Rare Woodie: ’53 Austin A70 Hereford Countryman
Britain suffered from a lack of resources after WWII therefore many of early production cars had some creative use of materials. Early Land Rovers for example, were all the same color, Army Green, because they had a lot of paint left over. So our research tells the story of this rare bird – an Austin A70 Countryman. The engineers at Austin thought using wood was a good way to save on the amount of steel used. These were built by tuberculosis patients in recovery. It seems the factory, Papworth Industries, was situated next to Papworth Hospital and the labor costs were pretty cheap. Again, according to our research, Austin built 1,515 Hereford Countryman. The seller says 1,500 of them no longer exist making this pretty rare. They say there are only 2 of these in the USA and we can’t dispute that. This one is really nice and appears a few times on the Internet where A70 aficionados go. Not sure, but it appears some liberties may have been taken with the 6 rear tail lights. According to early photos, they should be round and in a triangular pattern. No biggie. The concours judge at Pebble Beach will probably miss it. Stand out from a crowd and buy this Countryman. Just make sure you have all of your shots. Click here for the eBay auction.