A40 Sports Carburetor

[nonsynchrofirst]

Hello all;

So I’m currently getting around to rummaging through my dad’s Austin A40 Sports. I’m on the fence about keeping it or selling it, probably leaning towards keeping it due to its rarity.

Anyway, to the thrust of the post: most of the articles I’ve read about the A40 Sports stated it came with dual SUs. After getting some help from an Austin group on FB, I was finally able to pop open the bonnet. But instead of SUs, there’s a single downdraught carburetor (unknown?). Is this an economy version or did someone change this at some point in the past?

On those lines, what type of SUs, linkage, intake manifold (is it unique to the A40 Sports? I have my doubts knowing how many a BMC product involved grabbing what was already in the spares bin). The same questions for the exhaust manifold as it is bolted to the intake manifold (photos attached).

If you have any references that I should look at too while working through this car, I would appreciate it as well.

Thanks!

[PJS]

Is it possible that the car has had a replacement engine from an A40 Devon or Somerset at some point?

A40 Sports are quite rare, so you may well struggle to find both the correct manifold and carburettors.

[nonsynchrofirst]

Pete;

Honestly, I’m not sure. The guy who had the car before he swapped for a Mercedes Benz said he didn’t know much besides that the car came from an auction of a big car collection in Joliet, IL (old title says Ronald Giampolo, in case anyone knows who he was).

I guess the next question is whether the mechanical throttle linkages were the same between the regular A40 sedans (Devon/Somerset) and the A40 Sports. If not, it begs the question as to why they would change the intake/exhaust manifold, carbs, and the linkage if just swapping out engines. From what little is out there, I didn’t see anything about the A40 sports head being ported in a different fashion (plus that might cost money, and I highly doubt Sir Leonard Lord would stand for that).

UNLESS…this is an example of the wheeling and dealing done at dealerships statesides swapping out drive trains to meet a local customer’s desire. Or the good penny pinchers at Longbridge figured Yanks wouldn’t know any better or it was near the end of the production life (the car is a 1953 model) and all that was lying around were A40 Devon/Somerset drive trains.

I’d have to get a British Motor Heritage cert to verify my suspicions.

As for finding spares, if I keep the car, it’s near the back of the queue of projects, meaning doing a little here, a little there while stockpiling whatever spares I can find, if at all. So not in a rush at this point.

[Author]

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