(First Posted September 21, 2013) After yesterday’s Checker post, it seems only fitting to take a look at at the legendary London Taxi, the ultimate living dinosaur. The Austin FX4/Fairway design was built from 1958 to 1997, a nice, even forty years. And this one, which has conveniently found its way to Eugene in very original condition, is clearly an older one. In fact, it looks like it just finished a three-decades-long trip. Why do I say that? Take a look at the ad in the passenger compartment:
A Sharp three-band cassette radio for your Austin Allegro, mate! Let’s take a closer look at that.
Who can place the vintage of that unit? 1982? 1985? It does give us a pretty good idea when this cab picked up its last fare, and then went into hiding or got hopelessly lost.
The driver’s compartment looks pretty rustic, too. And obviously, that seat has seen a bit of use.
The steering might have been unassisted, but at least the transmission was an automatic (Borg-Warner 35).
Here’s the shift quadrant for that tough old box, which originated specifically for smaller American cars (Rambler, etc), before finding great favor in Europe; it was made for decades in the UK and powered a wide range of cars, helping to usher in the automatic gearbox there.
One of the more remarkable characteristics of the London Taxis their tight turning circle, which is very handy–indeed, necessary–in London’s streets and traffic. My first experience with it involved being picked up in a London Taxi, in front of a small hotel on a narrowish street. We were pointed the wrong way, and in order to go in the other direction the taxi driver simply pulled a super-tight U-turn instead of driving around the block. This video is the only one that I could find, and the POV is from the driver’s seat.
Of course, it was the back seat that was really important, and the space afforded there by what actually was quite a compact vehicle is superb. It’s easy to just throw luggage inside, in front of one’s seat, when in a hurry.
Needless to say, most of these London Taxis swallowed “Fuel Oil” (diesel fuel); the earlier ones used either a 2.2- or 2.5-liter Austin diesel four. After production and full control of the FX4 shifted to Carbodies Ltd. in 1982 ,an adapted Rover 2,286 cc diesel four was utilized. Later vehicles also used Perkins/Mazda diesels and, ultimately, a Nissan 2,667 cc TD27. Euro emission regs forced devoted Fairway operators to make expensive upgrades, which some chose to do. When we last visited London some 13 years ago, a good number of Fairways were still in use. Today?
Many, like this one, have found their way to other parts of the world. I’m not sure just what kind of future it has in Eugene, but without doubt, it has one. Just hope nobody gets rid of that vintage ad inside.
That’s a great advertisement for the radio. It’s interesting how ads are like frozen moments in time.
As for the date of it, I don’t have an exact year. Although Chrysler did advertise its
“Quartz Series” of radios c. 1985, 86.
Actually, according to Allpar.com, Chrysler began offering the Quartz Lock series, with digital tuning before 1982, but those early calculator style radios didn’t do auto reverse.
From 1982 onwards, auto reverse was available, so I’d say that radio ad dates from roughly that time frame, 1981-1983 period.
Programme Radio search and 15 Pre-sets? Sign me up!
I like the “Fuel-Oil” cap for the filler, it makes me think that the car is fuel from some sort of oil bunker like a warship or by coal shoveled by sooty faced children.
I love visiting old streetcar museums and viewing the old ads posted inside. They are a real time capsule, throwbacks to decades earlier.
These are really starting to become a rarity in taxi fleets here, the replacement (retro style-ee) TX series mostly supplanted them and increasingly fleets are using large Peugeot and Mercedes people carriers in their place. Lovely to see one so well travelled.
Not sure of the cassette deck’s vintage but the plates tell us this FX4 was registered between 1 August 1972 – 31 July 1973 so it’s from almost smack in the middle of the run.
Taxi!
Disabled access makes the traditional London taxi a rare sight now.It is difficult or expensive to kit one out for wheelchair use.
this is a 72-73 judging by the reg plate. Do’h – just seen the post above.
There are two jumpseats, one where each ad is incidentally.
I’m still amazed that BMC greenlit these for production without a full-height rear opening so the body could easily be reconfigured into a station wagon for retail sale, given that the niche nature of a purpose-built taxi almost guarantees it’ll be a decade or more before tooling costs are amortized.
but then they are the Brits.
Yes… but they built them for 40 years.
Underneath these are pretty agricultural (as is the successor model, which has been in production since 1998), so even by 1950s British car standards, they weren’t particularly desirable to private motorists.
I doubt it took that long to make a profit when they effectively had a captive market
These are known as bombers in Lancashire for some reason.Never found out where that one came from
One of the more memorable things about visiting England in a Navy submarine in the late sixties was a ride in one of these. We weren’t in London. We pulled into Portsmouth in 1969 (IIRC). I remember riding in it and feeling like I was transported back to the forties. Driver said it was very economical.
