The Austin Freeway is a 4-door sedan / 5-door station wagon from British Motor Corporation, built from 1962 to 1965, in the decade that gave the world the pony car and the mid-engined supercar. Under the bonnet: 2,433 cc I6.
The background
The Austin Freeway is an automobile which was developed by BMC Australia, based on the British Austin A60 Cambridge. Introduced in 1962, it was marketed under the Austin name in both four-door sedan and five-door station wagon body styles. Using the locally built 2433 cc six-cylinder "Blue Streak" engine, it represented the first attempt by BMC to challenge the dominant Holden and Ford Falcon models in the lucrative six-cylinder family car class with a locally developed vehicle. The engine was a direct development of the company's 1622cc B-series unit, cylinder dimensions in the six-cylinder unit being identical to those of its four-cylinder counterpart. An upmarket variant, the Wolseley 24/80 sedan was also offered. Although more expensive than its opposition, the Freeway was well equipped by contemporary standards, offering features such as windscreen washers and a fresh air heater/demister.
The sedan combined a new full-width grille with the rear-end styling of the British MG Magnette and Riley 4 models. The station wagon utilised the Austin A60 Cambridge rear-end styling. 3,090 units were sold in its first year but volumes fell well short of those of its Holden and Ford Falcon rivals and of the much more powerful six-cylinder Chrysler Valiant, introduced in Australia earlier the same year. The original Freeway (designated ADO40) was replaced by the Freeway Mk II (YDO3) in October 1964. The revised model featured a more powerful engine, power brakes, improved rear suspension and improved seating. Declining sales saw the Freeway discontinued in 1965 with production ce
The engineering
Power comes from 2,433 cc I6. It shifts through a 3-speed manual / 3-speed automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the Austin 1800 (ADO17); assembly was at Australia. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Alfa Romeo Giulia, the Ferrari 250 GTO, the Aston Martin DB5 — 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 Freeway — 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.