Winter approaches

[Dave Wortley]

Normal size humans in the A7 this time but very small people in the Ford.

[Tony Griffiths]

I see the art department are at again, can't decide whether it's an RN or RP. If you have the plates fitted between the body and chassis under the carburetor it gets quite warm in a Seven.

Yes, its similar to a previous post where I overlaid the image against a real car to find, of course, that the advertisement showed the prototype 'limousine'" version with longer rear side windows.

[Bob Culver]

What Tony can do is both impressive and disconcerting. 
About the heating, when I was young, every few weekends we tootled 60 miles to visit grandparents. To exit from Wellington inolves a steady climb of about a mile mostly in 2nd. Like most RPs the rubber cover over the gearbox had long before dissolved so we were always snug. in 1957 the Seven was supplanted by a 1952 Minx, without heater (expensive accessory). First thing we noticed was how miserably cold it was. 
(Alongside the road on the climb was a partly above ground large stormwater pipe. Having observed it creep by on so many occassions I could draw it in detail today. Buses and trucks were slower still although very few of the latter esp on weekends.)
The Ford was an incredibly good buy. it is astonishing any Sevens sold at all. Ford was tainted with the stigma of the Model T. (My grandmothers neighbour ownd a 'new 1953 ish Ford Mainline or such station wagon, we the RP. My garndmother regarded the neighbours car as a mere Ford, and was quite proud we had an Austin, worth about 1/15).
Apparently the Ford Y steered poorly and had poor brakes...but I dunno what standard was used....

[Tony Griffiths]

The proud Austin Seven owner is showing everybody that he has a garage for his car. Not a snowflake on it.

John Mason.
P.s. I suppose Tony Griffiths esquire will no doubt magic a little snow to fall.
Well done Tony.

Thanks, John. Here's a light snow shower for you - a bit more of a blizzard below and, finally. almost a white-out.

[Tony Griffiths]

What Tony can do is both impressive and disconcerting. 
About the heating, when I was young, every few weekends we tootled 60 miles to visit grandparents. To exit from Wellington inolves a steady climb of about a mile mostly in 2nd. Like most RPs the rubber cover over the gearbox had long before dissolved so we were always snug. in 1957 the Seven was supplanted by a 1952 Minx, without heater (expensive accessory). First thing we noticed was how miserably cold it was. 
(Alongside the road on the climb was a partly above ground large stormwater pipe. Having observed it creep by on so many occassions I could draw it in detail today. Buses and trucks were slower still although very few of the latter esp on weekends.)
The Ford was an incredibly good buy. it is astonishing any Sevens sold at all.  Ford was tainted with the stigma of the Model T. (My grandmothers neighbour ownd a 'new 1953 ish Ford Mainline or such station wagon, we the RP. My garndmother regarded the neighbours car as a mere Ford, and was quite proud we had an Austin, worth about 1/15).
Apparently the Ford Y steered poorly and had poor brakes...but I dunno what standard was used....

How interesting. My wife had the same attitude when I mentioned we might buy a Ford. "Four wheels and a board!" came the response. She probably inherited this from her father, a transport manager responsible for running a very large fleet of assorted vehicles.

[Steve kay]

Tony

You frequently display gems from Longbridge's PR Dept. Just before the public launch of the Seven, PR were preparing for publicity. Whilst doing some research on the ACU Six Days Trial at the beginning of 1922, I came upon reports that some pre-production cars hade been lent out to journalists. For the Six Days, a car was loaned to motoring writer Laurie Cade, who was accompanied by Freddie Pignon who became well known as a golf reporter. As far as I know the car behaved well in the course of following the trial. However, Austin's PR Dept are said to have produced a fake picture of the two out on the road, with Cade driving and Pignon  sitting next to him with a typewriter on his lap. Do you have any such images cooked up by the factory, was it for an ad in the press?

[Mike Costigan]

There's an article on this coming up in the next Grey Mag! I would be interested to see the picture - Cade certainly claimed to have been typing whilst Pignon drove, so if the picture shows them the other way round then yes, it's a fake!

[Tony Griffiths]

Tony

You frequently display gems from Longbridge's PR Dept. Just before the public launch of the Seven, PR were preparing for publicity. Whilst doing some research on the ACU Six Days Trial at the beginning of 1922, I came upon reports that some pre-production cars hade been lent out to journalists. For the Six Days, a car was loaned to motoring writer Laurie Cade, who was accompanied by Freddie Pignon who became well known as a golf reporter. As far as I know the car behaved well in the course of following the trial. However, Austin's PR Dept are said to have produced a fake picture of the two out on the road, with Cade driving and Pignon  sitting next to him with a typewriter on his lap. Do you have any such images cooked up by the factory, was it for an ad in the press?

Sadly, I don't have the image - but, hopefully, it will have survived. Faking pictures goes back to cave painting:
"The tiger you got was never as big as that!"
"Nor was your fish!"
"As for your wife! Never in a moon of nights!"

[Bob Culver]

hi Tony

There is that well known pre history cave picture from France of a woman where the comment applies , but the other way around to the usual!

[Steve kay]

Mike

Evidently the pair of them enjoyed each other's company out following and reporting on trials. I know little about golf, having assumed that it involved wearing cardigans on greens, drinking gin  in the clubhouse and driving home in the Jag. Freddie Pignon was much braver than merely observing such suburban activities. Not having been put off by the Chummy outing, in 1925 he sat in the chair of a 596cc Douglas, his right ear deafened as Laurie Cade rode the machine. I am not aware that they swapped places from saddle to sidecar, we now have a mystery about who did what in the Chummy. Perhaps the 1925 Six Days takes us back to the start, if indeed the Ford, or is it a Seven have driven to  a snowy Yorkshire church. Now definitely time to take dogs out and then descend to the workshop, where Sevens await.