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Oct/Nov 2006 Austin Times Volume 4 Issue 5 A NEWSLETTER FOR ENTHUSIASTS OF AUSTIN PRE-1955 An everyday story of IN THIS ISSUE Aïda reviews a country men lavish new book that covers the racing history of the Austin Seven in astonishing detail The coachwork for these Austin Plus an update woodies was con- on some tracted out. This is mechanical the firm’s publicity shot. goings on both in Britain and s the motor car became more commonplace in the world, spe- France cific styles of coachwork evolved for specific purposes. And as motoring was originally the indulgence of the very rich these While Aspecial types reflected their needs. enthusiastic Not surprisingly, there are several versions of where the ‘shooting readers brake’ originated depending on where you come from and what worldwide have sent us pictures particular term for these vehicles you glass, but side curtains and also of Austins use. To be fair, the British royal fa- more rigid canvas panels for days encountered on mily seem to have a strong claim as when you could pour the rain out of their travels inventors of the shooting brake as the brim of your stetson! such. In 1922 Essex introduced the first Finally just for But we shall return to that in mass market saloon and volume fun, a super a moment. production of the station wagon fol- period photo lowed. Exposed wood had become where you can by chic. try your hand at MARTYN NUTLAND Ford did everything in-house, but as spotting all the we shall see later with Austin, most Austins manufacturers bought in the exten- The real genesis is the American sively wood framed after section and THE EDITOR, BENT railroad. ‘Depot hacks’ that carried attached it to the steel parts of a mo- AND AÏDA people and baggage from the station del they were making at the Works. SEND VERY BEST to the immediate locality soon be- To keep themselves in business WISHES FOR came ‘station wagons’. at the end of WWII Willys created a CHRISTMAS Wagon, not car, because the hard- closed, all steel, version of the ubi- AND THE NEW wood framing used in both was left quitous Jeep. Although feintly, and YEAR AND THANK unclad in the station wagon in the in the distance, the death knell was YOU FOR YOUR mode of commercial vehicles of sounding for the ‘woody’. CONTINUED the day. In 1949 Plymouth brought out the SUPPORT Invariably there was a fixed roof, no first all steel station wagon, others This is a superb period pic- ture of Austin at play with the landed gentry in 1938, although I have to admit the angle does not really tell us much about the exact type of car. However, this is probably a ‘shooting brake’ in the true sense of the term. That is, a coachbuilt car for carrying the equipment associated with field sports. It’s probably a ‘woody’, probably on the Fourteen Goodwood chassis - although it could be an Eigh- teen - but as you can see the pose precludes saying any thing more positive. Jolly jodphurs though! mimicked the trend and by the mid-50s plastics a ‘shooting omnibus’. and other synthetics had taken the place of the Certainly Austins of this type existed from the real thing. earliest days and a handsome 1911 version The Australians tend to call their versions sim- survives. ply ‘wagons’, and if you’re a patriotic French- Yet shooting brake is a specific term for a two man you may cry that the ‘estate’ was invented door vehicle, with a rear like the ‘estate cars’ in your home land, when Citroën came up with with which they are often confused. Thus, the familiale in the 1930s. But this mundane strictly speaking the use of the term by Austin to version of the stupendous ‘Traction’, capable of describe the cars we will look at was a carrying nine peasants, three sheep and a bar- misnomer. rel of beer back from Belgium, was much more Away from the palaces the shooting brake, or, the forerunner of today’s ‘people carrier’. more correctly, estate car, could give a new So it’s back to England, Sandringham and ‘the lease of life to time-served limousine chassis royals’. much in the way that such frames were rewor- Traditionally a ‘brake’ would have been a four ked as hearses. wheeled, one horse vehicle, with its wooden But as ‘estates’ grew in popularity new cars frame and paneling exposed and the interior were constructed to this style and numerous covered by a canopy fitted with side curtains coachbuilders became involved. These included - shades of the American depot hack. the big names like Barker and Rippon but also And we know precisely when the shooting bra- many long forgotten minor firms. ke came along, although it wasn’t called that. Not surprisingly