The
Austin A90 Atlantic was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
car produced by the
Austin Motor CompanyThe Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles that rose to be a major motorcar brand, the dominant partner after merger with Morris in 1952 but declining after absorption into the British Leyland Motor Corporation, and its subsequent troubles.-History:-1905 - 1918: Formation...
, launched initially as a sporting four seat
convertibleA convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle. Many different automobile body styles are manufactured and marketed in convertible form....
. It made its début at the 1948
Earls CourtThe Earls Court Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre, conference and event venue located in West London, England on the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. It is the second largest exhibition venue in London...
Motor Show in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, with production models built between spring 1949 and late 1950. The two-door sports
coupéA coupé or coupe is a closed car body style, the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
followed a year later; it had been previewed at the 1949 Motor Show and was in production at
LongbridgeThe Longbridge plant is an industrial site situated in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, England. Opened in 1905, Longbridge was once the largest manufacturing plant in the world. During the 20th Century the site employed many thousands of people, central to the economy of the local area...
between 1950 and 1952.
The Atlantic should not be confused with Austin's next "A90" model, the
Austin WestminsterThe Westminster series were large saloon and estate cars sold by the British Austin Motor Company from 1954, replacing the A70 Hereford. The Westminster line was produced as the A90, A95, A99, A105, and A110 until 1968 when the new Austin 3-Litre took its place...
of 1954.
The Atlantic was one of the first post-
warWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
cars engineered from scratch by Austin, and was said to be styled from a thumbnail sketch by
Leonard LordLeonard Percy Lord, 1st Baron Lambury KBE was a captain of the British motor industry.-Early life:Lord was educated at Bablake in Coventry...
, then Chairman of Austin and later the
British Motor CorporationThe British Motor Corporation was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(BMC) — though in truth the styling was more likely the work of resident
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
Austin stylist Dick Burzi.
The
Austin A90 Atlantic was a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
car produced by the
Austin Motor CompanyThe Austin Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles that rose to be a major motorcar brand, the dominant partner after merger with Morris in 1952 but declining after absorption into the British Leyland Motor Corporation, and its subsequent troubles.-History:-1905 - 1918: Formation...
, launched initially as a sporting four seat
convertibleA convertible is a type of automobile in which the roof can retract and fold away, converting it from an enclosed to an open-air vehicle. Many different automobile body styles are manufactured and marketed in convertible form....
. It made its début at the 1948
Earls CourtThe Earls Court Exhibition Centre is an exhibition centre, conference and event venue located in West London, England on the boundary between the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham. It is the second largest exhibition venue in London...
Motor Show in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, with production models built between spring 1949 and late 1950. The two-door sports
coupéA coupé or coupe is a closed car body style, the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...
followed a year later; it had been previewed at the 1949 Motor Show and was in production at
LongbridgeThe Longbridge plant is an industrial site situated in the Longbridge area of Birmingham, England. Opened in 1905, Longbridge was once the largest manufacturing plant in the world. During the 20th Century the site employed many thousands of people, central to the economy of the local area...
between 1950 and 1952.
The Atlantic should not be confused with Austin's next "A90" model, the
Austin WestminsterThe Westminster series were large saloon and estate cars sold by the British Austin Motor Company from 1954, replacing the A70 Hereford. The Westminster line was produced as the A90, A95, A99, A105, and A110 until 1968 when the new Austin 3-Litre took its place...
of 1954.
Development
The Atlantic was one of the first post-
warWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
cars engineered from scratch by Austin, and was said to be styled from a thumbnail sketch by
Leonard LordLeonard Percy Lord, 1st Baron Lambury KBE was a captain of the British motor industry.-Early life:Lord was educated at Bablake in Coventry...
, then Chairman of Austin and later the
British Motor CorporationThe British Motor Corporation was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation in 1952...
(BMC) — though in truth the styling was more likely the work of resident
ItalianItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
Austin stylist Dick Burzi. The car was almost certainly influenced by a 1946
PininfarinaPininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...
-bodied
Alfa RomeoAlfa Romeo Automobiles S.p.A. is an Italian automaker founded on June 24, 1910 in Milan. Alfa Romeo has been a part of the Fiat Group since 1986, and since February 2007 a part of Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. The company was owned by Italian state holding company Istituto per la Ricostruzione...
cabriolet, which just happened to end up at the Longbridge factory in mid 1947, a few months before the light blue 16 hp sports prototype made its first appearance in the experimental department and on nearby roads around the factory.
Export pressure and influence on design
With the then
GovernmentHer Majesty's Government is the government of the United Kingdom. Under the Constitution of the United Kingdom, executive authority notionally lies with the monarch but is exercised in practice by her ministers...
edict of "Export or die" and steel allocated only to those who generated much needed
dollarThe United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents .The U.S...
revenue, the Atlantic was designed specifically to appeal to
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
n tastes. The car featured up-to-the-minute detailing, with front wings that swept down to a rounded tail with enclosed rear wheels, a centrally mounted
fog lightThe lighting system of a motor vehicle consists of lighting and signalling devices mounted or integrated to the front, sides and rear of the vehicle...
built into the letter-box style air intake, and then unheard of luxury in the form of hydraulically powered windows and hood (roof), "flashing indicators" (rather than
trafficatorsTrafficators are semaphore signals which, when operated, protrude from the bodywork of a motor vehicle to indicate its intention to turn in the direction indicated by the pointing signal. Trafficators are often located at the door pillar.-History:...
