North West Casual Classics

This 1948 Austin 16 is a 2.2 litre car that was built by Austin from 1945 to 1949.  Whilst it used a brand new 4-cylinder 2199 cc, overhead-valve engine—the first to be used in an Austin car, it in fact used the chassis and body of the pre-war Austin 12, which continued to be manufactured alongside other makes.  The steering is by a cam and lever system which provides a dual ratio to ease parking.  The suspension is  an all elliptic (overslung in front, underslung at the rear) with rigid beam axles all controlled by Luvax-Girling double acting hydraulic shock absorbers—a transverse torsion bar linking both pairs.

Nigel F was initially attracted to the car because of it’s colour.  He had been looking for a Riley RMB but, as he was being particularly picky his search was slow.  The Thirties car styling was attractive to him and as the ’16’ is an upgrade of a Pre-War car, namely the ’12’ he was hooked.

It was for sale in Altrincham so, he thought there would be no harm in checking it out.  Several boxes of history came with the vehicle, including loads of receipts; letters; the names and addresses of ALL the previous owners, the first of which had been Edinburgh’s Chief Constable, Sir William Booth Rennie Morren CBE who has quite a history himself.

He has been able to get images of every house it has been registered to (bar one) including one in South Carolina, USA!  On purchase the condition is much as you see it now but he has done many small jobs like converting the trafficators to the flashing sort and the ignition to electronic, not that you’d know.

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