Staying Power

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We’re all familiar with the friendly face of the Austin ‘Heavy’ 12/4, which is to many people the very archetype of the Vintage car. So ubiquitous is it that it maybe you’ve never stopped to consider one properly. Why is it so popular, and is it really that good?

Don’t be misled by the Austin badge, if the name to you is synonymous with Sevens, and therefore with cars built down to a price. The 12/4 was the spiritual successor to the big Edwardian Austins built for the well-off middle-classes. Though competitively-priced, it was not cheap relative to rival 12hps from Morris and Bean, but it still found 84,000 buyers.

The reason for this came down to the maxim ‘what you pay is what you get’. Though the Austin may have cost an extra £50, it was built to an uncommonly high standard. While some 12s, like the partitioned Iver, were really entry-level luxury cars, their cheerleaders will extol their engines over and above anything else. The strong and solid chassis was built first with a 1660cc and then an 1861cc four, so performance was respectable if not exactly hair-raising, and the engines themselves were as good as indestructible.

One enthusiast drove his faithful 1929 Burnham saloon for 60 years and, in all that time, couldn’t find a bad word to say about it. Zack Stiling learns what a joy the Austin 12 is in the March issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words and photographs: Zack Stiling

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