 58 mm bore x 76 mm stroke * pushrod-operated overhead valves *

compression ratio The compression ratio is the ratio between the volume of the cylinder and combustion chamber in an internal combustion engine at their maximum and minimum values. A fundamental specification for such engines, it is measured two ways: the stati ...

7.2:1 * single Zenith 26JS or 26VME carburettor * 28 bhp (21 kW) at 4400 rpm * 40 lbf·ft (54 Nm) at 2200 rpm

New Austin Seven and Austin A30 Seven

Early sales literature used the names New Austin Seven and Austin A30 Seven.Austin A30 Seven 1951–56, storm.oldcarmanualproject.com
Retrieved 27 June 2016

References

External links

Austin A30/A35 Owners' Club

The Austin A30 Site. A30 photographs, free screensaver, parts noticeboard+

Austin Memories
��History of Austin and Longbridge
Photo of A30 in New Zealand, 1964
{{British Motor Corporation cars, 1952-1966 A30 1950s cars Cars introduced in 1951 Cars of Australia Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Sedans