Ok, what's this wee beastie? Tread carefully, all may not be what it seems! One point if you can give me a full and detailed answer.....
Moving up...
AUSTIN HEREFORD ESTATE , heavily modified , I think it was fitted with a Healey 3000 engine , feature done on this car back in the 70s in Autosport magazine .
you're on the right track, although I don't think that's enough for a lock in this case.
Although it was Healey-powered, when this photo was taken (as far as i know) it wasn't! For a point I need you to come up with the name of the builder, and the engine it was running here.... any other details will be welcome, of course!
Pros should get this quickly....
No pros know?
Don't let this one slip into the hole of no return! this has been featured in at least two magazines over the years, the information is out there and just waiting to be found!
Frank Grounds?
Not him, this is a much more amateur job.
Thanks for the (timely) photo though, I'd not seen that one before!
I can't help feeling that we're missing something here - I'm sure I am! I've just drawn a blank with this so far.
It looks like an Austin A70 Hereford - the A40 Somerset looks superficially similar, but the frontal treatment is different. The sculpting over the rear wheel arch is not typical of the saloon, so it looks as if this estate conversion is based on the pickup truck version (same as the Frank Grounds one).
But other things are nagging. The preamble refers to it as "this wee beastie". Irony, perhaps, as the A70 was quite a substantial vehicle? Then there are those perforated wheels. They are not typical of an A70, though I'm not sure what they are from.
So is this a modified A70, or is it another car which has been re-bodied to look like one?
As you can tell, I'm floundering on this one. Does any of this make any sort of sense?
This vehicle started life as a 1951 Austin A70 pick-up and was acquired in 1952 by Jim Targett, an agricultural engineer-cum-Jaguar tuner, who was based in Wiltshire, UK.
He turned it into his personal Q-car by completely stripping the body, strengthening the chassis and adding Koni shock absorbers and a front anti-roll bar. At the rear the live rear axle was retained but coils springs, twin trailing arms, an A bracket, anti-roll bar and four Koni dampers were grafted on. Brakes were modified to discs and a servo added.
Body modifications included an estate car rear section to cover the pick-up load space and the addition of some glass-fibre panels to the bonnet and the fitment of an Austin A35 grille.
The original interior seats were replaced by those from a Citroen 2CV and the dashboard was modified to contain a full set of instruments. An Austin-Healey 100/4 engine replaced the original humble unit.
Later modifications included the fitting of a tuned 3.8 litre Jaguar engine, a Citroen Light 15 steering system and a set of Dunlop racing wheels from a Lister Jaguar!
The net result of these extensive modifications was a 25 cwt Q-car capable of out-performing Porsches, Mini-Coopers and the like.
Strange - yes, but don't forget this was in the early 1950s.
Excellent!
That's exactly the sort of detailed answer I was looking for, I cant add anything else to that! Well done woodinsight