TAKING YOUR AUSTIN SEVEN ABROAD

Travelling across to the Continent?

Well, these days, there are several ways you can do it. You can go on the ordinary ferry; through the Tunnel; by Hover-speed or Jetfoil.

Personally, I choose the Hover-speed or Jetfoil wherever possible as it is available for most regular destinations along the French/Belgian coast and it is QUICK. If you do choose this method of travel always remember that you need to put your Austin Seven on the flat deck. Sometimes the men directing the hoarding try to put you on slopes because they are packing so many in and they will try to fob you off. If you end up on a slope you will frequently find that, as you travel along over the briny, your trusty friend will bounce down the slope. It could either hit another car or damage itself. Not a good start to any holiday. (Perhaps take a couple of chocks with you. Not a bad idea even on the flat.)

Insurance

Asking your insurers for a green card these days is not always necessary (depends on your policy), but you must inform your insurance company that you are taking your car abroad and tell them which countries you are going to. It is always advisable to take out 5 star cover through a vintage car insurer for a long trip; ordinary car insurers will not normally touch any car over 16 years old.

On the personal side you can go to any Post Office (or sub-Post Office) and get a form Elli for reciprocal health insurance in an EU country.

There are two copies of the form in the booklet which need to be filled in and taken to the Post Office to be stamped. They keep one copy and you take the other with you. The booklet gives full details of how and where you may use this form for obtaining necessary medical attention. For a long trip additional private health cover might be advisable.

Petrol

What you’ve got to remember is that in most continental countries nowadays 4-star leaded petrol is almost non-existent, but they do sell an additive which is a lead substitute. If you are only going to do a few hundred miles it’s just as easy to take a can with you as you would do normally anyway.

I’ve just recently been to Holland in my Seven and out there are still some pumps which are doing leaded, but it does cost extra money. Quite a number of Austin Sevens use lead-free anyway and they seem to run pretty well on it but I’ve not tried it myself at the moment. All I’ve ever done is put a drop of paraffin in the petrol to cool it down a bit when I’m on a long run (I litre paraffin 4 litres petrol).

Do remember that a lot of places shut between 12 noon and 3 p.m. especially in France and also all day on Monday. In Germany you find a lot of garages close for the weekend after 12 noon on Saturday. It’s always worth taking that extra drop of petrol with you in a can, just in case you get caught out. On the flip side of the coin, of course, as France grinds to a virtual standstill from 12 noon until 3 p.m. while all the natives take a leisurely lunch (it can also be extremely , if not unbearably, hot - another good reason to take the weight off for a few hours) the roads become remarkably clear. Marvellous if you need to make some headway on a long trip!

Still on the subject of petrol; a lot of Austin Seven owners don’t bother to (completely) fill up their tank very often and then when they do, it swishes around the top half of the tanks and brings down a lot of rust and such from the top of the tank which drains down into the petrol and blocks up the jets.

That’s why it’s a good idea to keep the jets nice and clean. If you’re doing a run of 200 or 300 mile’s a day, at the end of the day when you have a few minutes to spare, it is worth cleaning the jets out once again, ready for the next morning, or the run home - whichever you are going to do. People laugh about this, but you find that when most people break down, nine times out of ten it is because of dirt in the petrol - or in the carburretter I should say.

There are lots of things you could clean the tank with. Some people use some stuff called "Slosh" which you pour into the tank, swill it all around and tip out the excess and let it dry off. That is quite good in tanks like Chummies or early Box Saloons, but if you are cleaning a rear tank you must remember that you could cause yourself a lot of trouble with this method because at the bottom of the tank there is a great big filter inside and you are just going to block all the holes up and you won’t get any petrol through at all. One way of tackling this is to just put a load of old stones or a socket set in the tank and give it a good shaking to bang the rust off the sides and then tip it all out and wash it out with some petrol. That usually does a good job.

Once when we were in France - on the Blois trip, I think it was - we filled up with best quality petrol in a small village, smiling at one of our companions who was straining the petrol through one of his wife’s stockings stretched lightly over the petrol tank opening and thinking him to be a bit over-particular. Not many kilometres down the road we suffered from petrol starvation and the engine started coughing very badly and died a couple of times. Clean the jets. Start off again. Courage, Camille. No good, Cough, cough, wheeze. Stop and clean the jets etc.

