The Austin Sixteen (also Austin 16) is a 2.2-litre
motor car that was built 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 1945 until 1949. It was the first 'new' car to be produced by Austin following the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. Apart from the name, it shared nothing with the pre war
Austin 16.
Whilst it used a brand new 4-cylinder 2199 cc, overhead-valve engine—the first to be used in an Austin car, it in fact used the chassis and body of the pre-war
Austin 12
The Austin Twelve is a motor car introduced by Austin in 1921. It was the second of Herbert Austin's post World War I models and was in many ways a scaled-down version of his Austin Twenty, introduced in 1919. The slower than expected sal ...
, which continued to be produced, alongside the other pre-war saloons the 8 hp and the 10 hp. The number
Sixteen was not an indication of the actual power output of the engine but rather the result of
a calculation used to determine the excise duty (
road tax
Road tax, known by various names around the world, is a tax which has to be paid on, or included with, a motorised vehicle to use it on a public road.
National implementations Australia
All states and territories require an annual vehicle registra ...
) payable for the vehicle. The engine in fact produced at 3800 rpm. The car shared a number of features with the famed
London Taxi
A hackney or hackney carriage (also called a cab, black cab, hack or London taxi) is a carriage or car for hire. A hackney of a more expensive or high class was called a remise. A symbol of London and Britain, the black taxi is a common s ...
, one of which was the built-in hydraulic jacking system operated from a pump located under the bonnet.
The Sixteen had a healthy turn of speed for its day with a maximum quoted speed of . In the bitterly cold winter of 1947 Alan Hess and a team of drivers with 3 Austin Sixteen vehicles undertook a publicity run on behalf of the Austin Motor Company to visit seven Northern European Capitals in seven days. Despite extraordinary travel difficulties caused by heavy snow, the vehicles completed the adventure successfully, and the story is related in Alan Hess's book, ''Gullible's Travels''.
Steering was by a cam and lever system which provided a dual ratio to ease parking. Suspension was all elliptic (overslung in front, underslung at the rear) with rigid beam axles all controlled by Luvax-Girling double acting hydraulic shock absorbers—a transverse torsion bar linking both pairs. Brakes by Girling were mechanical using a wedge and roller system in 11 inch drums with twin leading shoes in the front drums.
[
File:Austin Sixteen Badge 2443121219.jpg, Austin 16 badge
File:1946 Austin Sixteen BS1 Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon.jpg, 1946 Austin Sixteen BS1, The 1 millionth Austin produced
File:Img 3213.jp2 5001165814.jpg, The 1937 ]Buick
Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...
inspired the Sixteen's nose
References
External links
{{Commons category, Austin 16 (4-cylinder)
Austin Counties Car Club
€”Owners club website
*16
1940s cars