The Black Taxi

I was asked by to draw a traditional London taxi, so here you are!

The car is an Austin FX4, designed as a replacement of the earlier FX3, and introduced in 1958. Built by the coachbuilder Carbodies. The taxi remained largely the same throughout the years, only undergoing fairly small developments during its life. The most notables are a mildly re-worked and facelifted updating in 1968; a newly engineered version when Carbodies bought the intellectual rights to themselves in 1982 and notably changed the old Austin engines for Land Rover engines; and finally, through the endeavours of the London Taxis International (formed in 1984), the car underwent several other technical updates and changes to keep it in a working condition well to the present day.

However, ultimately the 1950s design was starting to get dated and was eventually replaced by the modern (and quite ugly) TX1, introduced in 1997, rather than to keep working with the ancient carframe. The old taxi, even if no longer in service, still remains one of the more enduring British symbols of the 20th century.