(01 Mar 05)

Each year at the Geneva Motor Show, another few great figures from the car industry are added to the European Automotive Hall of Fame. At the centenary of the founding of the Austin Motor Company at Lonbridge, it's more than fitting that Sir Herbert Austin is on the 2005 list.

Austin was born in Buckinghamshire but worked for a time as an engineer in Australia, before returning in 1889 to Birmingham, where he was employed as supervisor at Frederick Wolseley's sheep shearing equipment factory. Both Austin and Wolseley became car manufacturers, but both names have now been allowed to fade into history. The Longbridge factory, though, is still producing cars after a hundred years' continuous production, a remarkable record even if many of those years have been filled with anguish for a variety of reasons.

Herbert Austin himself was never aware of those troubles. He did, however, live to see the great success of the Austin Seven, the simple, inexpensive family car which also gave rise to some phenomenal race versions (and indeed the 750 Motor Club, which was founded on the basis of the popularity of Austin Seven Specials).

The Seven was built from 1922 to 1939. Production then ceased in order so that Longbridge could switch its efforts to military vehicles and equipment - the Hurricane fighter and the Stirling and Lancaster bombers were all built there. Having already become Baron of Longbridge in 1936 (as pictured above), Austin was then knighted for his contribution to the war effort but died in 1941, well before the job was completed.

Along with Austin, Vincenzo Lancia, Ferry Porsche and Pierre Lefaucheux are being introduced to the Hall of Fame this year. The surnames of the first two make their contributions obvious; Lefaucheux was the second head of Renault, the successor to company founder Louis Renault.

These men join an extraordinary list of major motoring figures including Giovanni Agnelli, Karl Benz, Robert Bosch, Ettore Bugatti, André Citroen, Gottlieb Daimler, Rudolf Diesel, Giorgetto Giugiaro, Alec Issigonis, William Lyons, André Michelin, Edouard Michelin, Nikolaus Otto, Battista Pininfarina, Ferdinand Porsche, Louis Renault, Nuccio Bertone, Albert de Dion, Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford, Henry Ford II, August Horch, Eberhard von Kuenheim, Wilhelm Maybach, Heinz Nordhoff and Armand Peugeot.

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