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Following on from Jim Stringer’s first book An Austin Anthology, this second volume features 20 more stories relating to the Austin Motor Company, its products and the people who purchased them.
The author takes a look at the very first Austin to be built, and discovers why it was able to be offered to the public so quickly after the Company’s formation only a few month’s earlier. He also uncovers how the single-cylinder Austin Seven, whilst designed at Longbridge, was actually built at the Swift Motor Car factory in Coventry, and offered as a Swift or an Austin. In 1908 Herbert Austin produced four 100hp racing cars to compete at the French Grand Prix in Dieppe. But what happened to them afterwards? And is the only survivor, now on display at the British Heritage Museum, Gaydon as genuine as it would appear?
And then there is the story of Daisy Fearon, whose only means of transport was a 1928 Austin which she’d owned since 1931. As Daisy aged, her driving became less and less predictable, causing those who knew her to run for cover when she was seen at the wheel.
An amusing and nostalgic collection of stories, illustrated with original period photographs, An Austin Anthology II is bound to entertain and delight all Austin enthusiasts.
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Jim Stringer bought his first Austin, a 1935 10hp Lichfield, as a teenager, but once he passed his driving test he paid £35 for a 1929 six-cylinder 16-horsepower fabric bodied saloon – a car he still owns today. He quickly became a member of the Vintage Austin Register and has been a member for nearly 60 years. He has served on the committee in various roles including Honorary Secretary, Chairman and Editor of the Register’s quarterly magazine for 17 years, after which he was made a Life Member and Vice President back in the late 1990s. He has spent his retirement researching the history of the Austin Motor Company and has written several books, including the Austin Anthology series and Herbert Austin's Heavy Twelve-Four. The late Mike Worthington-Williams said, “No one is more qualified to write this book than Jim Stringer. I doubt if any living person knows more about the Austin Heavy 12/4 than he does."
Jim’s love affair with Austins started as soon as he was born, when he was brought home from the hospital through the debris-strewn streets of West London in the comfort and safety of a 1935 Austin Taxicab, owned by a neighbour. As soon as he was old enough to drive, much to his father’s dismay, he bought a 1929 Austin 16/6 with rare ‘Fabric’ Saloon coachwork, for the princely sum of £35. Despite being told NOT to put the car in the garage, Jim defied his father and almost destroyed the doors at the far end of it when putting the car away for the first time, having depressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake. That same Austin still holds pride of place in the Stringer household to this day. During the years that Jim worked with the Austin Register and its magazine, he started to undertake research into many hitherto untold stories concerning Austin vehicles and aeroplanes and of course the people who purchased them, drove them, flew them, or were simply involved in their manufacture. It is these stories which form the basis of this second anthology, added to which are a couple of humorous items taken from contemporary Austin Journals.
