A Pearl Of A Singer

Rootes’ Audax range was nearing its end when this improved, but traditional-looking, Gazelle leapt from the factory. We try it for size

 

 

- Richard Gunn

British car design didn’t hang about during the 1950s and 1960s. Major marques had ditched the curvaceous but heavyweight and lumpen shapes of the 1950s within a few brief years in favour of the lightweight but square-cut styles of the 1960s. Think Ford Consul Classic to Cortina, original A40 Cambridge to the Farina version, Vauxhall Victor F to its FB and FC successors…

And then there was Rootes, a company that always seemed to favour over-engineering to penny-pinching, and whose small Audax Hillman Minxes, Singer Gazelles and Sunbeam Rapiers were firmly planted in the 1950s. Despite constant tweaks, including a freshening up in 1963 that flattened out their previously rounded appearance, the models were definitely showing their age by the mid-1960s.