Home » Meet Two Austin Partners: Cold Start

Meet Two Austin Partners: Cold Start

Cs Austinpartner
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One of the little things in life that brings me unreasonable glimmers of joy is this: finding people and cars that share a name. And I’m pleased to report that it’s happened again this very morning, when I found out that the car we know variously as the Austin Mini, Morris Mini-Minor, Austin Se7en, Austin/Morris 850, but mostly as just the Mini, was also known as the Austin Partner. Well, mostly just in Denmark, but still. And yes, there is at least one person named Austin Partner.

The human Austin Partner was born in 1871 and is best known for the very last thing he did: dying when the Titanic sank. Here’s a letter he sent to his wife just after the Titanic set off:

Vidframe Min Top
Vidframe Min Bottom

I HAVE GOT A MOST COMFORTABLE ROOM & AND THE SHIP IS QUITE THE MOST LUXURIOUS I HAVE BEEN ON, I HOPE SHE WILL GET THERE QUICKLY. WE NEARLY COLLIDED WITH A LINER COMING OUT OF SOUTHAMPTON – THE NEW YORK. SHE WAS MOORED CLOSE TO WHERE WE PASSED & BROKE AWAY FROM HER MOORING, WAS ONLY ABOUT 3 FT OFF US SUCH A SHAVE I WAS AFRAID WE SHOULD HAVE TO GO BACK WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN MADDENING.

Oh, Austin, you’re gonna wish it was just maddening, my man.

This does remind me of another car/person name matchup, one that remains my favorite, Lloyd Alexander. I wrote about this one for The Old Site way back when, and even made this chart, which I’m just gonna stick here because for some reason that article is always hard to Google:

Lloydalexander Chart

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(image credit: me, in the past)

 

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Hugh Crawford
Hugh Crawford
1 year ago

In art school a classmate had an Austin Minor she named Jane.

Dave Horchak
Dave Horchak
1 year ago

I am pretty sure this article should have included the Jensen Healey. Two family car dynasties combining to form one failure using both their names.
But really for a car site that I LOVE, that claims to be all about little known makes and models i am surprised how the DDs I drove dont appear that often. Yeah we get a lot of Vdubs and such but here is a list of my rare now DDs
1. AMC Javelin i dont remember any mention
2. AMC Hornet saw a mention recently in AMC cars made.
3. Isuzu I Mark or Chevy Spectrum during the small car combination
4. Isuzu Vehicross. The best and one of the first CUVs ever made. 20 years later could pass as modern but crickets.
5. Isuzu Amigo- a better version of the GEO and GM small SUV.
6. The aforementioned Jensen Healey- a MG with a Lotus Motor. Real sports car but no mention.
Now i am not saying none of these have never been mentioned but given the rare cars mentioned 2 or 3 times a week I suggest lets think outside the box and include other rare makes and models. Instead of the same 10.

Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker
1 year ago

I know a girl with the last name Minor, hopefully she names a kid Morris some day.

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
1 year ago
Reply to  Mark Tucker

I know of an actual family called Land – three children, Sandy, Dusty, and Candy.

Collegiate Autodidact
Collegiate Autodidact
1 year ago

One wonders whether there were ever any people named Isabella Borgward.

MiniDave
MiniDave
1 year ago

You sure about that, “pardner”?

I have a friend in Copenhagen that has a Danish Mini, his is called a Mascot

Jakob K's Garage
Jakob K's Garage
1 year ago
Reply to  MiniDave

The Austin was called Partner. The Morris was called Mascot.
Same car, typical english badge engineered.
I don’t think we got any Rileys or Wolseleys of it here in Denmark.

10001010
10001010
1 year ago

I loved Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books as a kid and have reread them as an adult. Better than LOTR any day in my book. (Pun intended)

Chris with bad opinions
Chris with bad opinions
1 year ago

Something in this article has me puzzled. How did he send a letter after the ship had set sail? Was there a little mail boat that came by every couple days to collect mail? I need to know what’s happening here. Thanks for any help.

RaleighSuperbe
RaleighSuperbe
1 year ago

Titanic left Southampton and stopped in Cherbourg, France, to pick up more passengers before heading to New York.The boat that dropped the passengers off picked up the outgoing mail from Titanic, too.

Chris with bad opinions
Chris with bad opinions
1 year ago
Reply to  RaleighSuperbe

Ok, that makes sense. Thank you so much for the information.

Neil Hall
Neil Hall
1 year ago
Reply to  RaleighSuperbe

The Titanic also stopped at Queenstown (now Cobh, pronounced Cove) in Ireland before attempting to cross the Atlantic. Mail (and some passengers and crew) left the ship there too.

Chris with bad opinions
Chris with bad opinions
1 year ago
Reply to  Neil Hall

I went down the Wikipedia rabbit hole today. I didn’t realize how many stops there were before they really got going. The number of screw ups that were involved in that whole situation is just mind boggling.

BigThingsComin
BigThingsComin
1 year ago
Reply to  RaleighSuperbe

There are pictures of passengers taken on board that fateful trip. The most famous one is a child playing with a top, that was recreated in the movie. Gooooogle it.

Ranwhenparked
Ranwhenparked
1 year ago
Reply to  RaleighSuperbe

And a handful of people only rode it across the channel, mainly some journalists and travel reviewers who just wanted to check out the ship then go home and write their articles.

DubblewhopperInDubblejeopardy
DubblewhopperInDubblejeopardy
1 year ago

De Mangler would have been a cool name for a car or truck.

msisaacs
msisaacs
1 year ago

Sounds more like the newspaper name for a serial killer or professional wrestler.

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
1 year ago

What? No mention of Ford Prefect? One a British car and the other a travel writer.

Thomas Metcalf
Thomas Metcalf
1 year ago

The first time I read that book, I had no idea about the car so the joke went right over my head. It must have fallen flat with most of the american audience.

Chris Stevenson
Chris Stevenson
1 year ago
Reply to  Thomas Metcalf

If only he went with Ford Escort. Alas.

Andy Individual
Andy Individual
1 year ago

Arthur was the Escort. Though he really should have been called Camry.

msisaacs
msisaacs
1 year ago

Or Ford Fairlane?!

Not THAT Florida Man
Not THAT Florida Man
1 year ago

Torch, may we PLEASE have a chart for Austin Partner. I am having a terrible time choosing between the two.

Mike Harrell
Mike Harrell
1 year ago

Well, one of them had a pretty good life for 41 years before being done in by a combination of outdated engineering and questionable management decisions whereas the other was… ah. I see the difficulty.

Jay Vette
Jay Vette
1 year ago
Reply to  Mike Harrell

This is one of the funniest comments I’ve read all week lol

Mr.Asa
Mr.Asa
1 year ago

Couldn’t it be argued that Lloyd Alexander the author had liquid cooling? Fluid system pumping to an externally facing radiator?

Thomas Metcalf
Thomas Metcalf
1 year ago
Reply to  Mr.Asa

By Jove, you’re right!

Flyingstitch
Flyingstitch
1 year ago

In today’s Cold Start, Jason keeps it weird with Austin.

Dave Horchak
Dave Horchak
1 year ago
Reply to  Flyingstitch

Yes but the same austin is no longer weird. A lot of healeys, the 3000 is my fave but sprite shows up here like a soda machine. Midget alot but mgtd, mgtc none of the best. How about Morgan?

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