Helloooooo!

[Tony Griffiths]

Afternoon All thought I'd check back in let you know how its going. All is great been out quite alot, done the food shop been to the pub we did drive it day you may have seen that on the austin seven FB page, around 50 miles so pleased with that.
The things I am struggling with.
Light bulbs i have 35/3W 6v, I would like those but have had to order 35/35?
The windscreen wiper?
Sluggish uphill runs a dream on the flat and small hills but really steep or heavy load ( hubby) slows right up needs to change down. I think I have the advance & Retard sorted? ish.

All suggestions greatly received.

Ignition timing does make a huge difference to the limited performance of a Seven. The trick, with manual advance/retard, is to get the car well warmed up and drive it on a flat road at a steady 35 m.ph. Play with the lever and you'll discover that, at one point in its travel, the car will speed up slightly. Advance it a little more and the engine will start to rumble, but you'll not go any faster - this is the crank-breaking protest limit of the engine. Note where the lever is for best performance and try not to exceed it - especially when slogging uphill in top, or revving hard in second when the whine/scream/howling from the gearbox drowns out all other sounds. The car might feel more "aggressive" with the rumble, but you won't be going any faster. In the past, when covering huge mileages every year, I always ran long journeys with a little retard, only advancing when necessary. Unfortunately, in competitions, I just could not resist overdoing things with forlorn the expectation of another 1 m.p.h.

As your car weighs so little, adding passengers and luggage really cripples the power-to-weight ratio.