# Austin A35 (historic racer)

- Source: https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/austin-a35-race/
- Publisher: Racing Car Network (racingcarnetwork.com), the race car marketplace
- Type: car · Brand: Austin
- Discipline: historic-racing
- Series: historic-sportscar
- Era: 1950s
- Last updated: 2026-07-06

The racing Austin A35 is Goodwood's giant-killer comedy with serious lap times: the upright 1950s saloon that stars in the St Mary's Trophy and anchors the HRDC's grids — historic racing's most affordable blue-riband entry.

## Specifications

| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Engine | 948 cc A-Series inline-4 (race tune) |
| Power | ~60–75 hp (period-spec builds) |
| Weight | ~700 kg |
| Gearbox | 4-speed (close-ratio conversions) |
| Chassis | Steel monocoque saloon |
| Brakes | Drums (period spec) |
| Years | 1956–1962 (period), historic since |
| Class | HRDC / Goodwood St Mary's / historic saloons |

## History

Austin's A35 (1956–59, evolving the A30's shell) raced in period as the small-saloon class staple — 948cc A-Series buzzing to class results in the BRSCC's saloon wars while future stars learned racecraft in the era's cheapest competitive tin-top. Its period record is footnote stuff; its second life is the phenomenon.

Modern historic racing crowned the A35 improbably: Goodwood Revival's St Mary's Trophy runs the type as beloved centrepiece — professional stars wrestling the tall boxes door-to-door in the meeting's best-watched race — while the HRDC's Academy created a one-model A35 grid explicitly as historic racing's entry formula, with build costs a fraction of anything else on the Revival's bill.

The recipe is fixed and open: A-Series tuned within appendix-period spec (Speedwell/period-tuner lore applies), close-ratio boxes, careful lightening within regs — a build the club engine trade knows completely. As a first historic racer with genuine blue-riband event access, nothing rivals it: the same car does club HRDC rounds and, with the invitation, the world's most glamorous paddock.

## Palmarès

Period BRSCC small-saloon class results 1956–62; the modern record is the crown — St Mary's Trophy star turns at every Goodwood Revival (pro drivers' shared-car heroics), HRDC Academy grids built around the model, and class wins across UK historic saloon racing for two decades.

## What to check before you buy

Buy the build, not the shell — A35 bodies are cheap and rot-prone (sills, spring hangers, floors), so a documented race preparation by a known historic-saloon builder is where the money legitimately sits. Verify FIA HTP or HRDC papers current, engine spec's period legality (over-tuned A-Series builds fail scrutineering at exactly the events that matter), and crack-tested crank/rod provenance in the file. Academy-spec cars are the liquid market; St Mary's-history cars carry event-provenance premiums. Running costs are historic racing's gentlest — the entire point.

## Did you know

- St Mary's Trophy pairs pro stars with owners in shared A35 drives — F1 and Le Mans winners queue up for the grid's slowest, funniest car.
- The HRDC Academy was designed around the A35 specifically as historic racing's lowest-cost entry — a one-model answer to the discipline's affordability problem.
- Body-roll angles that look catastrophic are the A35's fast technique — the type corners on its doorhandles by design, to spectators' permanent delight.

## Related entries

- Austin-Healey 3000 (competition) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/austin-healey-3000-race/
- MINI John Cooper Works (rally/race) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/mini-cooper-jcw-rally/
- Ford Escort Mk1 (historic competition) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/ford-escort-mk1/
- Ginetta G4 (historic) — https://racingcarnetwork.com/wiki/ginetta-g4-historic/