How brave do you have to be?

[Phil Kingdom]

An engineer friend of mine comments made me laugh after he had his first drive in a Austin Seven Ulster this week, he has been for many years involved with the design and manufacture of many of the more exotic kit cars models over the years and regularly used to drive what was generally excepted to be one of the most powerful  road going kit cars ever made with a top speed of well over 160 mph, he also made for himself a Caterham type kit car fitted with a gas turbine helicopter engine and has just finished a rather special hot rod style vehicle  fitted with camber compensation suspension and a 6.2L engine, he has raced motor bikes and off road vehicles and even lawn mowers, so you can see he is no stranger  to speed and excitement. here is the comment he made on Facebook after a drive in an Austin. These things are scary compared to mine what with the high centre of gravity and cable brakes it's terrifying.

[Peter Clayton]

An engineer friend of mine comments made me laugh after he had his first drive in a Austin Seven Ulster this week, he has been for many years involved with the design and manufacture of many of the more exotic kit cars models over the years and regularly used to drive what was generally excepted to be one of the most powerful  road going kit cars ever made with a top speed of well over 160 mph, he also made for himself a Caterham type kit car fitted with a gas turbine helicopter engine and has just finished a rather special hot rod style vehicle  fitted with camber compensation suspension and a 6.2L engine, he has raced motor bikes and off road vehicles and even lawn mowers, so you can see he is no stranger  to speed and excitement. here is the comment he made on Facebook after a drive in an Austin.  These things are scary compared to mine what with the high centre of gravity and cable brakes it's terrifying.

A real mans car . Not for wimps.  Either that or perhaps for those, one ham sandwich short of a picnic!!!

[Erich]

Obviously a matter of perspective. I once sailed with hydroplane driver Chip Hanauer. It was a windy race and the boat was a San Juan 28, noted for being a bit unstable downwind. We rounded the weather mark and set the chute. We almost broached a number of times and Chip got very quiet. Finally, somebody asked how he liked sail boat racing. His reply was that in hydro racing, you were either in control or unconscious. He said we had been out of control for more than an hour and he was stressed out. Perhaps your friend, Phil, is used to being in total control in his vehicles, whereas, in a Seven, the driver is just one part of the equation. The car and the road also substantially contribute to where you go.

Erich

[Tony Betts]

Brave or stoopid 

[Erich]

Brave or stoopid 

Maybe a bit of both, Tony. I think modern drivers(and people) are a bit spoiled today. Before google, it was a trip to the library or the local expert for some institutional knowledge. The idea that two men, would design a car like the Seven in a matter of weeks, sometimes employing a billiard table, if the history is correct, would make modern designers cringe. But then, look at what they produced. Or someone like Harry Riccardo who did his research with intuition and a slide rule.

There is no question that my Toyota Tacoma is a fine piece of engineering. But, like every consumer durable, it will be relegated to toasters and beer cans, my Seven will still be on the road. Which one was engineered to last?

Sorry for the rant.

Erich

[Bob Culver]

Hi Phil
 
And the driver probably knew nothing about Seven steering arms! 

As I have recounted before, when I ran my car as everyday transport one of my mates used to career about on a motor bike at speeds well beyond the limit. But in a short drive in the Austin his nerve quit at about 40 mph.
Those who have driven Sevens briskly and extensively subconsciously adapt to the idiosyncratic handling.
Again, my son and mates as testosterone laden Venturer scouts attended an indoor go kart track. But much to their annoyance and puzzlement ancient retired me managed the fastest lap. I had to explain that I spent my formative years driving a Seven.  Conservation of momentum is the secret with low power karts on tight tracks.

[Tony Betts]

Brave or stoopid 

Maybe a bit of both, Tony. I think modern drivers(and people) are a bit spoiled today. Before google, it was a trip to the library or the local expert for some institutional knowledge. The idea that two men, would design a car like the Seven in a matter of weeks, sometimes employing a billiard table, if the history is correct, would make modern designers cringe. But then, look at what they produced. Or someone like Harry Riccardo who did his research with intuition and a slide rule.

There is no question that my Toyota Tacoma is a fine piece of engineering. But, like every consumer durable, it will be relegated to toasters and beer cans, my Seven will still be on the road. Which one was engineered to last?

Sorry for the rant.

Erich

Hi erich,
You never know what the future brings, especialy with cars.

15 years ago, I sore advertised a Sierra owners club. And thought to myself have you ever heard of something so  Stoopid. Hardly a sort after car then.

Now they are often more sort after than the austin 7.

Tony.

[Mike Costigan]

Not really, Tony. I bet, for starters, that there aren't 10,000 surviving Sierras! Certainly there are a deluded few who may covet a Sierra Cosworth, but I bet there are just as many who covet a genuine supercharged Ulster, Speedy or Grasshopper; a bog standard cooking Sierra is no more sought-after than a Ruby or Box saloon.

[Phil Kingdom]

Knowing my friend as I do as a very competent driver of high performance cars and a consistent winning racing driver in off road vehicles, I can only put his comments down to unpredictability, not being familiar with driving older cars and their characteristics he was expecting it to behave like a modern, as most of the time we spend driving we concentrate on the surrounding environment, road ahead, other vehicles and so on even when racing, the act of actual driving is most of the time purely  automatic, we do not have to think what we are doing until something different happens. In this case I would say something different was happening for him all the time, the slight steering movement,body roll on the corners and the feel of a direct braking system and skinny tyres, all these add up to consistent concentration and the relaxed automatic control of driving is lost we all experience this but to a greater extent when we have to brake hard or swerve unexpectedly, heart rate up and Adrenalin pumping around the system and leave you on edge for a short while.