1974 Austin 1300 Mk3 Countryman estate ("Basil")
Please meet Basil. His name (given by a previous owner) will make sense to any Fawlty Towers fan, as it was a similar (Mk1) Austin Countryman that was given a good thrashing by a frustrated Basil Fawlty (see this YouTube clip).
Basil is a 1974 Austin 1300 Mk3 Countryman estate (station wagon). He has had a charmed life.
Very early in his life, he was shipped from his native England to Hong Kong to join a car collection of a wealthy enthusiast. All other cars in the collection were expensive, prestige models, so Basil (obviously not named that at the time) was the odd one out. He obviously had something the Hong Kong collector appreciated...
Fast forward to about 2005. The Hong Kong collector had moved to Melbourne, and had shipped his cars out. For some reason the collector had to sell his collection, one by one, through Brooklands Classic Cars of Melbourne. Apparently the Austin was the last of his cars to be offered for sale.
The car was purchased by a woman in the Bentleigh/Ormond area in Melbourne, but she soon realised the dream of a classic car was different to the reality, and sold the car to purchase a new Honda CRV SUV.
The next owner was seriously in love with the car. He owned it for 10 years, adding approximately 20,000 fun-filled miles to the odometer (it was at approximately 30,000 original miles when he purchased it in 2005). I have established contact with that owner, and he has been very enthusiastic, sending many details and photographs from his time with the car, the only car that he has ever owned that he "was genuinely sad to see go". During this time the car was entered into a few car shows, at which it won trophies (pictures below) and also featured in an article on ADO16 cars in The B.M.C. Experience, an Australian specialist magazine. A pdf of the cover of that edition (edition 2, July-September 2012) can be seen here, while a pdf of the very interesting 12-page article itself, including photos and details of this actual car, can be seen here. Huge thanks to Craig Watson (author and publisher) for generously allowing me to share these here - obviously copyright applies)
The car then sold to a friend in Canberra in 2015, who also is very fond of the car, and has been very communicative and helpful. He did a memorable trip from Canberra to Broken Hill in the car, of which there are many photographs. He also did some great preservation work and maintenance to the car.
In 2017 the car sold to someone in Bendigo, Victoria, obviously a dealer, as he onsold it almost immediately (at about 40% profit) to a Bendigo enthusiast, who owned and loved the car until failing mobility and advancing age resulted in the decision to sell, which brought Basil to the Kelly St Classics garage on the 28th September, 2021.
Enjoy the following photographs of Basil, taken after a couple of days of cleaning, polishing and detailing. He's a treasured new member of the family. (The number plates are temporary only, being leftovers from my Grouse Guitars days; soon it will have boring Victorian club permit registration and appropriate plates).
↑ Beautiful condition of the original Olive
interior, right down to the original carpets.an>
↑ Everything responded well to a very
thorough scrub and clean, both front...
...and rear.
↑ Original Kangol retracting seatbelts.
↑ The engine bay responded well to a solid
afternoon's cleaning and detailing.
↑ Original Made-in-England rubber floor
mats, front...
↑ ...and back!
↑ Original Triplex windscreen still in
perfect condition!
↑ Original heavy rubber/underfelt pad under
front carpet in perfect, unstained condition...
↑ ...and underneath that, floor pans as
fresh as when they left the factory in 1974.
↑ Both front floor pan...
↑ ...and rear perfect. Loose wires are for
the underseat speakers fitted by a previous owner. These are loose, and no
holes drilled anywhere.
↑ Pedal rubbers nice and unworn.
↑ Then it's finally onto the hoist for its
underside inspection. Always a tense moment...
↑ ...but no reason for trepidation here.
It's superb underneath!
↑ The car's
Heritage Certificate.
↑ Very rarely do new additions to Kelly St
Classics come with such perfectly matching keyrings!
↑ These three trophies were won by Basil when
entered into shows by the 2005 - 2015 owner early in his ownership.
You can also see Basil's smiling face on the elevenhundred.com website here.
Interestingly, this model was the last of the 'hatchback' Countryman Austins. Also in the collection is an astounding example of one of the very first, a 1961 Mk1 Austin A40 Farina Countryman.