A 1940 American Bantam “woody” wagon is on the turntable at The Orphanage in Yuma for three months. The Bantam is on loan from John Tuthill of Golden, but resides permanently in the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver.

The Bantam was aproduct of the American Austin Car Co., founded in 1929 in Butler, Pa. American Austin was an American automobile manufacturing corporation producing cars licensed from the Austin Motor Co. in the UK. The purpose was to assemble and sell a version of the Austin 7 and call it American Austin. Unfortunately, the company succumbed to the Great Depression and the company filed for bankruptcy in 1934.

To most people it’s brown, but to Bantam the color is Golden Beige Metallic. (Richard Birnie / The Orphanage)

The interior of the 1940 Bantam woody is spartan but roomy. Richard Birnie / The Orphanage)

The tailgate drops down, of course; how else can you get your surf board in? (Richard Birnie / The Orphanage)

American automobile magnate Roy Evans bought the defunct company in 1935 and hired designer Alexis de Sakhnofsky to update the car. Formal connection with Austin UK was severed, although some semblance of a relationship remained. Production resumed in 1937 and continued through early 1941 after 6,700 American Bantams, in a variety of body types, were built.

Station wagon chassis with front end sheet metal were shipped by truck from the factory in western PA to the Mifflinburg Body Works, in east central Pennsylvania, where the wooden bodies completed the cars. Only 318 Bantam wagons were built and about 14, in various conditions, are known to still exist.

Bantam built their own 4-cylinder engines with cast iron head and block, and aluminum crankcase. By 1940 the engines were almost 50 cubic inches and produced a tire burning 23 horsepower.  Bantam used a Warner transmission designed for the smallest Studebaker. The wagon has a 75-inch wheelbase and has four-wheel, cable-operated mechanical brakes.  The gas tank is in the cowl and just drains into the carburetor. The wagon’s price new was $575.

The Bantam wagon on display was bought new in 1940 from Hadsall Motors on East Colfax Avenue in Denver by neighbors of the present owner. It was sold in the 1950’s and found again by John Tuthill in the early 1960’s. There were no options offered for the wagon and all came with black wall tires. The color was named “Golden Beige Metallic” but was actually medium brown metallic. The restoration (the only one of the few remaining wagons considered “factory door” correct) was finished in 1992.

The 1940 American Bantam woody will be on display on the turntable at The Orphanage until mid-August. The Orphanage is in downtown Yuma, at 300 South Main Street. For more information about the Bantam wagon, please contact Richard Birnie at (970) 630-3360, or visit the Orphanage website at orphanageyuma.com.

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