1929 Car, In Storage for Nearly 50 Years, Cranks on First Attempt

A rare 1929 Austin 12/4, kept in storage since 1961, was found in the personal effects of its late owner:

Mr Bulled, 63, said he discovered the old car whilst going through his father’s possessions shortly after his death in 2008.

He was too frightened to start the engine up fully in case it ruined the car, but is now putting it up for sale to allow an expert to restore it fully and hopefully get it onto the road.

He said: “I pumped up the tyres and they stayed up. The rubber is cracked but the inner tubes are obviously still intact, which is remarkable really.

"And the engine turned over when we tried it with the starter handle, but I didn't try to start her up in case I did any damage but I'm sure it would go.

Link | Photo: BBC

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As Grandma used to say, "Crank 'em hard and jump on them while they're still running."

She must have had a way with cars.

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renderanything: exactly. Here I was thinking this was an epic tale of survival just to realize that "cranked" is semantically different from "fired". Not where I come from it isn't, but there apparently. An engine that "turns over by hand" after that amount of time is neither surprising nor unexpected. It certainly is not newsworthy.

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Oh sure, get me all excited to hear about a car that starts on the first try after nearly 5 decades in storage. Unfortunately, due to semantics I misunderstood, and in fact they were simply able to turn the crank. Pooh.

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