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For those who have never heard of it, the A70 Hampshire is the epitome of shite postwar motoring. Thirsty and lumbering, only 35000 were made between 1948 and 1951 before it morphed into the A70 Hereford. They have a four cylinder, OHV 2199cc engine, coupled to the usual Austin four-speed column change gearbox. They were based loosely on the outgoing Austin 16, and had overhead valves and independent front suspension - plus hydraulic brakes on the front - impressive stuff in 1948.
Nowadays, they’re extremely rare. They never sold well to begin with, and most were scrapped back in the 60s. Now, I don’t think there’s even 10 left on the road. Even the Austin Counties Car Club national rallies fail to attract more than one or two. But, they’re not in any way desirable. While the very similar but sportier A90 Atlantic is starting to attract the attention of the kind of people who normally wouldn’t touch a lowly Austin with a barge pole, the Hampshire is unloved and forgotten. Most people have never heard of it and think it’s a Devon. While the Atlantic was seen as quite special even in the fifties and sixties, and hence people kept hold of them, Hampshires were just another boring family car so 99% of them were scrapped in the 1960s. Low values, and tiny numbers of survivors mean no panels have been remade for them and so restoring one as rough as this appeared to be looked a challenge. In my opinion, the A70 Hampshire is the holy grail of Counties Austins due to the rarity and obscurity. I’ve wanted one for years but they very rarely come up for sale.
Anyway, I, and many others, assumed LOB 284 had been dragged out of some lockup somewhere, where the owner had died and hadn’t paid rent for years. It was the logical explanation. I liked the look of it though. Of course it needed a lot of welding, but it looked ever so original, with its lovely Bluemels front numberplate still intact (so often ditched by stupid owners for ghastly repros) and the original Birmingham reg number. It was still on the DVLA website, last taxed 1988.
I didn’t do anything about it but thought about the car regularly. More recently, I tried to find out if the car was still there. The consensus was that it had gone. I was quite sad, thinking it had been removed and destroyed by some “authorised contractor” probably at huge cost to Mansfield taxpayers. Anyway, I eventually stopped procrastinating and sent an email to the council, asking what happened to the car and identifying myself as an Austin Counties Car Club member, very concerned about the welfare of this rare survivor. A very nice lady answered me, saying she was going to forward my enquiry onto the depot.
About a month passed then out of the blue I had an email from a man called Steve, identifying himself as the owner of LOB 284. He had been handed my details by his employer. “It is for sale”. was included in his email, along with his phone number. Uh-oh. I need another project car like I need a hole in the head. But, I ended up calling him, and he gave me a little bit more info about it.
His uncle had bought it secondhand in 1959. Steve said he travelling in it in the early ‘60s when he was very young. His uncle had it until about 2018 when he died and he’d inherited it. Being short of space, he’d initially stored it at his workplace, which is where it was photographed. It was now safe on his driveway. No, he had no intention of scrapping it but had come to the realisation he wasn’t going to get around to doing anything with it, and being sat outside wasn’t doing it any favours.
I asked him how much he wanted. “Make me a sensible offer” he said. I hate doing this and wasn’t prepared to drive all the way up to Derbyshire (where the car was) only to find he had unrealistic expectations and wanted a couple of grand for it. Fortunately, a good friend of mine, and classic car enthusiast, who lives not far away, offered to view it on my behalf, as the photos from the seller didn’t seem to be forthcoming. He did so, and his verdict was: restorable. Pretty good interior, under the mould, and complete, but very rusty. The engine turned over ok. He couldn’t actually inspect the back or passenger side of the car, due to it being parked against two walls on a very narrow driveway, but the bits he could see didn’t look great. Although the boot floor was solid and there was a brand new rear wing on the back seat (which the seller hadn’t even mentioned) which his uncle had bought to replace the fucked one. What a find!
After taking advice from the owners club (who reckoned it was realistically a spares car) I rang the seller and put my case to him. I promised it a good, dry home, where it will be welded up and eventually returned to the road. I lowballed him, we haggled a bit then agreed a price. How exciting!
I obviously then needed to get it shifted 160 miles. I decided to go with the shiters’ choice for car transport, Worldofceri who did a great job, thoroughly recommended. He did have a bit of a game extracting it from the previous owners driveway, due to having two flat tyres on the near side.
That’s the previous owner, looking happy at the prospect of having his driveway back!
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