Habitué au luxe, le Premier ministre avait cependant des goûts modestes en matière d'automobile. Pendant toute la guerre, sa voiture personnelle était une petite Austin 10 Cambridge. Coquetterie du grand homme, ou véritable affection pour un petit modèle sympathique, sobre, robuste, et bien suffisant pour de courts trajets ?

L'Austin 10, acquise en 1967 par le 6e Marquis de Bath, fut vendue aux par son fils, Alexander Thynn, 7e Marquis , lors d'une vente aux enchères de Sotheby's, organisée à Hendon Aircraft Museum en novembre 1997.
La veille de la vente, le Times faisait paraître l'article qui suit :

The Times
20th November 1997. 
By Kevan Eason, motoring editor

It was hardly stately transport for a wartime leader of such stature, but Winston Churchill loved his little Austin, so much so that he refused to exchange it for something more ostentatious. 
 
When Lady Churchill decided to trade the black Austin 10 in for a grander model befitting her husband's position, he ordered her to go back to the dealer and bring his Austin home. 
 
Churchill had a curious attachment to his Austin, one of the most unprepossessing models of the prewar years and manufactured at a time when Roll Royce, Daimler, Bentley, and Lanchester were all making majestic models with worldwide reputations for quality and performance. 
Reputation obviously did not matter to Churchill as much as reliability or perhaps he had high regard for Herbert Austin, founder of the Birmingham car maker and a resolute patriot. In any event, the logbook shows Churchill's signature as the first owner, taking delivery of EYII 409 on June 1938. The little four-door is hardly luxurious, its red leather interior no more than spartan and the sit-up-and-beg driving seat seemingly too small for Churchill's ample frame. Even the ashtray seems hardly big enough to cope with his legendary cigars, though there is a sliding sunroof and folding windscreen. 
 
Power was also not a premium feature: the car's 1125cc, four-cylinder could generate only 10 horse power so a fair wind at the rear would he needed to struggle past the 40 mph mark. The Austin did have one exclusive feature: a new type of pressed steel "easy clean"  spoked wheels, though it is hard to imagine the former Prime Minister going at them with bucket and sponge. 
Churchill used the car throughout the war years famously photographed by the bonnet of the Austin during one of his frequent outings. He sold the car in 1950 but it was bought at auction in 1967 by the sixth Marquess of Bath for £1,350 and kept at the Longleat estate in Wiltshire. A restoration in 1983, costing £6,335, has put the car in the near-new condition that Churchill enjoyed. The present marquess is selling the car to clear space as part of a rearrangement of his estate. 

Le rédacteur du Times commet cependant une erreur. L'Austin 10 Cambridge était une 10 HP, c'est à dire 10 chevaux fiscaux, qu'il ne faut pas confondre avec les chevaux réels (BHP). Le moteur, un 1125 cc à soupapes latérales accolé à une boîte 4 vitesses,développait en réalité 25 chevaux. La vitesse de pointe atteignait non pas 40 mais 60 miles per hour (97 Km/h), performance tout à fait honorable pour l'époque, et bien suffisante pour une voiture qui ne disposait que de freins à tringles.

Lors de la vente en novembre 1997, la voiture était proposée accompagnée d'une photographie de Churchill posant à côté du véhicule et de la "carte grise" d'origine portant le nom du Premier Ministre. Sotheby's l'avait estimée entre £ 4000 et £ 6000, soit le prix d'une Austin 10 HP "normale" en excellent état. La petite Austin devait partir pour £ 66 000. La presse a évoqué à l'époque un acheteur suisse anonyme. Il s'agissait en fait d'un représentant du Château de Grandson (Fondation Winthertur). La voiture fait désormais partie de la collection de voitures du château, où elle partage la vedette avec la Rolls-Royce de Greta Garbo.