Late 1995 the car was on the road and after a few small problems we were off to Christchurch in the South Island for a Vintage Car Club International rally

On top of a ferry sailing, it was about 20 hours driving to Greymouth on the West Coast and then we rallied down the Island and then over to Christchurch.

I knew that the car had originally come from Cromwell, so while there I made a effort to trace the origins of the car. I was advised to ring a local chap called Ken Brown, After telling him about the car he astonished me by telling me that I had their old family car and that his mother, May, was still living in Cromwell. Would we show it to her? Would we ever! We were around to her house like a shot. What a great old lady. She told us about the car in its early life,how they went on a trip to Christchurch in the early 50s, how the car dropped a piston on the trip and how they found a old 12/4 lying in a farmer's paddock and how they did a motor swap on the side of the road and arrived in Christchurch with one motor under the bonnet and other one strapped to the back carrier!
A couple of other interesting things are that Ken owns two 12/4 sedans, one of them a very early 1923 model so the 12/4 bug stayed with him, The other thing is that May Brown was the sister of Les Nye. Les was a well known Dunden Austineer, affectionately know as "Uncle Les", having done his appenticeship on Austins. I have always presumed that it was this Austin connection that led May to have the Austin. I understand that Les looked after the car's maintainance

BACK HOME IN CROMWELL AFTER ABOUT 40 YEARS

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