Ownership Verified: My Vintage Sports Car - 1929 Austin Seven Special

Andeh

is teahte tbungafloed
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Messages
3,514
Location
Cumbria, UK
Car(s)
Fiestas, Mondeos, Anglia, Austin 7, Corsair, Chrys
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With the Anglia being used regularly throughout the summer, my father and I soon discovered that the winter months ideally need something car related as well. We couldn't keep using the Anglia, due to the sheer amount of salt on the roads, but at the same time, we couldn't tinker with it forever either; we needed something a bit different. For the last year, I've been attending Vintage Sports-Car Club meetings, and of course, that meant only one thing: something old. Properly old.

This fits the bill, it's a 19-er-something Austin Seven. It's registered as 1929, but the majority of it is 1933 or so, so I'll call it that. The car is fundamentally a special, that is, one created in someone's imagination albeit in a period style. The body is hand made and designed, there's no other one like this, certainly not that the Longbridge Austin factory ever produced anyway. It only has a wheelbase of 6'3", a 747cc engine (but nicely breathed upon), cable brakes, wire wheels and manual everything.

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I'm writing this with freezing hands, having just battled to free the bottom hose to drain the water, and refill with new antifreeze. That's because we bought the car down in Cornwall, where it was 8c, and it's now in Cumbria at -3c and falling fast. So after 10 hours of driving it back on a trailer, a gentle introduction to pre-war maintenance!

The plan is for my father to keep busy with the mechanicals in his retirement, driving it for leisure, whilst me and a friend take the car out to VSCC Trials. Which is basically off-roading up very steep muddy hills, in pre-war cars.

More pictures and much more information when it's not bloody freezing and late at night. Yes, it looks so much better with the hood down!
 
It's so twee :D
 
Sweeeet! Love Austin Sevens. I can't wait to see what you do with this.
 
I think you're pretty much winning the next Car of the year @FG. Coooool!
 
Thanks everyone. Cleaned all the salt off it from trailering it back off the motorway, and had a better look around today. It has sat for a few years, and needs some gentle recommissioning, but runs very well and initial impressions are that it's very torque-y and perhaps a bit more powerful than expected. I did have the hood down, but by the time I took these pictures the rain had come in again, so back up... With the seats removed, my 6'4" father can drive it too, so we're going to back some thinner seat swabs, to make it better for both of us, given I'm 6'1".

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Will it eventually end up in the same condition as the anglia? :)

lets hope not...

use this one instead of pampering it!!
i wished we had such a hill climbing scene :(
 
Not much room for bouncers in back though! It looks to be a hoot!
 
Will it eventually end up in the same condition as the anglia? :)

Absolutely not! While traditionally used to describe the upkeep of survivor cars, I'll be applying oily rag techniques to the Seven, in fact I already started today by polishing the nickel radiator and protecting it with a nice layer of fresh oil. The car was built for trialling, and used by the previous owner for this, as such the car has plenty of patina and battle damage already. It's hand painted, and will be kept that way so it's easy to touch in damage. It'll be kept tidy, but will never be highly polished or show-car like. Oily and patina'd, like a vintage car should! Incidentally, here's a picture of the previous owner trialling before he painted it and fitted the hood and windscreen.

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lets hope not...

use this one instead of pampering it!!
i wished we had such a hill climbing scene :(

Oi! The Anglia does about many thousands of miles a year up and down the country. It's used hard, but pampered hard too. ;)

Not much room for bouncers in back though! It looks to be a hoot!

I'll be double driving with my friend, so we'll both have a turn at bouncing and driving each hill. Being a small light car, it shouldn't need as much extra help from bouncers as a heavier car. Besides, it's so small, one person is a lot of comparative weight to bounce with!

After cleaning it, taxing it (?0.00 like the Anglia!) and insuring it, we drove it to the storage location today. It definitely needs a good service and some tuning, as the car will run fine until left to idle, at which point revs drop until they're so low the car won't pick up again. It then sits at low revs for a minute or so until it will respond again, almost like it's trying to rebuild steam pressure! Given in the last two years, it's done five miles (one of which was me!) a thorough service should help the running immensely, including replacing the (most likely) two year old petrol.
 
I want one, so BADLY. That would be so much fun to drive around Florida!

Cannot wait to see this thread grow.
 
So were the pedals optional then? :p


It's certainly quirky!
 
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