Lord Austin

12/4 Specifications

My 12/4 Saloon

My 12/4 Open Road Tourer

Other 12/4s

Veteran Austins

Austin Twenty

Sixteen Six

Forum

For sale & Wanted

Photo Album

Photos Birmingham Centenial rally

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Links

A DVD of the Austin Centenary Celebrations 9-10 July 2005

It features the procession from Birmingham Town Hall to Cofton Park

A coach trip visiting Local Landmarks associated with the Austin events in Cofton Park. Slideshows of 70 cars that attended & finishing with a Slideshow giving the history of Herbert Austin & the Company. Available in PAL & NTSC versions at 9.99GB Pounds including WW packing & post Email here

There have been literally millions of words written about the Austin 7, but very few about the other cars produced by the factory
Everyone I meet seems to have had something to do with a Austin 7 sometime in their life, even I own one, it is a nice little 1937 Open road tourer,we call him Gumpy

I also restored a 1928 Chummy called Buttercup but I also have two 12/4 Austins. One is a 1929 saloon and the other is a 1928 Open Road tourer

Besides the Veteran cars, the larger vintage Austins started with the Austin Twenty

However the Austin 12/4 went into production in 1922 and continued, in Taxi form long after the seven ceased production in 1939
The early cars had 2 wheel brakes a narrow chassis and wheel base. The 3 models of Austin produced by the factory all went from 2 wheel to 4 wheel brakes in 1925

You can click here to read the announcement in "The Motor" in September 1924. The new braking system was described as being "simple", but the description is anything but!

I really have no idea how anyone was expected to understand it, even if you know how it really does work it is hard to follow

The early cars also had a short stroke motor and the later ones had the stroke lengthened. All long stroke motors have " L" stamped after the serial number.

The cylinder heads also changed, the very early cars had a low compression head. I am unsure of when the heads changed but I am certain that someone will email me and let me know. I suspect it may have only been for the first couple of years while the motor had roller rockers Photos showing the different heads are available here.

In August 1928 the factory produced the 16/6 model. This was a 6 cylinder car with the same body as the 12/4, the same internals in the gearbox. The motor was squeezed into the same space under the bonnet and it was such a tight fit that the timing chain was put at the back of the motor. The 16/6 had wire wheels which then became a optional extra for the 12/4

I do not profess to be an expert on the 12/4 model but hopefully these pages will shed some knowledge about the cars and the forum will allow questions to be asked so that the information on various aspects will be of help to us all

I will over a time try and get articles onto this site and if anyone has any helpful information on the model, please contact me for inclusion here. There is a hints & tips page so any useful tips would be welcome

If you have restored or own a 12/4 send me the details and photos and we can put it up here for all to share. Even if it a Austin of any model and you would like to keep us up to date with your work we can keep an eye on your progress here

This 1922 12/4 with engine number 1818 was recently for sale in New Zealand

It came to NZ as a Cab & Chassis and was used By the Palmerston North Coal Company as a truck all its life. The truck part disintergrated but the rest still looks good after 83 years!

This Austin12 tourer was for sale on e-bay Australia

A challenge for someone?