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1951 Austin A40 Sports Jensen/Taillefer [GD2]

1951 Austin A40 Sports [GD2] in Malaga, Movie, 1954

Class: Cars, Convertible — Model origin: — Built in: — Made for:

1951 Austin A40 Sports Jensen/Taillefer [GD2]

Vehicle used by a character or in a car chase

Comments about this vehicle

Author	Message
Lateef ◊ 2021-04-10 23:05
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 00:24	This car is very interesting because, although it is set in Tangier, the movie was shot in Malaga (Andalusia, Spain), in fact another movie title is simply "Malaga". Well, since the late 40s in this city several Austin and Daimler models were assembled in industrial warehouses by the company "Taillefer" ... One of the models that were assembled and the bodies were finished was this two-seater Austin
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 00:32	This body company manufactured numerous Austin and Daimlers with bodies of British and indigenous origin ... A quite interesting story... http://historiadelautomovilenmalaga.blogspot.com/2009/06/370.html
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 01:57	this would be "built in Spain"
dsl ◊ 2021-04-11 02:12	I can't find any reference from UK sources about Spanish build - eg this usually well-informed example, just a consistent account of Jensen in West Bromwich building an initial contract batch of 3000, which eventually spilled over to 4200 in total. Both the car and the archive photo show extra sidelights not fitted for UK, and more intriguingly the windscreen looks different - more of a curved top outline than the straighter/flatter top in my books and the headrail looks taller and extends further over the quarterlight - compare and this one. Badges on front wings look different positions from UK, which had script behind the strip in the same level - not higher up as the archive pic or apparently on the lower door here Lateef wrote . So maybe imcdb is rewriting the history books ......
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 13:45	what a good observer dsl ! I have been investigating more about Taillefer in Malaga and apparently it is a very important company for the city, so much so that an emblematic building was ordered to be built in the 50s ... Apparently this company had import licenses for Austin, Morris and Studebaker in Malaga . But it was not their only activity since, in addition, they had an assembly line where they manufactured bodies for cars and buses. Some had their own design or variations on the British design. The "Rubias" (station wagon) had special acceptance. I think this particular body with side bars is Taillefer's own design
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 13:51	Take a look at this Austin driven by actress Mary Santpere, its license is from Malaga from 1953 ... And it has the particular windshield that DSL mentioned, with certainty it could be said that it is a model produced by Taillefer in Malaga /vehicle_479314-Austin-A40-Sports-GD2-1951.html
dsl ◊ 2021-04-11 14:56	My best guess is that the bodies were supplied by Jensen from England in an unfinished form - I can't imagine Taillefer really built their own from scratch - but limited local glass availability meant adopting a different shape, and maybe a new locally made hood was part of the build. Nice A40 woodie - it's possible that Jensen may have helped with the design as they did a few woodies on A70, along with a few other converters (eg Papworth, Frank Grounds, Car Mart etc) in penny numbers - some background info here. Apparently there were a few A40 estate prototypes built as one-offs to try to tempt Austin into offering build contracts. Maybe Taillefer took one of these off-the-shelf proposals??
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-11 19:11	It is very possible ... The information is very scarce although, according to a PDF Taillefer reached an agreement with Austin to import chassis and engines of trucks and cars and coach them in Malaga ... Although it is true that some buses had their own design like the "FLECHA AZUL", "blue arrow" an Austin-BMC that was bodied in Malaga IN 1961 for the CD Malaga soccer team...
dsl ◊ 2021-04-12 00:03	Is this plate dateable?? UK builds ended in 53 or even late 52, as Austin switched to the A40 Somerset DHC (built by Carbodies), and kept Jensen sweet with the contract to build the A-Healey 100/4, launched Oct 52. So if Spanish builds were 53, it might suggest Jensen's redundant tooling was passed on to Taillefer to play with??
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-12 00:44	Unfortunately, the license plate is false, since it belongs to Madrid in 1943 ... It is also noted that they have superimposed this on top of the original whose edges appear from behind ... I'm not sure they were Jensen stocks ... This presentation in the "parque de Málaga" https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parque_de_M%C3%A1laga it is from December 1950 (I am not sure if the photo of the Sport is also during that presentation, although the location seems the same ...
Sunbar ◊ 2021-04-12 11:36	Has it already been noted that the wheelarches on the Taillefer examples appear to have a straight section at the top (flat-topped) whereas the UK versions I've viewed on imcdb and the web have round wheelarches? It would appear to be a rather substantial panel-work change suggesting to me, some different tooling probably.
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-12 12:39	Definitely the British are the best retailer! Very good observation, it is true, it is interesting to discover new things about these cars from the Costa del Sol
dsl ◊ 2021-04-12 15:52	Didn't spot the arches, but agree flat top seems unique for Taillefer. Have got some book pics of UK pre-production which are round arch - they don't have final badges or grille formats, but otherwise look normal UK. Noted also that all UK-builds seem to have had semaphores behind door (including exports), so another Spanish panelwork change to add to the list. I wonder how many were made to justify all this tweakery??
Gongora ◊ 2021-04-13 00:57	Unfortunately, there seems to be no production data, although they must have been quite popular, especially in the city, which is said to have been "populated by A40s"

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