In Fiction
The 12/4 is familiar to children in the form of Gumdrop, the title character of a series of books authored by Val Biro, who owns an example. Gumdrop is an Austin Clifton Heavy Twelve-Four of 1926.
The stories revolve around the car and his owner, initially the younger Bill McArran, but for most of the series, the more senior Mr Oldcastle (later joined by a dog, Horace). The plots often involve the search for replacement parts for Gumdrop.
Biro wrote the stories from the late 1960s to the 1980s. The main series of books, all fully illustrated in colour by Biro, ran to at least seventeen titles, with a further twelve (at least) "Gumdrop Little Books" also published in the 1980s.
Whilst Gumdrop's adventures are fictional, the car is not. Mr Biro and Gumdrop are frequent visitors to car shows and other events in Sussex and surrounding area (2008)
Read more about this topic: Austin 12 Hp
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