Adventures with an Austin: a young enthusiast's first foray into vintage cars

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In January, 2023, I paid a visit to the owner of a 1929 Austin 12/4 Burnham saloon who had kept it for 60 years. Having used it as an everyday car for several years around west London, the car matured during his ownership to a wonderful state of oily-rag preservation until, eventually, he decided it was time for the car to go to a younger owner. The story of the Austin was outlined in The Automobile and was summarised here.

As I was completing the article, I learnt that the car had changed hands and gone to live with Cameron Silvester, a 32-year-old who was stepping into vintage car ownership for the first time. Now that a couple of years passed, I thought it worthwhile to follow up the story and find out how Cameron's getting on. Has he taken to the Austin like a duck to water, or was it all a flash in the pan? It was the former, of course...

Up to last year, Cameron's taste in cars had favoured the modern, high-performance variety, and the Burnham certainly stands out alongside his Lotus, TVR and Audi RS6. He explains what occasioned his sudden step back in time: "I don't have much of a background with vintage cars, but my dad bought me a 1974 Triumph 2500 TC for my 18th birthday and that was the oldest thing I'd owned until the Austin. He's had dozens of pre-war cars, including a 1935 Austin 12/6 Ascot. He saw the Burnham advertised online and bid on it, wanting to compare it to the Ascot."

Mr. Silvester won the auction, and Cameron duly offered to collect the car on his behalf and make sure it was all in good working order. "I collected it from Eastbourne, had lunch with the owner and immediately drove it home to Essex. I really liked the car and told my dad that if he didn't like it, I would buy it from him. I'd always wanted something vintage—my ideal was actually a First World War-era pick-up. He eventually drove the car and wasn't as fond of it. He found it more agricultural than the models that followed, harder to get into and harder to drive."

Cameron, as we know, was of a different mind, and if only more modern sports car enthusiasts would get the opportunity to drive a vintage machine, we could expect to see a tide of like-minded converts. After all, are not vintage cars as engaging to drive at 30 miles per hour as sports cars are at 60? The rounds around Cameron's home, near Southend-on-Sea, are not typical vintage motoring territory and have a tendency to become very congested, but that hasn't stopped him enjoying the Austin at every opportunity.

The ideal everyday car

"I use the car constantly. Whenever it's dry and the roads aren't salted, I'll go out in it. I regularly use it to run errands, go to car meets or just cruise around. It gets more attention than everything else I own combined. I regularly give rides to people who come up to me to talk about it. I haven't been on a road trip yet, but I think when next spring and summer rolls round, I will try to do one.

"It has had some periods laid up while it's been waiting for me to work on it. The shaft that drives the dynamo was totally worn and the pulley was in contact with the bolts on the front of the engine. I replaced that, along with new bearings. More recently, it started running really badly. It wanted to cut out under load, but pulling the choke helped. Assuming it was a fuel delivery issue, I chased my tail for a while before realising it was actually massively over-fuelling. I pulled the carburetter and jets to discover the fibre washers sealing them weren't in good shape, so I believe that as demand on the carburetter was increasing, it was leaking more and more fuel internally. It's as good as gold now. It needs somewhat regular attention, but it's generally simple tasks. The hardest thing is just that the technology is so old, I don't have an intuitive understanding of it."

Cameron is a member of the Vintage Austin Register, of course, and makes it his first port of call when looking for parts, although he's not attended any club rallies yet. "As I have quite a few different cars, I haven't got too deeply ingrained into the culture of any particular one. Maybe next year I'll look at what events are happening."

Cameron and the Austin seem to be a very good match. It's Austin was designed for use as a day-to-day car and its previous owner kept it as such into the 1960s, so it's heartening that it's found an enthusiastic young owner who will keep driving it in the spirit in which it was intended. The previous owner made good use of it until he reached his eighties, and we hope Cameron might, too.

He just lets slip one remark in which he gives himself away as a newcomer to the vintage world: "Going to events means having to wash the cars." Oh, no, it doesn't...

Words: Zack Stiling
Photographs: Cameron Silvester
 

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