Tell me about austin america..

I'll admit that Im on CL too much. Im ok w/ that.

But today I found a 1970 Austin America barn find for $750.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/4293131111.html

Ive always a cool car from the year I was born, so tell me more about these.....

screams for 1.0L ecoboost treatment

In reply to mrwillie:I drove a borrowed one back in the day -- the steering wheel was off center - meaning it was slightly off to the right side. It was enough to bug me at the time. It was a slush box also and it was not fun. If you're looking for just basic transportation it might fit the bill but I wouldn't want it.

Cool cars but not as cool as minis so they are oft overlooked and looked down upon. Bigger and heavier but with the same motors.

Something like 90% of them sent to the US were automatics. It was BL's first attempt at an auto transmission to storm the US market. I have been looking at them for 20 years and have never seen a manual.

The vtec swap works in these just like in minis

i like the looks of them a lot

Ditchdigger wrote: Cool cars but not as cool as minis so they are oft overlooked and looked down upon. Bigger and heavier but with the same motors. Something like 90% of them sent to the US were automatics. It was BL's first attempt at an auto transmission to storm the US market. I have been looking at them for 20 years and have never seen a manual. The vtec swap works in these just like in minis i like the looks of them a lot

I like the blue alot..... are they rust magnets like most stuff from this period?

Yes they are.

Had one paid half that but mine had no floors and it was a stick...mine also had hydro elastic suspension. bags filled with anti-freeze

Garret Jenkins, aka swarfalot (RIP) had a silver one that he took me for a ride in once. Neat little cars! "Rust magnet" doesn't even begin to describe it, though. I'm pretty sure BL was researching how to make glass rust when they went out of business.

High school buddy had a stick version which I think was a 1969, he beat the cowboy shi+ out of it and it just kept running. It was too new at the time (1975) to have rust. But yeah it's basically a large overweight Mini.

I had an America engine in my Mini. Shave the head, deck the block to gain a little compression. The head responds to some porting. Add twin SUs and a LCB header and it'll wake up a little, but you're only starting with <60 HP so it won't be a rocket. The autotragic would kill it for me, so it's a swap candidate. You wouldn't meet another one on the road often.

Consider also the Austin 1800 'Land Crab' (one of the torsionally stiffest unibodys ever made up to that point). Larger, roomier and with the B series engine. Wonder if the Moss supercharger would fit on one of those?

We get them at our car show. That's worth $750. You need that.

Run away fast.

I had an MG1100.

It's a Mini, but a little bigger and a lot heavier.

CL posting already gone.

If you swap the engine, trans, steering, brakes, suspension and electrical system, you might wind up with a rusty car that you could stand to drive...maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b67l_yxUc

Edit- I'd forgotten where I got the phrase, "Vicious bastard!" I've certainly used it enough.

There is one for sale on CL in either Los Angeles or San Fransisco. Didn't link since the asking price was $5200 which seems crazy.

Prior girlfriend had one. It was worse than my '73 Vega...(by a lot)

RUN AWAY

I bought one a year or so ago for $700 which I still had it..

British cars of this era were positive ground, if that matters to you...,

at least there was something positive about them

djsilver wrote: British cars of this era were positive ground, if that matters to you...,

That will mesh nicely with a negatively charged aura!

mrwillie wrote:

Ditchdigger wrote: Cool cars but not as cool as minis so they are oft overlooked and looked down upon. Bigger and heavier but with the same motors. Something like 90% of them sent to the US were automatics. It was BL's first attempt at an auto transmission to storm the US market. I have been looking at them for 20 years and have never seen a manual. The vtec swap works in these just like in minis i like the looks of them a lot

I like the blue alot..... are they rust magnets like most stuff from this period?

looks cool but I would rather have...

British cars of this era were positive ground, if that matters to you...,

as someone who knows nothing about electricals, and so probably would never buy a british car, what does that mean?

djsilver wrote: British cars of this era were positive ground, if that matters to you...,

If you want to put a modern sound system in one it's best to change them to negative ground. However, do not do that without having the tachometer switched to accept negative ground. If you don't the tach. will short out as soon as you hook the cable up and turn the key.

Datsun1500 wrote: In reply to Graefin10: What's to switch on the tach? They are cable driven on stuff this old. Single cable from the distributor to the gauge. Nothing electrical there.

I was just talking about Brit. cars in general and thought I'd pass on a lesson I learned the hard way. It's not unheard of for a project builder to try to put a late electric tach. into a neg. ground car.