Friday, June 4, 2010

A cagey little Austin

1960s Autin Americad - Subcompact Culture
Oh, you poor thing. Unable to get out of that cage. Well, at least until someone picks you up. I ran across this cherry late '60s Austin America on Alberta St. in Portland, OR. I unfortunately have no idea if it was for sale, being repaired, or what. Cool car, though.

4 comments:

Tomas said...

At one time I had three of that car's sister, the MG 1100 Sport Sedan (related in the same way as most Chevy and Pontiac models were).

A fantastic and fun little car, excellent Alec Issigonis design but typically British when it came to maintenance.

Andy Lilienthal said...

Very cool. I love the look of this vehicle. I wonder how hard it is to find parts?

nlpnt said...

A lot of parts are common to Classic Minis, so probably not too bad. The America listed automatic trans as standard with a stick as a delete option, the auto has something of a bad rap (sharing the engine oil just about works for a stick but a slushbox?) and it's probably a case of swapping in a 4 speed if something goes wrong.

Too bad they never sold the wagon here - it's the car John Cleese beat with a fallen tree branch.

AccentPlanetDotOrg said...

You have to find some way to buy it Thrity Nine. You just have to my friend.

In terms of parts Id strip all powertrain suspension, etc..components bare and put what Id want in it. Give it a nice 100+ HP 4 banger, trans, etc...