For 1938 the Scout series 5
featured 12 volts, Bendix cable brakes and minor styling changes, for example
the coupe being a 2 plus 2 in modern parlance. For the final year of Scout
production the 1939 Series 6 was fitted with ‘easy clean’ wheels and a three
bearing crankshaft, and appeared in 2 and 4 seat tourer form, plus a steel
bodied saloon. Just before war commenced a 2 seat drop head coupe version
appeared, but only fourteen were produced, and the rising war effort brought
BSA car production to a halt before the Series 7 with a revised front
suspension arrangement got beyond the prototype stage.
The steel-bodied
Series 6 saloon was one of the last designs built. Only one survived in the
1960’s and has not been seen for many a year.
Data on the number of BSA’s produced tends to
indicate that some 6650 trikes were manufactured between 1929 and 1935 and
3000 Scouts of all models. In the above short history, no mention has been
made of the various special bodied FWD BSA’s, as details are unclear.
With the advent of the Second World War BSA
car production ceased and with it died the only volume production prewar
British FWD car. In some ways it was more than that - the BSA FWD
threewheeler was the world’s first volume produced FWD car and a significant
pointer to what today is commonplace.