Austin 10, 12, 14

The Ten launched on 19 April 1932 and became Austin’s best-seller of the decade, around 290,000 built by the time it finished in October 1947. It used a 1,125cc side-valve four, 21bhp at first and 32bhp by 1939, with a four-speed gearbox that gained synchromesh on the top two ratios in 1934. The bodies carried names rather than numbers — Lichfield and Ripley in 1934, Sherborne in 1936, Cambridge and Conway in 1937 — alongside the Colwyn cabriolet, tourers, vans, pick-ups and the Tilly utility. The Twelve of 1939 to 1947 is a much rarer car, 8,600 built, with a 1,535cc side-valve four. The Fourteen is the odd one out: 1936 to 1939 only, and the only six-cylinder of the three, a 1,711cc side-valve. It was never revived after the war. New Zealand’s connection is direct — the first post-war locally assembled Austin rolled off at Petone in August 1946 from semi-knocked-down kits, and the mix was mainly Austin 8s and 10s.

May 1939 is the dividing line on the Ten. Up to 1938 it has a separate chassis. From May 1939 the body shell incorporates the floor in a semi-unitary structure, the bonnet becomes rear-hinged rather than side-opening, the grille rounds off and the cylinder head goes aluminium. That car is the GS1 and it ran through to October 1947, so a GS1 is not necessarily post-war. The Twelve kept a conventional chassis with beam axles throughout and does not share that change at all. Brakes on every one of these cars are mechanical — cable and rod at first, then Girling wedge-and-roller rod brakes in 9in drums from around 1936 — and none of them had hydraulics from the factory. That did not arrive until the A40 Devon. Electrically the Ten moved from 6 volt to 12 volt in 1934, while the Austin 8 running alongside it stayed at 6 volt.