Austin with their aspirations to At the end of 1900 the Prince of Wales, very grandeur and immense popularity in rural soon to become Edward VII, ordered a 14- seater Daimler ‘Beaters’ Car’ so that folk of that persuasion could be carried to places where they might disturb innocent fowl for be decimation by the aristocracy. Many other such vehicles followed, soon to be called ‘shooting brakes’, although George VI did upstage his blue-blooded relatives in 1937 with This splendid colour wash illustration is from an Austin catalogue of the late 1930s and depicts the company’s interpretation of a ‘shooting brake’ on the Light Twelve Four, or New Ascot, chassis. communities jumped on the wagon. We cannot be absolutely certain how Long- bridge were playing all this come the 30s. Some authorities believe there were no factory pro- duced estates pre-War. That is certainly not the case as there are official publications alluding to these models. The featured model is a Light Twelve Four New Ascot, described as having ‘instant ap- peal in the sporting and commercial world’. Austin obviously felt the need to broaden the market as far as possible. They go on to say: ‘It can cope with the heavy demands not only of Brochure shots show (top) the country estate work, but of hotel and station’; interior of the Sixteen with the So we’re right back to the depot hack! wooden roof slats just visible at The body was pannelled with quarter inch the top of the frame. These were mahogany board over an ash frame and had carried over to the Hampshire, a fully opening back incorporating a tailboard. and (below) the commodious cargo area. This was also of mahogany and not only carried the spare wheel but was detachable - a weighty prospect. It could be secured in the lowered position to extend the carrying capacity. The roof was covered in ‘heavy waterproof material’ and the four doors gave access to six seats, but it’s not clear how these were confi- gured. Possibly there was a bench type at the front as late New Ascots had pistol grip hand- brakes on the right side. We can be fairly certain also that there was a Fourteen version and I suggest in the caption to the picture at the top of the previous page that this might be one. With 100,000 cubic feet of wood in stock, being con- sumed at the rate of 6000 a week, there’s no question Longbridge could have built these cars themselves, in their entirety. Whether they did or not is unclear. And if the cons- truction of the rear section was contracted out, whether it was to one coachbuilder, or several, is also something of a mystery. As mentioned earlier, Ford built complete woodies. Austin could have. But it was not the industry norm. The post-War procedure This pretty little machine is a GS1 Ten, or should we say ‘GW1’, not a BW1 Sixteen. The coachbuilder is clearly Papworth Industries, but there was no Ten shooting brake as such. So what is the story behind this delightful car? of using a specialist for the woodwork was more familiar and this is what happened with the Six- There was also a teen, coded BW1 (‘W’ presumably for ‘wood’!). The Sixteen shooting brake of those first years good chance the of peace is probably the archetypal Austin of local coachbuilder this genre - elegant, evocative and a fine, if could knock up uncustomarily fragile, car. an estate in a The basis is a car Austin Times readers are fraction of the very familiar with - the 2,199 cc, overhead time you would valve, four cylinder, BS1 saloon. Basically the body was the same as the pre- wait for a War offering and was described by the Long- conventional car bridge publicity department as ‘ideal for farm or from the Works estate’. There were monetary attractions too. The The framing was still of ash but the makers are BW1 cost £540 but estate cars were classed now cagey about the species of cladding. as ‘commercials’ and as such did not attract The coachwork from the windscreen back was the new purchase tax, while the landed gentry built by Papworth Industries in Cambridge. This could feel they were doing a bit more for Britain was a firm established to provided employment by buying a vehicle that did not consume much for tuberculosis sufferers convalescing after of the steel so vitally needed for export treatment at the nearby Papworth Hospital. products. The carpentry shops were under the control There was also a good chance the local coa- of Frank Jordon who had been head of the chbuilder - and there were many - could knock coachbuilding operation at the London General up an estate in a fraction of the time you would Omnibus Company.

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