Austin launched a new, small capacity, four cylinder engine in
1951 to power its new
"Austin Seven" (better known as the
A30), from these humble beginnings came one of Britains most famous powerplants. In
1952 Austin merged with its arch rival,
Morris and soon found itself sharing its new engine with the
Morris Minor.
Originally the A-Series engine measured only 803cc, in
1956 the capacity grew to 948cc and again in
1962 to 1098cc. By now the A-Series could be found in a variety of BMC cars and light vans including the
A35,
A40,
Minor,
MG Midget/
Austin Healey Sprite,
1100 range and of course the
Mini.
Initially the
Mini used a smaller 850cc unit, although later models used a variety of different sizes including the famous
Cooper engines. A 1275cc A-Series was also being used in other BMC cars and would remain in production well into the 1980's powering the
Austin Maestro and lives on today in the current Mini.
