PRACTICALCLASSICS RESTORATION SHOW PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP
STORIES, GL& PASSION
1950 AUSTIN ATLANTIC CONVERTIBLE
Tales of joy, patience and sheer madness mean that the show’s Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership line-up could never be thought of as just cars. Nick Larkin picks his favourites
‘I dreamt of owning a real Austin Atlantic convertible ever since I got a Dinky toy as a small child. Then a fellow Austin Counties Car Club member mentioned many years later that he might have one of these rare beasts for sale. We became friends and every year I sent him a Christmas card asking if he would sell the car to me. Each year he declined… until 2013 and my 25th card to him.
‘We visited his secret lock-up in Ascot and removed the Austin from its concrete garage tomb. Unbelievably the owner hadn’t been there since 1984, concentrating instead on his various other classics (including Atlantics) instead. I was given a receipt and a copy of the Stargazers’ Watch this Space album from 1983, featuring this very car on the cover.
‘Fewer than 4000 Atlantics were built and my car was one of the last so got every optional extra that Austin had left over. FNP 717 even had the rare fitments of power windows and hood.
‘With the Atlantic home I cleaned away 25 years of dirt and grime to reveal a surprisingly original car. It had covered just 46,000 miles but was in need of complete restoration. A jet wash revealed that the car was originally metallic green so I decided to return it to this amazing pioneering metallichrome colour. The painstaking restoration that followed took nine years because I decided that there was no way that corners could or should be cut. ‘The metalwork need major rectification – including replacing copious amounts of lead loading to achieve the Atlantic’s sweeping wing line – before I painted it in the original Austin colour of Seafoam Metallic Green in my wooden garage. Expert re-plating of the exterior chrom
