1948 Austin Sixteen
No Reserve

New for 2023, Reduced Buyers Premium: 5% + VAT

Registration No: FED 353
Chassis No: BS1-24305
MOT: Exempt

Motor Car Location: North Wales

• Three owners from new with current ownership for approximately 50 years
• Believed to have been last used on the road in 1975/76 (with accompanying MOT certificate)
• Genuine ‘garage find’ example, having been recently discovered alongside a Facel Vega and MGA
• Offered without reserve

Introduced in the summer of 1945, the Sixteen (16hp) had actually been announced in September 1944. Outwardly, it was identical to the 12hp side valve-engined model that had appeared immediately before the outbreak of war in 1939, but it enjoyed the significant advantage of a larger overhead-valve engine displacing 2,199cc which could propel the 16hp car to a claimed top speed of 75 mph. This engine proved very successful and went on to be used in a number of other vehicles including the A70 and commercial vehicles like the Gypsy, K8 van, and FX3 taxi. Bored out to 2,660cc the same design of engine was later used in the Austin A90 Atlantic and the Austin-Healey 100/4. The Sixteen proved considerably more successful than its 12hp sibling, outselling it four to one before production ceased in 1949. One escapade which helped the Sixteen achieve this sales success was a publicity run carried out for the Austin Motor Company by a team of three new cars during the extremely harsh winter of 1947. Led by Alan Hess, Austin's publicity manager, the cars visited seven northern European capitals in seven days, arriving with great fanfare at the Geneva Motor Show. Hess later set down the story of this adventure in his book Gullible's Travels.

Supplied new to the United Kingdom on the 16^th of September 1948, being registered new in the Warrington region, ‘FED 353’ was purchased by its first keeper Charles T. Trevers Esq. of Warrington when new. The Austin has resided in the North West of England and North Wales ever since, being sold to the second keeper, a Ms. Ada Waters of Prestatyn in 1965. Purchased by the deceased vendor (also of the Prestatyn area) some fifty-seven years ago, the Sixteen has not been MOT tested since December 1975, when it was tested by Prestatyn Motor Co. at an indicated mileage of 53,040 miles. Now offered as a genuine ‘garage find’ example, having been recently discovered alongside a Facel Vega (being offered at Buxton in April) and an MGA, the Austin is now offered as a full restoration project. Offered with the front grille (albeit not pictured), the Sixteen is accompanied by the original buff logbook and aforementioned MOT certificate from 1975.

For more information, please contact:
Paul Cheetham
paul.cheetham@handh.co.uk
07538 667452