I had an Austin 1100 car and I had just bought it from a man who said he had taken good care of it and hadn't driven it over 40 mph . He asked me to take good care of it. I agreed,  then started for home.The car was perfect inside and outside it shone. The engine quietly purred along with no exhaust noises. The problem was it didn't have much power. I knew the remedy for that, I got on a good straight away and floored the gas pedal, I held it there for about a minute watching the smoke pour out behind. Then as I came into the twisty bits I kept it down as much as possible. I threw it round corners using the front wheel drive in a lower gear to pull me through the corners which left me well on the gas as I came out. I was passing the locals in their Austin A 40 cars and their Austin A30 and 35 cars like they were stopped. A few got mad and tried to keep up but couldn't. I thrashed it all the way home and by the time I got it there it was wasn't like the car that the old man sold me. Now I could spin the front wheels on take off and the engine revved out in the gears like never before. Being in my twenties this was what I needed. I drove it to work every day and got lots of compliments. Well Friday night arrived and I got my girl friend and my brother and his girl and we all set out  for a night out. I was loving the comments on how new the car looked especially from the ladies. This put me and my brother high on the list of people to be seen with in the local social circle. Both girls were sitting a lot closer and being more friendly than normal. This was going to be a good night out. I could see in the rear-view mirror my brothers girl in the back seat with her arm round his shoulders. We were looking good as we drove through the nearby town heading for a local dance. I could see my friends in their rusty fords and granddads Morris Minor cars heading the same way and pretending to not notice me . We finally cleared the town with that lot close behind. Now I could put my foot down and leave them, so I did just that. Life was good, suddenly the back wheels locked up and we screeched to a tyre smoking stop. It was unbelievable how long the black streaks on the road were and the car was full of burned rubber smoke. We all  casually got out and walked round the car looking for something wrong as that lot cheerily breezed past looking happy. After a good look round we found that there was just no metal in the sills, just completed rusted out from the front wheel to the back totally. Other than that small thing  we could find nothing wrong. so we got in again and moved the car forward, it went just fine, so we all got back in and set out again I used that front wheel drive to speedily catch up with the other gang and then quickly put them in my rear view mirror. It was easy to pull away from them and the girls were impressed with my driving urging me faster. I could see the other gang in my mirror hanging on as they rolled their cars into and through the corners desperately trying to stay with me. We were all having a good time as we entered a short straight section with a small bridge over a stream, we literately floated over it on the hydrolastic suspension that the Austin had. With the liquid under pressure and moving quickly from the front to the back as we hit bumps it was so smooth. As we floated back down to earth, it happened again, the back wheels locked up and threw my brother and girl  almost over our shoulders into the front seat. In the front seats we were crammed against the dash with the steering wheel in my face. We shuddered to a stop again, but now everybody had seen it happen. Wow did we lose face as they all flew by hanging out the windows and cheering happily. By now the girls were totally fed up but after another fruitless inspection we set out again carefully. All went well until the dance hall was in sight as we came over a slight rise. This time we all had seat belts on as we smoked to a stop again. Two doors opened and out got the girls who proceeded to walk the short distance to the dance hall without a backward glance. Once again nothing to show for it but bad back tires.We went to the dance but left early as word got around about the car. We drove home and it never did it once. After two weeks of driving to work and around town the car behaved great. Well two friends of mine that were a little hefty asked if I could give them a lift to the dance. They got in the back and off we went, we didn't get a mile out of town when it happened again going down a hill with a bump half way down. The guys in the back didn't see much point in getting out, it wasn't their car after all. I know we were on a hill and the wheels were locked, but out of habit I put on the hand brake between the seats, but I couldn't, it  was in the off position but wouldn't move. We got out with our brains churning with that bit of evidence. After a quick look underneath we could see the hand brake cables like guitar wire. I yelled at the back seat guys to get out and was able to see the cables relax slowly. I watched in disbelief as they slackened. I also was in disbelief as the car started rolling down the hill driverless. I did a quick sprint and saved the day . Now we knew what was happening. With one person the car was fine but with a full load when we drove over a rise or bump the car was stretching in the middle when we came off the bump. That was tightening the hand brake cables and yanking on the back brakes. With the sills totally rusted out the car was bending in the middle. I quickly fixed that,  from then on I drove the car on my own!!! and it went great. There were no vehicle inspections  back then in Ireland. I sold the car 6 months later and told the buyer not to carry passengers and showed him why. He said he only wanted it for going to work and drove off happily. I never saw the car again.  

