1967 Austin A40 Farina

This little A40 is very far from frumpy, with its racing additions lifting it into something a whole lot more exciting. The model has been on the up ever since it qualified as an historic touring car, with the A40 a common sight on the grids of the Goodwood Revival (St Mary’s Trophy) and similar events across the UK and Europe. Although this trend certainly isn’t a new development, the A40 having propelled George ‘Doc’ Shepherd to a British Saloon Car Championship title way back in 1960.

With just two former keepers registered within its logbook, and seeming last taxed for the road back in 1999 but used regularly in the last 3 years, this A40 has clearly seen substantial restoration, before further transformation into a road racer. The history shows an engine build in January 2021 by MCCS Engineering, to the tune of £3500. Speaking of tunes, the vendor tells us that said powerplant is now bored out to 1340cc and has been ‘fully built’ with a reground crank, new bearings, oil pump, rally camshaft, big-valve head, re-ported all-stainless inlet and exhaust valves and roller rockers. This wee beast now ‘breathes’ through a 45DCOE Weber carburettor and Maniflow manifold. Quick gearshifts are dispensed with via a straight-cut MG Midget gearbox – fitted in March 2021 at a cost of £735.

Finished in Iris Blue, this A40 certainly leans hard into its period racing aesthetic and looks all the better for it. Its black roof is accentuated by matching black Mini-Lite style wheels, with even more black found on top of the windscreen, via a full-width decal. Soft compound Yokohama A539 tyres look like they’ll hang on in the bends and yet still disperse water if you’re caught out during in a shower. The sleek, low-drag, and lowered aesthetic is complimented further by a single little aero mirror and bracket on the driver’s side and bonnet pins up front. All oozing circuit cool.

While looking extremely shiny and presentable, presumably still relatively fresh from its full respray both inside and out as well as the restoration – according to the 2021 dates on the major mechanical components – we don’t have paperwork for the body restoration. There’s a little pitting in the front bumper, mostly on the corners, with the rear bumper has faring a little worse and showing some scratches to its offside. Seals for the windscreen and windows look near new, although we did spot that the nearside rear three-quarter window seal has come out of its channel.

Although most of the panels appear straight and with great gaps, we also noticed some room for improvement between the offside front wing and the bonnet. The vendor mentions a minor repair was required in this area, before the shell was apparently stripped, shot-blasted and then painted in epoxy 2k primer and topcoat.

For a car with racing pretensions, it’s nice to see this A40 hasn’t been stripped back to bare metal on the inside. The original seats and trim remain, aside from the driver’s side Sparco racing bucket – although an original-type replacement is included. The rear seats remain, although any occupants might want to watch their heads on the half roll cage and fire extinguisher back here. The headlining is still up and looking great, aside from a few light stains across the very rearmost section and a small hole.

Up front, the driver has additional gauges in the centre of the dash (underneath) showing oil pressure, amps & vacuum as well as front belts. There is also a set of good, tight fitting door cards and carpets that look snug and clean. As per most 1960s machines, this Austin isn’t festooned with creature comforts, there doesn’t even appear to even be a radio, though we’d imagine that raucous A Series up front provides its own ‘music’.

Speaking of which, you could eat your dinner off this A40’s engine bay, though obviously we wouldn’t recommend it! Silicone coolant hoses and a braided fuel-supply line to the carburettor, plus double throttle cables (for redundancy), all point towards a machine that takes its mechanical duties seriously.

A large alloy radiator looks like it’ll keep that racy 1340 engine cool in even the most extreme of circuit conditions. A heater box remains fitted under here, which reinforces the reversible nature of a lot of this car’s modifications. If you’d prefer, it doesn’t look as though it’d be too difficult to return this machine to more road-like original appearance, although we’d be more than happy to keep its running gear as is.

The vendor has given us an extensive run down of the car’s additional mechanical modifications that consist of the following: rear tramp bars, 1275 Midget callipers, discs and pads, race front springs, AVO rear shocks, negative camber trunnion mounts, aluminium fuel tank, roll bar, Mocal oil cooler with remote alloy catch tank, high-torque starter, Aldon distributor, competition clutch, rebuilt Midget transmission with new bearings and straight-cut gear set, LSD and Peter May two-piece shafts, plus five new alloy wheels.

The underside looks straight and clean with only minimal surface rust on a smattering of components. There are some past repair patches visible within the wheelarches, though generally the car’s metalwork under here looks straight and neat. Bolts, brackets and bushes mostly still appear like new.

There isn’t a lot of history to accompany this A40, with the oldest documentation being a handful of MoTs and tax discs charting use back to 1986. These seem to run until 1999 when, presumably, the car was taken off the road and stored. There’s also no online MoT record, which came into practice from 2006.

Aside from an extensive and fascinating MCCS Engineering build booklet for the engine (updated in April 2022), and the March 2021 invoice for its Midget gearbox work, there are just a few additional invoices for servicing and maintenance from the 1990s.

With a lot of mechanical work clearly having gone into making this A40 considerably more exciting than its factory specification cousins, and looking fabulous for it, it’s not hard to see its appeal.

The go-faster aesthetic won’t appeal to everyone however, but enough originality remains to return this to at least looking like a factory Farina, should you want to.

We’d be more than happy throwing this thing down some B-roads or around a circuit exactly as it is. Perhaps even going a step further and enjoying some historic motorsport…

We are happy to offer this car for auction with an estimate in the range of £10,000 - £15,000.

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