OT: Austin A40 Sports (2) possibly for sale

There is a possibility that the two A40 Sports cars that we have in storage for Tim in the USA might be up for sale in the next few months. Tim was to have had them shipped over to the USA, but job changes and house moves have meant that it may not be practical to do it now.

The A40 Sports are part of the Somerset/Devon range but are a 2-door convertible.

I'll be getting some details together over the next week or so, but the basic are: 2 cars, both stripped down to bare bodies, one partly rebuilt with running gear and engine etc. Most of the software, hoods etc are wrapped and have been since we moved them from Tims place 5 years ago, and they have been in inside storage since then.

There is also a lot of new spares which we may sell separately, unless we get a decent offer for the whole lot.

The other option is to keep them in storage until Tim's house movements are resolved. This is not a fire sale, just that the 4-car garage home may be going if he moves again and he won't have room at the new place.

We are not involved financially, and will put any (serious) enquirers in touch with Tim direct.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Peter A Forbes
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Oh I wish I had some space! I had one of these for a number of years until I wrote it off, it was repairable so I bought it off the insurance company and had it fixed. I was then broke (1959 wages didn't go very far) so when it was damaged again (idiot did a U turn in front of me) I had to get rid of it albeit very reluctantly. It was an adaption from from the A40 Somerset 1200cc OHV with steering column gear change. It was at the time when Jenson was attempting to get A70/A90 parts from Austin to complete the original Jenson so I suspect it was a condition that he designed a "sports" car for Austin. If you compare the two you could be forgiven for calling the A40 Sports a mini Jenson. (That's what I did!)

It was basically a standard A40 Somerset but the bottom of chassis was plated and the floor lowered to the plating to get it lower. The engine was fitted with a HC head and HC pistons and the manifold was changed to fit twin SU carbs. The other modification (which caused my downfall) was the brakes, the shoes and linings were about half as wide again to give increased braking. To keep the track standard the road wheels were heavily dished,this meant that the increased drum area was masked by the wheels so they got HOT and faded. If they didn't fade they locked the wheels as the tyres couldn't cope! Both of these were the cause of my mishaps, plus in those days I was afflicted with a very heavy right foot!

The carbs had to be tuned/balanced almost every day, the softop leaked, the floor rotted in the footwells so when it rained you got wet at both ends at the same time, but what the Hell it was wonderful motoring! Then the "frogeye" Sprite came along......................................

Fred

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g6zru

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