THE FIRST MODERN FAMILY CAR?
The 1958 A40’s family tree began with the 1922 Austin Seven, a basic 2+2 transport intended to get the masses mobile. The little Seven’s final form before WW2 was the Ruby, an attempt to dress the charming Box Saloon in a cloak of rather gauche modernity which candidly didn’t bode well for the future.
A sea change after the war saw motor manufacturers casting eyes across the Atlantic for aesthetic and engineering inspiration – hence the popular Austin A30 launched in 1951 at Earl’s Court as the New Austin Seven. It adopted a kind of miniature Americana style, and the traditional separate flowing wings of the coachbuilder’s art were reduced to shallow bas-relief echoes of their former grandiose flourish, while a dummy radiator shell gave but a nod to tradition.
The A30’s engineering design was, to a degree, more interesting, abandoning a separate chassis for a monocoque and introducting the redoubtable overhead-valve A-Series engine, albeit in its early 803cc form. It had independent front suspension too, but disconcertingly only sported front hydraulic brakes because at the rear there was an unnatural coupling of hydraulics and rod via the handbrake linkage. Rear suspension was a leaf-sprung live axle with lever dampers and anti-roll bar. Lever dampers formed the top front suspension arm with a pressed wishbone lower arm.
The 1956 Austin A35 gained
