It's another July, this time the year is 1989 and we are once more in Fleetwood for the annual Tram Sunday Festival of Transport.
This is an Austin-Healey 3000. They were built from 1959 to 1967 and had a 3 litre engine that the company claimed could do 0-100 miles per hour in 31 seconds. This was long before the days of a 70mph top limit on all roads in the UK. The white disc roadsign with a black diagonal flash really meant delimited in those days. Production ceased with the Mk.III in 1967 although three proposed Mk.IV cars were built with a 3.9 litre Rolls Royce engine. This car never made it into production however. And after all that excitement it seems that people are more interested in the contents of the butcher's shop window...
An Austin A40 Somerset. It replaced the somewhat chunky Austin Devon in 1952 and enjoyed a production run of a mere two years before it was in turn replaced by the Austin Cambridge in 1954. During that time over 173,000 were produced. This number includes sales of a convertible variant.
A Ford Prefect 100E. The four doors give it away. The Anglia only had two and the slightly later Popular had a different grill. In fact the Popular was just the Anglia refusing to stop being made when a new body shape was given the Anglia name...
In fact the very same thing had happened when the old-sit-up-and-beg Anglia changed to the shape shown previously. Production carried on as though nothing had happened and the new cars with the old shape were called the Ford Popular. Such a one was my Dad's first car.
A Vauxhall Wyvern EIX. ("EIX" - how did they pronounce that I wonder?) Produced from 1951 to 1957, they originally had huge lumps of chromed metal bar around and across the front grill like a grill with lips and an extra bumper across it that with a vertical bar made a cross over the grill opening. That dates this example here no earlier than 1955. The name Wyvern was to die out and the Victor, Velox and Cresta became Vauxhall's major models.
The impressive-looking Jaguar SS Mk.IV. The SS part of the name was dropped in 1948, not long after World War II, because of its unforgetable association with the Nazi SS. It had stood for Sports Saloon although it could also have been a reminder of Jaguar's origins as a small Blackpool-based company called Swallow Sidecars. It's successor became simply known as the Jaguar Mk.V.
The Hillman Minx. This Audax design was built from 1956 to 1967 and this is a later model as evidenced by the lack of splayed out rear fins. I had one as my first 4-wheel car and it was lovely to drive, but less so to stop...
Mystery time and a chance for readers to show off knowledge. This is a 1963 Austin Cambridge which is impossible because production of this body shape finished in 1957 or 1958 depending on whether it is an A40, A50, or A55. The A55 had a longer boot than the A40 and A50 which were identical, but the angle of the photo leaves me unable to guess. From the registration plate it must have been re-registered at some point in time. Over to you: leave a comment if you know.
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