The Austin A35 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- ...
that was sold 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 1956 until 1968. About 280,897 A35s of all types were produced.
Design
Introduced in 1956, it replaced the highly successful
Austin A30
The Austin A30 is a small family car produced by Austin 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.
At launch, the car co ...
. The name reflected the larger and more powerful 34 hp (25 kW)
A-Series inline-four engine
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 ...
, enabling a slightly higher top speed and better acceleration.
The A35 is very similar in appearance to the A30, except for a larger rear window aperture and a painted front grille, with chrome horse-shoe surround, instead of the chrome grille on the A30. Both have wheels. The semaphore turn-signal indicators were replaced with modern front- and rear-mounted flashing lights. A slightly easier to operate remote-control gear-change was provided. Much of the improved performance is a result of different gearbox ratios. The A30 has the first three ratios close together then a big gap to top (fourth gear). The A35's ratios are better spaced and give a higher speed in third gear.
![A35-59](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/A35-59.png)
Like the A30, the A35 was offered as a two- or four-door
saloon and two-door "Countryman"
estate and also as a
van. The latter model continued in production through to 1968.
A rare
coupe utility
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
(pickup) version was also produced in 1956, with just 477 sold. Drawings were made for a sports tourer, but no prototype was actually built.
The A35 passenger cars were replaced by the new body shape
A40 Farina models in 1959 but the estate car version continued until 1962 and van until 1968.
[
]
Performance
A two-door de luxe saloon with the 948 cc engine was tested by the British ''Motor
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy.
Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
'' magazine in 1956 and was found to have a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 30.1 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded.
Referring to the A35, from Staton Abbey (1969?). The Book of the Austin A30 and A35. Pitman Press: p 148.
"...The new cars were thoroughly proved by tests carried out on the German autobahnen, during which drivers of much larger cars were astonished to be passed by three small Austins which were being driven flat out all day, averaging 60 mph for 25000 miles!..."
".....a privately-owned works-tuned A35 was driven for seven days around the Montlhéry track, near Paris, in a record-breaking run at an average speed of 75 mph, covering nearly 12500 miles...."
With standard fit of drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
all round, in both the A30 and the A35, the front hydraulic with rear hydro-mechanical brakes (the hydraulics acted upon the hand brake at the rear) needed regular adjustment to keep the stopping distances reasonably short.
The A35 was quite successful in 1950s saloon car racing, until supplanted by the Farina A40, but some still appear in historic events.
In recent years a special Academy class of racing has been introduced by th
HRDC
(Historic Racing Drivers Club), featuring A30 and A35 saloons. These cars feature sealed Marina
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...
engines, and are a restricted class, meaning that owners are limited to a specific range of parts from specified suppliers.
Production
*Saloons A2S5: (two-door) 100,284,
* Saloons AS5: (four-door) 28,961,
* Saloons Total: 129,245
*Van & Countryman, AV5 & AP5: 138,356
* Van AV6: 13,222
* Countryman AP6: 74
* Van AV8 (1098cc): 45,685
* Van AV8 (848cc): 14,230
* Pick-up: 477
* CKD (completely knocked down) 13,320
* Total: 354,609
Engines
* 1956–62 - 948 cc '' A-Series'' I4, 34 hp (25 kW) at 4,750 rpm and 50 lb·ft (68 Nm) at 2,000 rpm
* 1962–66 - 1,098 cc '' A-Series'' I4, 55 hp (41 kW) at 5,500 rpm and 61 lb·ft (83 Nm) at 2,500 rpm (van)
* 1963–68 - 848 cc '' A-Series'' I4, 34 hp (25 kW) at 5500rpm and 44 lb·ft (60 N·m) at 2,900rpm (van)
In popular culture
The A35 van featured in two Wallace & Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
films: A Matter of Loaf and Death and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
References
Further reading
* Post War Baby Austins (1988) Sharratt, Barney
* Austin A30 & A35 Super Profile (1985), Henson, Kim, Haynes Publishing Group
* Austin A30 & A35 1951 - 1962, Brooklands Books,
* Allen, Michael (1985). British Family Cars of the Fifties. Haynes Publishing Group. .
External links
Austin Memories
€”History of Austin and Longbridge
Austin A30/A35 Owners' Club
{{Automobiles made by BMC, BL and Rover Group companies, post-1945
A35
1950s cars
1960s cars
Cars introduced in 1956
Rear-wheel-drive vehicles
Sedans
Station wagons