, for the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
market at least) and the option of a radio, made by
EKCOEKCO from Eric Kirkham Cole Limited was a British electronics company producing radio and television sets from 1924.Expanding into plastic production for its own use, Ekco Plastics produced both radio cases and later domestic plastic products; the plastics company became Lin Pac Mouldings...
. The range-topping Austin was offered in a variety of "jewelescent" colours. Few people in the car's native Britain would have ever seen anything like the futuristically-styled Atlantic before, and certainly not from a conservative mainstream manufacturer like Austin.
The radical Atlantic suffered, however, from the dramatically new
Jaguar XK120The Jaguar XK120 was a sports car manufactured by Jaguar between 1948 and 1954. Jaguar's first post-war sports car, it succeeded the SS 100, which ceased production in 1940....
, launched later that year.
Disappointing sales in North America
Despite huge focus by Austin in the US (including a successful attempt at breaking a series of stock car records at the
IndianapolisThe Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana in the United States, is the home of the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race....
"Brickyard" in April 1949 by
Alan HessAlan Hess is an American architect, author, lecturer and advocate for twentieth century architectural preservation."Alan Hess [is] a prominent California architecture critic who has written extensively on roadside strips," writes the New York Times...
, Charles Goodacre and Dennis Buckley), only about 350 of the 7981 produced were sold in the United States and even a US$1000 price reduction didn't see many owners trading in their
CadillacCadillac is a luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors Company. Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mainly in North America....
s or
PackardPackard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana...
s as they felt the big four cylinder engine couldn't compare in power output to their native V8 engines — though for its time, performance was strong, with a top speed of and a 0- time of 11.2 seconds. The engine later saw service in the
Austin-Healey 100The Austin-Healey 100 is a sports car built between 1953 and 1956 by the British Motor Corporation . It was developed by Donald Healey to be produced in-house by Healey's small company in Warwick and based on Austin A90 Atlantic mechanicals...
, which was a great success in the US. A few were also used in civilian versions of the
Austin ChampThe Austin Champ was the civilian version of a British Army vehicle made by the Austin Motor Company. The army version was officially known as "Truck, 1/4 ton, CT, 4x4, cargo & FFW, Austin Mk.1" however the civilian name "Champ" was universally, if unofficially applied to the vehicle.- History :A...
.
Other markets
The car did see more success in former British Colonies,
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
and
AustralasiaAustralasia is a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes . He derived it from the Latin for "south of Asia" and differentiated the...
, where a number of cars were sold; of the total production run, roughly half were exported.
Performance
A convertible tested by the British magazine
The MotorThe Motor - not to be confused with an Australian magazine with the same name - was a British weekly car magazine founded on 28 January 1903. It was absorbed by its rival Autocar in 1988...
in 1948 had a top speed of and could accelerate from 0- in 16.6 seconds. A fuel consumption of was recorded. The test car which had the optional hydraulically powered hood and window operation (£40 extra) cost £824 including taxes.
Dynamics
The handling was poor, due to a combination of comparatively short wheelbase and rudimentary springing, coil (
independent suspensionIndependent suspension is a broad term for any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically independently of each other. This is contrasted with a beam axle, live axle or deDion axle system in which the wheels are linked - movement on one side affects...
at the front but
leaf springOriginally called laminated or carriage spring, a leaf spring is a simple form of spring, commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. It is also one of the oldest forms of springing, dating back to medieval times....
s at the rear). The underpinnings were somewhat less exotic than the all-enveloping bodywork: the chassis and running gear were based on that of the 1949
Austin HampshireThe A70 Hampshire and later A70 Hereford were large automobiles sold by the British Austin Motor Company from 1948 until 1954. They were conventional body-on-frame cars with similar styling to the smaller A40 Devon.-A70 Hampshire:...
saloon, and that in turn had been based on the entry-level
Austin A40 DevonThe A40 Devon were automobiles marketed by the Austin Motor Company from 1947 to 1952 &madash; the first post-war saloons to be produced by Austin — feauring a mix of old and new technologies...
of 1947. Prototypes were afflicted with such terrible
scuttle shakeScuttle shake is the term used for the phenomenon experienced in many convertible or open top automobiles, where due to low structural rigidity caused by the lack of a roof, the middle section of the chassis flexes, causing the bulkhead in front of the passenger compartment to move and vibrate...
that the car was almost pulled from production at the eleventh hour and only a last minute fix of a boxed chassis section resolved the situation.
Brakes were initially a mix of hydraulic (front) and mechanical (rear) with drums, replaced by a fully
hydraulic brakeThe hydraulic brake is an arrangement of braking mechanism which uses brake fluid, typically containing ethylene glycol, to transfer pressure from the controlling unit, which is usually near the operator of the vehicle, to the actual brake mechanism, which is usually at or near the wheel of the...
setup from 1951 onwards.
Longevity
A combination of no rust proofing at the factory, and styling that included a multitude of mud traps led to the same rapid corrosion as beset many rushed post-war British designs. As a result, very few cars survived into the 1960s, let alone the next century, a fact not helped by many cars being broken up to provide spares for the Austin-Healey 100. In the UK today, it is estimated that less than 30 roadworthy examples survive, with possibly the same number being restored or awaiting restoration.
External links