10th September 1980

Dear Editor,

The tractor illustrated on P5 of 1980C is not a Longbridge product, although it is built with Austin Seven units. I have seen one before. I was in the second year of my apprenticeship in 1927 when the tractor shown was registered and can assure Phillip Merrills that it was not built by Austin. You refer to an elderly employee at Austin who remembered making the tractors. I think he was referring to the tractors which Austin built at Longbridge between 1919 and 1926. A second factory was opened at Liancourt in France which I visited and this factory continued making Austin tractors until the end of World War II. They introduced a Diesel version in 1938. I still have in my archives pictures and details of both the British and French tractors. Lucien Rosengart was involved in the French version. I also have photo graphs of myself ploughing with them on the works farm at Longbridge. I have catalogues of the French and British machines and a pencil sketch I drew in 1929 when we were making 2 new 3 speed prototypes, one for Longbridge and one for Liancourt. I recently supplied B.L. Heritage Museum with a radiator badge in cast brass which I had since 1926 and a handbook and catalogue for their own Longbridge version.

I was glad to see the photo of Bill Depper with 'Grasshopper', COA-121, I shared the original car, AOX-3, unblown but later blown, with Wallis Milton in the works trials team. At the time I was working for Colonel Arthur Waite, Lord Austin's son-in-law, who was a Director and also Racing Director which included all competition. He sent me on a number of Trials and Rallies and I was timekeeper in the racing team. The first trials car Wallis and I shared was a 1931 fabric saloon with one of the Ulster T.T. engines and prototype 4 speed box. It was faster than the road holding could cope with. The next was a 1932 Ten with high and quick lift camshaft, synchromesh box, aluminium head, downdraught carburettor, van springs, low ratio final drive, close ratio 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and many other special features. Then we had an early '65' (Nippy) with pressure fed crank in its Ulster engine and finally AOX-3, made to measure with adjustable pedals and seat squab. I could tell many stories of encounters on the road with unsuspecting drivers of Brooklands Riley and Sunbeam 3 litre cars who did not understand how apparently standard Austin Sevens could be so fast. The third gear performance of the 1931 fabric saloon on Long Compton Hill near Banbury was quite incredible and we were stopped by the Riley driver who insisted on seeing under the bonnet. He saw the of-side of the engine only and did not realise that on the near-side, the Ulster exhaust had been swept down under the running-board and the 'goodies' invisible from the off-side.

Lord Austin insisted on all trials cars looking like standard touring cars until Singer started running a team of special Le Mans cars. He then agreed to let us have AOX-3 which caused quite a stir on the road at first.

It is not generally known that Lord Austin built a 200 h.p. all aluminium Over Head Camshaft engine (4 cylinder) and a 380 h.p. all aluminium, O.H.C. V-12 cylinder engine in 1910. He took the water speed record in 1910 with 'Irene', christened after his daughter, who in 1918 married Arthur Waite. In 1911 he built ‘Irene II’ and took the record again. In 1912 and 1913 Thomas Sopwith won races with 'Maple Leaf IV’ which had two of the V-12engines. After World War I, Arthur Waite planned to put the V- 12 into the Austin Twin-Drive space-frame lorry chassis of 1913 vintage and attack the land speed record but the financial problem which occurred at that time prevented him from making the attempt. The Twin-Drive had separate propeller shafts for each rear wheel and with the space-frame resulted in a very low platform height. I have photos of the truck which I used to drive around the works and also of the engines.

With kind regards,

Yours sincerely,

FREDDIE HENRY