Magnetic Attraction: Pass & Joyce's Elegant Austin

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Many people would say the 1930s was the golden age of coachbuilding, partly because some chassis received bodies of a flamboyance that would never be repeated, but also because it was never easier to buy a pedestrian chassis and dress it up in pretty couture. Take the 1930 Austin 16/6 Magnet Coupé, bodied by Weymann to an order by the London dealership of Pass & Joyce.

It doubtless drew people to its showrooms, but there’s no evidence that more than two or three Magnet Coupés were made. Just one has survived, and that had to be rescued from dereliction, but its enthusiastic restorer has pieced together its full history from day one.

Its first owner for more than 30 years was a spinster who undoubtedly looked after it, but the ’60s were not so kind, it being owned mostly by young enthusiasts without much money. From a jazz afficionado, it passed via a future architectural conservationist to a vicar’s son who drove it to Lloret de Mar. It had a brush with a leading pop songwriter before a cold winter led to its engine’s demise, and it got worse from there, exposed to the elements on a farm. An enthusiast started the restoration in 1975, then another one took it over in 1979 and, 24 years later, saw it through to completion. The beautifully-executed restoration is now being widely enjoyed by a new owner. Zack Stiling takes a closer look in the April issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling
Photographs by Nick Clements

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