E-Delivery

Al was put on to the Austin convertible through a contact he knew from his charity work in the community. The car was purchased from the town of Andrew, Alberta. Just like he knew he was a Bruins fan, he knew he wanted this car to be a street rod. Restoration was never a consideration. He took it to Wadson's and initially they were a little surprised that he wanted to convert it. "I don't think they really saw what I saw in the car until they got it into primer. Then they saw its true potential. They saw those cool lines." All in, the build took a little over two years. Al and Wadson's collaborated together so that the car remained a driver. He had some stipulations. It had to be yellow. It had to look its best with the top down, and it had look muscly. The body was taken down lower and the whole chassis was handmade. The firewall had to be moved back, so the seats had to be moved back too. Under the hood is a 500 horse engine, and it's loud as there's not a lot of room for exhaust underneath. How does it handle on the road? Al says, "It handles real well. Of course it has a short wheel base so it moves around a little." The A40 Somerset was produced by the Austin Motor Company from 1952 until 1954. It replaced the A40 Devon and was quite similar to that body-on-frame car, including using the same pushrod engine. The engine was updated to produce 42 horse, giving the car a top speed of 111 km/h (69 mph). The Somerset was initially offered only a 4-door saloon, with a 3-passenger 2-door convertible was introduced in late 1952. Over 173,000 were sold before the Somerset was replaced by the A40 Cambridge in 1954. Only 7,243 of these were convertibles and it's probably a safe bet to say that Al scored big time with this build. 17

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