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A British Icon With Sussex Links

Built For Nearly 50 Years

A British Icon With East Sussex Links - The A-Series.

Although the Austin Motor Company's A Series engine is a small 4 pot it is one of the most used engines in the world. Originally released with 30 Bhp in the 1951 Austin A30 it stayed in production in the Mini until the year 2000 with an output of

93 Bhp in the Metro Turbo. It was not only manufactured in the U.K at Longbridge, Cowley, but it was also manufactured in Pamplona in Spain from 1966 to 1975 and Blackheath Gauteng in South Africa between 1960 and 1980.

It was used in many different cars including Austin A30’s, Morris Minor’s, Mini Mokes and Frog Eyed Sprites to name a few but probably most famously in the Mini. The cylinder head was designed by Cornishman Harry Weslake (Weslake Research & Development) who had premises in Rye, East Sussex and who not only had great success with Jaguar and his Formula 1 winners, but Harry also got a royalty payment for every A-series produced using his cylinder head design. The A-Series was further made famous by John Cooper.

Interestingly, Austin’s A-series and some of the company’s other designs were licensed by Nissan of Japan. Nissan made many changes culminating later in their modified design the Nissan A engine. This was launched in 1966 but with many changes including an aluminium head and wedge combustion chambers.

Overall and to conclude, it is estimated that a staggering 12 Million plus vehicles globally have been fitted with an A-Series engine in one form or another including diesel, Super charged (Racing) and Turbo versions.


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