The Monday Photo

This early 50s car is an Austin A40 Devon and I found it parked up in Granborough a couple of weeks ago.

They were a popular car; 274,000 of the Devon were sold in the six years they were in production, which started in 1947.

This car was one of the last to be made. In the 1950s you might have seen an A40 Devon on the North Bucks roads, cruising at 45 or 50mph; this car did 70mph flat out. That wasn’t a bad top speed for the times.

It isn’t a big car, but the four door body was thought to be ideal for small families. Like many cars then, it had trafficators fitted.

Instead of the modern set up of a pair of amber indicators at the front and two more at the back, they had an arm (the trafficator) that hinged out of the side of the car and lit up amber. There’s one on each side of the Austin Devon, hidden between the doors.

I have no idea why this was preferred to the modern set up. Can anyone tell me?