John Burrows

My brother and I were in his Austin Mini in the sixties and we were out in the country side discussing the fact that the hydrolastic suspension on his mini appeared a bit low. He said he was going to get it checked asap. Just then we saw a lone gas station and needing gas we pulled in. It was one of those places with one pump an air line and a little shack where the attendant sat. I waited in the car while he got the gas. It seemed to be taking a while so i started to get out and was just in time to see the light fiberglass roof covering the air compressor leap skyward with a bang. I was amazed at this but apparently my brother wasn't cos he was jumping in the driver seat and yelling at me to get in quick. I did,  not knowing why. As we raced off down the road I asked him why the hurry?. He answered with a harebrained story. Well he said he had been looking at the hydrolastic system earlier that day and noticed that there was this valve on the rear subframe just under the rear bumper and it looked just like a tyre valve.  As he was pumping the gas a great idea hit him. Yes, he thought, if I hooked up the station air line to his austin mini hydrolastic suspension (which unknown to him was under hundreds of pounds of pressure) so that's why i saw the roof come off the air compressor housing, needless to say the austin mini was now sitting somewhat lower !!!.

John Burrows

The car was purchased new in 1960 by a little old lady (True story) (Miss Eileen O’Regan) who lived in Enfield, (an outer suburb of Sydney NSW.) She was the sole driver and only drove the car on weekends as she worked in the city and caught the train to work every day. The furthest Miss O’Regan ever drove the car was to the Blue Mountains to “The Entrance” about one hours drive from her home.

In 1981 she could no longer drive the car due to her failing health. The car had only travelled 17,100 Miles at this time and was parked in her garage and left there but she continued to licence it.

In 1986 the next door neighbour (Mr Ziakas) purchased the car from Eileen and she agreed to allow him to store the car in her garage as long as he wished. Mr Ziakas could not drive a manual column change vehicle but had intentions of learning, unfortunately for him it was never to be, the car just sat in the garage until it was sold to me in March 2007.

Eileen O’Regan was an only child, never married and lived in Enfield for nearly eighty (80) years. In early 2007 reaching the age of 90 she moved to a nursing home which in turn saw her house sold and unfortunately for Mr Ziakas he had to remove the car from her garage. Having never driven the car in the 20 years since he bought it he decided to sell, which was fortunately for me.

The A60 Cambridge (Australian built) which was in Sydney then had to be trucked over to Perth. 
Having got it home, it was time to check it over. After repairing the fuel pump, overhauling the carbie and completely overhauling the brakes, fitting new radial tyres (The original 1960 tyres were still on it ) I cranked it up, and away it went. Now I have a beautiful 1960 Austin A60 Cambridge Sedan in “Original condition” which has passed the full police licence inspection and even after 47 years has only travelled a total of 17,358 Miles. ( I believe the Australian A60 was a A55 Mk II Farina in the U.K. )

The 1934 A12/6 belonged to a very nice guy in Melbourne who unfortunately had to sell the car due to financial problems, so I trucked it over to Perth to join the other Austins.

The car has an A12/6 Richards Body, the last one of forty built and still running I beleive. It was built by a company in Adelaide (Australia) called T.J.Richards, apparently it was hard to get a complete from the Austin factory so they shipped out the chassis and running gear and built the bodies in South Australia and Victoria.

Do not know much of this cars history either but it was used as a Wedding car in Melbourne.

Tom Turnbull. August 2007

At the Churchill Rally June 2004


Mini Clubman 1977 - VTT76S (1098cc)

The vehicle was first registered on 1st September 1977 to a Mrs White whose husband had recently suffered a heart attack; this was to enable her to transport him about. Then after 25 years at the age of 91 she decided to sell her house and move into a home. Her son took the car over at this stage, which had achieved 22100 miles since new, he spent some time and money getting it up to scratch mechanically. Then in 2003 due to personal circumstances I was in need of a runabout, so when the opportunity came to purchase, I jumped at it.

At this time I was working for consultants in Worcester who had the contract to re-develop the recently reduced part of the MG Rover site. After the collapse of MGR in April 2005, I was located to the Longbridge site in August 2005 to oversee the removal of the machinery and equipment purchased by Nanjing. The mini became a common site there from that date until July 2006 when I decided that as the mileage had crept up to just under 44000, it deserved to be retired off and used only on special occasions.

Apart from a fair amount of mechanical replacement which has not been expensive, the only panel to be replaced so far has been the offside wing. It still is a lot of fun to drive and when last checked was doing 41 mpg.

Part of it duties whilst at Longbridge was to transport me about the site, this picture was taken in the New West Works after removal of all the equipment.

Tom Thurrell