Went out to look at several Austin America's currently advertised on
KSL.com and recalled my last encounter with the the make more than 30
years ago . . . .
The Austin America . . . little known and long forgotten small British
sedan. It was one of the pioneer front-wheel-drive cars in America.
They had a fleet of them at Airways Rent-a-Car here in Salt Lake in
about 1969. My best friend, David was the manager there and was a BMC
enthusiast who had owned, at different times, a Metropolitan, an MG
Midget MkI and eventually bought my Sprite the first time I sold it. He
had also worked in parts at our local BMC franchise which had the new
Austin America proudly displayed in its show room. It was his idea to
buy a bunch of the cars (at about $1800 each) to add to the Airways
"sub-compact" fleet in Salt Lake. Unfortunately things didn't work out
so well and Airways was not pleased with all the constant repairs, the
worst of which was the automatic transmission that would go out every
5,000 miles or so. After only 6 months in service they decided to get
rid of these little pigs and sold them off for about $600 to $750 each
as I recall. One went to Los Angeles where an unhappy owner experienced
the dreaded transmission slippage immediately. David decided to
exchange a nice blue one for the slipping-trans yellow one. I had the
opportunity(?) to drive the blue one down there and limp home in the
yellow one. On the way down a friend and I went through Reno to see the
Harrah Automobile Collection (the REAL Harrah collection, back when
hundreds of cars filled several the warehouses). The trip turned out
to be a great adventure and to our surprise neither car left us
stranded. However, I managed to run the blue one out of gas about 20
miles shy of Reno at about 2:00 am and coasted off the freeway and into
a closed station to steal some gas out of the hose if possible. The
station was at the bottom of the ramp and was one of those old vintage
type stations right out of the 40s which consisted of a little old metal
building with hundreds of small-paned windows, one small pump island
with two old pumps. As we coasted in we could hear a strange squishing
sound sort of like driving on wet gravel. Turned out it was a layer of
green stink bugs that formed a sort of carpet around the gas pumps.
What a stinky mess that was. I had to get out and walk around on the
mushy green slime. And, despite my best efforts I could get NO gas from
either of the hoses. And we didn't even have any fumes in the tank.
There seemed to be a town just over the hill which was apparent from the
lights that glowed into the damp night air. No way to get the car there
by pushing so we looked around and found an old tractor sitting next to
the station. We wondered if it might have some gas in it. I took an
empty Coke can and went over and pulled the gas line off the tank which
was located above the engine. I filled the can with some very odd
smelling fuel from the tractor (which I'm sure was making a toxic brew
when mixing with the residual Coke in the can) then tiptoed through the
green mush to add the precious liquid to the Austin. I had no idea if
this fuel I had salvaged was even combustible. The smell of the green
stink bug guts was overwhelming. About that time a dog started barking
about 100 yards up a little dirt road from the station then a guy came
out on his porch and started yelling at us. "What the f * ck are you
doing?!!!" he shouted. I hurried and dumped the rest of the gas in the
Austin then prayed it would start. It fired right up and I popped the
lever into D (probably screwing up the trans on this car too!) and we
roared off into the night. We drove over the hill to find that the
lights we had seen were coming from one source . . . a Gas-a-Mat station
about a half mile down the road. Gas-a-Mat was the very first
coin-operated, serve-yourself station, a new trend we felt certain would
NEVER catch on! We motored into the station and started checking our
wallets for quarters since that was the only coin that would operate the
pumps. (Self-serve credit cards were still years in the future.)
Being 2:00 in the morning there was, of course, no one there to make
change. The place was deserted and there wasn't a sole around. We
scrounged up one quarter which in those days would buy nearly a gallon
of gas. I put it in the pump and started getting my 2-bits worth of
gas. Out came the fuel which I hoped would dilute the questionable gas
we stole from the tractor. I figured we could make it to Reno on the 25
cents. To my surprise the pump did not cut off after it reached 25
cents! It kept pumping and pumping. I filled the tank till it was
running over the top and the pump was still eager to give us as much
fuel as we wanted. With nothing to add fuel to it seemed a shame to
waste this rare opportunity. We briefly considered laying the pump
nozzle on the ground full open and tossing out a match as we left but I
foolishly turned the pump off, hung the nozzle up and motored on to
Reno.
_______________________________________________
Bmcu@autox.team.net
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