Marques
Austin built two four-wheel drives: the Champ of 1951–56, the Army’s Rolls-Royce-engined jeep with independent torsion-bar suspension that cost twice a Land Rover and was dropped for it, and the Gipsy of 1958–68, BMC’s steel-bodied rival with Moulton’s Flexitor rubber springs, about 21,208 built and ended by the merger that put it under the same roof as the Land Rover.
Difflocked · free browser gamePlay & customise vintage 4×4s →Race classic 4×4s, build your own and keep it in your garage. Free, in the browser.
All 2 Austin marques by years in production, 1948 → today
The over-engineered British jeep: the Champ (FV1801) of 1951–56, from the Nuffield Gutty and Wolseley Mudlark prototypes, with Issigonis torsion-bar independent suspension, a 2.8-litre Rolls-Royce B40, five forward and five reverse gears and six-foot wading; 15,000 ordered, about 11,000 military built at Cofton Hackett before the contract was cut, plus about 500 civilian WN3s.
BMC’s Land Rover rival: the Gipsy of February 1958 with a steel body, 2.2-litre petrol or diesel fours and Alex Moulton’s Flexitor rubber independent suspension, in 90-inch and 111-inch wheelbases with a leaf-sprung beam-axle option later; about 21,208 built (6,418 Series I) before the BMC–Leyland merger ended it in 1968.
