The Austin 3-Litre is a 4-door saloon / 5-door estate (Crayford Conversion) from British Motor Corporation, built from 1967 to 1971, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 2912 cc C-Series Straight-6.
The background
The Austin 3-Litre is a British saloon car that was introduced by Austin at the London Motor Show in 1967. Codenamed ADO61, the car was intended to be BMC's offering in the 3-litre executive class and was originally designed in the early 1960s, before the British Leyland era. Unlike the visually similar (but smaller) front-wheel drive Morris 1800 range, the 125 bhp 3-litre engine (a 7-bearing modification of the BMC C-Series with twin SU carburettors) drove the rear wheels through a conventional 4-speed gearbox. The car used Hydrolastic suspension with self-levelling hydraulic rams at the rear and was praised for its excellent ride and handling. Alec Issigonis, who designed the front-wheel drive cars, had no part in the 3-Litre, which he was reportedly keen to point out.
To cater for its intended market, the interior was luxurious, featuring wood veneers and cloth headlining (but leather upholstery was not available, being replaced with a good-quality vinyl) and the boot was longer than that of the 1800, contributing to an overall length of 186 inches (4,700 mm) (the 1800 was 167 inches (4,200 mm) long). Luxurious Wolseley and Vanden Plas 3-litre versions both reached prototype stage, but went no further. A small number of estate models were built however, converted by Crayford. Other body variations of the 3-litre are known to exist including stretch limousines, hearses and ambulances. It became apparent that BMC were initially not geared up to producing the car: few or none seem to have been sold in 1967, but by July 1968, it was reported that the cars had begun to leav
The engineering
Power comes from 2912 cc C-Series Straight-6. It weighs 3304 lb. The wheelbase is 114.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Austin A110; its successor was the None; assembly was at Cowley, Oxfordshire. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Pontiac Firebird, the Toyota Hilux, the Lamborghini Miura — show what else the money bought that year. Its British Motor Corporation stablemates include the Austin 10 and the Austin 12.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Austin 3-Litre — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.