Item Info

Media Type: Photographic Prints
Source: Automobile Reference Collection
Notes:

 From Ames & Norr, 468 Fourth Avenue, New York. Representing American Austin Car Company. April 8, 1930.

Bantam Austin Returns with Wilkins From the Anarctic

This "seagoing" bantam car, which is shown parked under the wing of a plane on Deception Island, was one of the most popular members of the Wilkins Anarctic Expedition. For more than six months it withstood the punishment of Polar weather and rough driving over untracked Anarctic wastes and emerged full of "pep" and as good as ever. It served faithfully as an unfailing mount to the intrepid explorers who probed the mysteries of the Antarctic, and was said by Sir HBubert to be indispensible. Equipped with chains and double tires, it made its own roads and laughed at the temperature and the roughness of the going. 

The rugged little explorer is mounted on the same chassis and powered by the same motor that will be featured in the new bantam Austin cars to be manufactured in the United States by the American Austin Car Company of Detroit. The American Austin, which will make its debut on the highways of the United States this Spring, will be a mechanical duplicate of the Austin of international fame, it is announced, but will have a body design distinctively American in smartness. The American Austin will sell for less than $450.