When we FINALLY reached our destination for the night we stripped it down and had a look. You would not believe it, but we found lumps of turquoise plastic(!??) floating around in our petrol. This had been clogging up the jets etc. Add an old stocking to the list of spares

Spares and Tools
It is normal practise to take the usual tool kit with you. In addition I would suggest you take a half shaft; a dynamo (or magneto) if you have one. If there is a bunch of you going over it is a good idea to sort out between you what you are going to take to avoid too much duplication. It is always better to be safe rather than sorry.

I always take a dynamo, half-shaft, distributor cap, spare condenser, points, coil and all the things which will go under a back seat, basically, and of course, some oil and water. Oil is quite expensive in Europe so it is always best to take a couple of pints with you, because you know as well as I do that Austin Sevens burn it and it would not be a proper Seven if it did not leak a bit!

In France, most garages seem to be run by one man, a boy and a dog. They are usually very knowledgeable and helpful. It may be useful here to give you the phrase for "thingummy".

The thingummy in French is "le machin" (sounds like mashan). This, "Pardon, avez-vous le machin qui fait " coupled with suitable gesticulations can prove very useful. In fact, it could be the best bit of French you ever knew.

Some water is always useful in case you go up a lot of steep hills. There are a fair number in northern Europe. You trip over them quite a lot. Another thing to remember if you are going northerly ; Denmark, for instance. As soon as you cross the border there you have to put your headlights on. The reason for this soon becomes clear as all of Denmark is quite near the sea. The clouds come scudding in rather quickly and blot out the sun and then they’re gone again. So the visibility is constantly changing. Now, if you’ve got a 6-volt system it is going to drain quite quickly. You can help yourself by making sure that you’ve topped up your battery and putting it on charge overnight before you set off so that it’s rearing to go.

I would strongly recommend every Austineer to take your Austin Seven out for a good long run (several if possible) before you go. This will highlight any small defects which can be readily tackled and corrected at home before you go. (And clean your jets.)

General

Driving your Austin Seven abroad can feel awkward at first because you are on the "wrong" side of the road and you can make good use of your navigator/passenger to do hand signals for you when you are overtaking (and also to look out for oncoming traffic.) Read a travel book for the Country you are going to visit to ensure that you know their motoring laws/requirements beforehand. First aid boxes and triangles and stuff.

Some people put 6-volt flasher units on their Sevens and, to be quite honest with you, if you are following an Austin Seven with a 6-volt flasher unit going in front of you it is very difficult to see the flasher unit. I personally feel that they are a waste of time. Make the passengers earn their keep, I say. Take a good, current, large scale map. Do not do what I did about five years ago when travelling with the wife and another Austin Seven across Belgium when my navigator (wife) could not find the roads we were travelling on, on the map I had given her. Had it for years hadn’t I? A map’s a map is a map. When we finally worked out what was wrong it turned out that my map was about 20 years old and I truly hadn’t realised.

Another thing I find, if you’re really trying to get somewhere, rather than out for an amble round, is that it is very difficult on the continent to travel anywhere along normal roads because you find that all the minor roads seem to go round and round in circles and it takes you three or four times as long to get anywhere. Whereas, if you go along the motor-ways you do at least get there fairly quickly and they are direct.

Speed of other cars is sometimes a problem. I find that in France and Belgium they tend to drive quite fast and come up to you and cut in and out. Whereas, in Holland they are a bit more considerate towards old cars and they do take their time when they come up behind you and overtake and the Germans are fairly similar in attitude too.

The Germans and the Dutch tend to come up to you and talk to you about your car and ask permission before they touch it. Generally speaking, the French are more like shy, curious children. They seem to wait until they think you have gone away from the car, when they will then approach and have a good look and sometimes also a good poke around!

Rather like taking a dog for a walk, people find you approachable and want to chat - which is rather nice.

If you can’t lock your car you might take a tip from a mate of mine who had a Chummy and who, just for the duration of his French holiday, took out the back seat and bolted in a size-able, sturdy wooden box with an equally sturdy padlock and hasp, so that nothing need be left lying around inside the car, nor did he have to carry everything with him. But do take your passport and valuables with you wherever you go, though. Why valuables obvious; why passport -because the natives all carry identity cards and you may need your passport to use as your form of identity.

And finally ; if you are travelling in a group, do please remember the bloke behind. Keep him in your rear-view mirror and, if you are turning off into another road (this applies at roundabouts too, of course) wait for him to catch up so that you know he has seen you turn off and knows which road everyone is taking. Try to keep together. You are, after all, on holiday and not in a race. Have a splendid time.

Bon voyage!

Ted Peckham