The Austin A40 Farina is a small, economy car introduced by Austin in saloon (1958) and A40 Countryman (1959) estate versions. It has a two-box body configuration. It was badged, like many before it, as an A40, consistent with Austin's naming scheme at the time, based on the approximate engine output in horsepower; and to distinguish it from other A40 models, it was also given a suffix name – this one being the Farina, reflecting the all-new design by Italian Battista Farina's Pinin Farina Turin studio.
Austin had been merged into the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1952 and – unusually for BMC at the time – the A40 Farina was sold only as an Austin and not rebadged for sale under any other BMC brands. The Farina was the first Austin A40 not named after a county of England, and the last in the Austin A40 line.
The 1959 A40 Countryman version stands out by its layout as a small estate car with an upward (and downward) opening tailgate, and is therefore viewed as one of the earliest examples of a volume production hatchback.
Background and innovation
Like its predecessors, the A40 Countryman version combined many of the virtues of a compact saloon and estate car in one body. But, unlike the 1954 A30 Countryman