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

FBBl1PF.jpg


Thread title gave me an idea :lol:
 
Thread title gave me an idea :lol:

Yeh moight, juss'annin 'round wih'ma ol'gal 'n' pint'o'good stuff... cheers!

(Not potato quality for once)

Yaaaaay! Finally FullHD view of bouncing tits springs in the filthy proovegrounds!

Also, the first i've seen where the thing actually got to struggle uphill. I mean, if THAT spins, is it possible to even stand on that sh**?
 
So back in April we won the vintage class of the Yorkshire Dales Classic Trial; today in the post the trophy arrived! Well worth the wait.

YCpUvQ7.jpg


Yesterday we did a single site trial all the way down in Kent, just for Austin Seven's. Came away with the newcomers trophy (it was our first entry to this trial) and took an overall 3rd place! Can't get much happier than that. As with before there's a short video, the clips of us are mixed with clips of the overall winner for comparison's sake.

[video=youtube;2a-b3yhawRM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a-b3yhawRM[/video]

cLmNDMj.jpg


This us done trialling wise until next month, but I think there may be a night rally entry going in soon...
 
nbLRjIK.jpg


They did say that original cranks go eventually.

Full post next week, all hands on deck currently trying to rebuild for the trials season.

No surprises there.. That looks like the least substantial thing in the world. :lol:

Looks like it would be relatively easy to have a replacement machined from a raw stock of better, more modern material? Presumably replacements are hard to come by?
 
Modern replacements exist, and in the summer I will be building an engine around a pressure fed example (the standard ones are just splashed with oil from tiny passages, and otherwise splash about in whatever is in the crankcase).

For now I've bought another ~90 year old one which should see me through to my last trial in May with some luck.

Here's the on board footage from the weekend:


Here's the engine as it stands tonight, new crankcase, rods, and crank, mated to my old components. (When the crank went it smashed a hole in the case). Have a trial on Saturday, hoping to have it ready for then.

GuB34Q1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here's the engine as it stands tonight, new crankcase, rods, and crank, mated to my old components. (When the crank went it smashed a hole in the case). Have a trial on Saturday, hoping to have it ready for then.

GuB34Q1.jpg

omg it is so cute!!! :cool:
 
How come there are no counterweights to speak of on the crankshaft?

It has such excellent support from the bearings that it doesn't need any? :)lol::lol::lol:) Seriously though, the engine might either be externally balanced, or possibly just not balanced at all, this is the early 1900's we're talking about.
 
Any pics of the old crankcase?

Yep, the damage to the case consisted of two holes in the side where the big end bolts of #4 collided with the case, and a cracked front lip seal, which took the brunt of the shaft flailing around off centre. The front lip had already been repaired once, as they are frequently damaged when people attempt to remove the front bearing. It's a bit of a sod, because the two small holes could have been repaired. I'll keep it on the shelf, because it'll be useful one day I'm sure.

zDFHbt9.jpg

F5hIDXF.jpg

YV1CySP.jpg


How come there are no counterweights to speak of on the crankshaft?

It has such excellent support from the bearings that it doesn't need any? :)lol::lol::lol:) Seriously though, the engine might either be externally balanced, or possibly just not balanced at all, this is the early 1900's we're talking about.

Unbalanced. Adequately supported for 1920s use, but yeah, what you see is what it is.

Regarding the weekend, we got it running and driving, but not in time to compete. It was running off-tune the night before, and a lack of time scuppered the plan. Still went down and marshalled, and now the car is ready for my next trial this Saturday. Fingers crossed my second-hand bottom end is adequate to see me 'til the summer when the rebuild can begin proper. (Collecting the expensive parts now... It's going to be much, much better than my old budget engine).
 
So we did the Derbyshire last weekend. Finished the trial, came last out of any competitor to finish the event :lol:

Reasoning was that in the haste to rebuild the engine, we managed to break a ring on #2. This meant come trial time oil was being chucked right through the bore and instantly oiling the plug. Et voila; 3 cyl. Given we ran on three all day, I don't think we did that badly to finish! We removed the plug and switched in a new one before each hill so we had a few seconds on 4cyl to get going, but by the end things were understandably a bit lumpy in the running department.

New rings went in last week, and over the last two days I've done 200 miles to bed them in. The car is now back on form, and touch wood with the "new" old crank holding, we should be back on par for the Herefordshire trial next weekend. Here's a little video of my test driving today on a really fun local road.

 
I've done two trials since the last update. The Herefordshire was a two day event during which my distributor started to fail and left me with an intermittent misfire, and the Scottish last week where we did really quite well and only just missed out on the awards. I even managed to remember the GoPro on the Scottish, so here's a video of every single hill from the day.

 
I've spent so long staring at this, that I don't know if this is awful or fantastic any more. I was going to keep it secret until next season, but I'm so torn on whether I'm making an huge mistake that I need to ask for help.

Yay, or nay?

383qyXV.jpg


pXAZnhy.jpg


8BXCGSy.jpg
 
Noooooooo. Keep it as is.
 
Blue is good, but I think it would look better if you switched the colors and made the body light and the fenders dark. And maybe paint the rims light blue, too.
 
Top