PREVIEW

AssetID: 41182529

Headline: For Auction: Five Vintage Austin Cars That Belonged To Newspaper Entrepreneur

Caption: H&H Classics auctioneers will offer five vintage Austin cars that, until recently, formed part of British newspaper entrepreneur Sir Ray Tindle’s illustrious collection. Sir Tindle founded the Tindle Newspaper Group and the Tindle Radio Group. After wartime service with the Devonshire Regiment, he bought his first title, the Tooting & Balham Gazette with his £250 demob payment. The Austins, from the 1920s and 30s, will go on sale on 14th April at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. They are being sold with No Reserve. Damian Jones, Head of Sales at H&H comments: “A British collection like this coming to the market in a post Brexit world from a great national classic car owner who also championed local journalism across the country, will doubtless create great interest when they go under the hammer at Duxford.” John Markey, of H&H Classics Private Sales Division, who secured the five Austins for sale says: “Sir Ray is well known in the Motoring World and was a sponsor of the ‘London to Brighton’ run for over twenty years and held a classic car festival in Farnham where these cars appeared regularly. The ‘Twelve Heavy’ was used to convey the Carnival Queen in happier times and the Seven Van is of course liveried for the Farnham Herald. Sir Ray is a colourful figure in the area and held in high regard.” Founded in 1905, Herbert Austin’s eponymous firm began as a luxury car manufacturer with the British aristocracy, European Princesses, Russian Grand Dukes and high-ranking members of the clergy among its clientele. Expanding massively during World War One as it churned out armaments and vehicles on an unprecedented scale, Austin embarked upon an ill-fated one-model policy when peace returned. Haemorrhaging money due to overcapacity, the company redirected its focus on the mass market with the brilliant Twelve and Seven models of 1922. The former became a byword for dependability, while the latter put Britain on wheels in much the same way as the Ford Model T had done in America.

Keywords: car, cars; motor; motoring; feature, story, offbeat, travel, auction, sale, sell, selling

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