, circa 1951, manufactured by
Austin in conjunction with
Jensen Motors – and styled by Eric Neale. Despite its name, the A40 Sports was intended as a sporty touring car rather than a true
sports car Born in
Halesowen, Worcestershire and educated at
Halesowen Grammar School. He served as an apprentice designer at
Mulliners in Birmingham. In 1929 he left Mulliners to join
Samuel Holbrook Limited in
Coventry who made bodies for
Alvis,
Triumph and
Armstrong Siddeley. After only two years he moved on to join
Singer in Birmingham as a body designer, and later to Daimler where he worked on
Lanchester and
Daimler saloons. In the late 1930s Neale moved to
Austin and then to
Wolseley. During
World War II Neale served in the
Royal Air Force. After the war Neale went back to Wolseley and then in 1946 moved to
Jensen. Neale resigned from Jensen in 1966 following Jensen's decision to drop his P66 design in favour of the
Touring design for the new
Jensen Interceptor although he played an important role in amending the Italian Interceptor design so as to improve its appearance and make it suitable for production. His reputation as a stylist was somewhat negatively affected for many years by the headlamp design for the
C-V8, however he was too loyal to his former employer to reveal that the teardrop-shaped headlamp covers of his original design had been removed prior to production by Richard Jensen, thereby leading to the controversial appearance of the production cars. Neale died in 1997. ==Some of his cars==