In a day or two the U.S. Submarine Scorpion was declared lost and we were back at sea. My memories of the Portsmouth area were somewhat addled as they were fueled by pints of black and tans and getting rid of my British money in what turned into a day or two. The little (big inside) diesel taxi was always a part of that memory.
Little outside, big inside. Hmmm. Another representation of a TARDIS?
An Austin Buckmaster plenty of these have emigrated to NZ their top speed makes them unsuitable for highway use and having a BW35 is a promise of furure problems those things proved weak in Hillman Hunters never mind severe service in cabs.
Not so fond memories of removing a fried BW autobox from my Sunbeam Rapier.It cost £400 in 1982.I don’t know what that would be in today’s money,probably something like a cricket score!
did anyone see the episode of “How it’s Made” starring these Austins??? They are almost coach built machines at a relatively small factory in Britain. Pretty cool, easy to repair machines. Like our Vics just with that English understated style.
Had a 245 Volvo with the B-W 35, and always wished it was a stick. Just about every automatic that uses a TV cable to sense load has proven to be a POS. (Can you say 700R4?)
When visiting the UK and London earlier this year, we saw very few of the Fairway cabs in use. The majority seemed to be the newer TX model – one of which we rode in, very space efficient, but a lot more rattles than expected. I didn’t think to snap any pics of the TX – but I did shoot this Fairway at (freezing cold) Edinburgh Castle:
Re the back seat space – these are on a 110″ wheelbase, with total length of 180″ effectively without a trunk. You can only imagine it with a 1960’s US trunk, 240″ here we come! Note the rear seat is over or even slightly behind the axle, that is the key to the space inside.
I had the good fortune to ride in one of London’s last Austin FX4 taxis while in the UK this summer. It was parked at the front of a line of taxis outside of Harrod’s, as if sent as a gift by the car gods. I had intended to walk to where I wanted to go, but seeing a classic FX4 waiting for the taking, I had to ride it. The driver told me that it was one of a very small number remaining in London (he gave me a specific number, but I cannot remember it), and that the last ones will be taken out of service next year because of city age restrictions. However, he said that most of the FX4’s taken out of service are bought by taxi operators in smaller cities like Birmingham that do not have age restrictions, as the cars usually are still solid and capable of years of additional service. I can attest to their solidity, as mine was still tight and rattle free, although the seats were uncomfortably hard and the all-black interior was far darker and more dreary than the current TX’s light grey passenger compartment. Nevertheless, it was a great classic London taxi experience that few will get to have.
I got to ride in these when I visited England with my parents a few years ago. They were more comfortable than they looked like they would be. And with its 2.2 litre diesel engine under the bonnet (hood), I’ll bet they last forever, with proper maintenance, not to mention get better fuel economy around town than even the Toyota Prius. Although not the most attractive taxi I’ve seen, I’d prefer it over the Prius.
Really cool to see a black cab Stateside still wearing it’s British plates with pride.
It’s on what is known as a ‘Suffix plate’ – Three letters, 2 or 3 numbers and the ‘Year Identifier’ at the end. In this case the letter is ‘L’ which tells us that it was registerd new between the 1st August 1972 and July 31st 1973. The letter changed every August each year. The letters I, O, U and Z were never used.
This ‘Suffix’ system ran from ‘A’ (Feb 63) until ‘Y’ in July 1983. Then the ‘Prefix’ system arrived with new cars in August 1983 having an ‘A’ at the front of the plate with the two or three numbers and then three letters. This ran until July 2001 when our current 2 letter, 2 number and 3 letter system was introduced (as seen in the picture of the new TX1). That’s a whole other story! lol
The plates are always yellow at the back and white at the front. Why? Haven’t a clue lol…
The 2nd and 3rd letters of the three denoted the area the car was registered when new. I’m assuming the plate reads ‘MMU 105L’ or MMJ 205L
‘MU’ was registered in London (North-East)
‘MJ’ was registered in Luton (about 50 miles from London)
The Austin FX4 ran with the Nissan 2.7 diesel until 1997 when London Taxis International replaced it with the TX1 which was a more modern, smoother version but very true stylisically. These now used the very popular and efficient Ford TDCi 4cyl 2.4 litre turbodiesel with 137hp
Hope this information helps 😀
MMJ was never issued on an L-reg, it’s MMU which ran from November ’72 to June ’73. (issued by Middlesex CC, London NE took MU over in 1974)
MJ was Bedfordshire CC by the way.. It wasn’t issued from Luton until 1974. Careful of internet half-information.
;o)
I got to ride in these taxis when I was visiting in England. Very comfortable ride.
MMU205L was registered on the 25th of Jan 1973, and ran out of road tax on the 1st of July 1999, presumably when it was exported to the US.
There’s a dilapidated one of these on Facebook Marketplace in Texas, the passenger couch in the rear is red velvet, and the left-front position is plexiglassed off to stack luggage into, not even the door remains, just a bunch of straps.