The Austin Sheerline is a large
luxury car
A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars.
The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and the ...
produced by
Austin in the United Kingdom from 1947 until 1954.
The Sheerline was designed by Austin during the Second World War, but volume production did not begin until 1947 because of the commitment to war production. It was a luxurious car in the style of the contemporary Rolls-Royce or Bentley but at a much lower price, around two-thirds that of the equivalent Rolls-Royce but still the price of five or six small Austins. There were about 8,000 built.
The new Sheerline, with razor-edge styling, first appeared at the Geneva Motor Show on 13 March 1947.
The first cars, designated A110, had a 3,460 cc
straight-six overhead valve
An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located b ...
engine but this was soon increased to 3,995 cc with and the designation then became A125. Initially only a Saloon version on a 9-foot-11ΒΌ-inch (3 metres) wheelbase chassis was made, but this was joined by a Limousine version in late 1949 on a stretched 11 ft (3.3 metres) chassis also used for a hearse and an ambulance. At 37 hundredweight (1,850 kg) for the saloon and 2 tons (2,000 kg) for the limousine this was a heavy car, and to maintain performance a low final drive ratio of 4.55:1 with 16-inch tyres was fitted. The saloon version had a top speed of .
A pressed-steel cross-braced chassis frame was used, and for the first time on an Austin, independent front suspension. Other features were a hydraulic jacking system, Lockheed hydraulic brakes and a steering-column gearshift.
Suspension was by coil springs at the front and semi-elliptic leaf springs at the rear.
Anders Clausager, an archivist at BL Heritage Ltd, discovered that no more than 12 Sheerlines and 32
Princesses
Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince.
Princess as a subst ...
, mainly prototype and pre-production cars, were fitted with the 3,460cc engine before the increase to 3,993cc at the end of 1947.
Production ceased in 1954 and Austin's luxury offering was limited to the A135
Austin Princess
The Austin Princess is a series of large luxury cars that were made by Austin and its subsidiary Vanden Plas from 1947 to 1968. The cars were also marketed under the Princess and Vanden Plas marque names.
The Princess name was also used as fo ...
.
The consensus is that in the
Last Of The Summer Wine
''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of '' Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes f ...
episode
The Loxley Lozenge, the chassis of an Austin Sheerline was used as a prop for the titular fictional vehicle.
Knebworth
Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden ...
in 2016
File:1940 Austin A125 Sheerline - 2912 cc - 6 cyl - AB 1974 - Kolkata 2017-01-29 4556.JPG, The early wartime cars were fitted with the smaller 2912cc engine.
References
Further reading
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External links
Austin Memories
{{British Motor Corporation cars, 1952-1966
Sheerline
Cars introduced in 1947
Limousines