Battered batteries?

[IanClayton]

I thought I'd heard of everything Austin 7 until up in the North of this Island at the Argory meeting of the  Ulster pre-war Austin Club and Irish Austin Seven Club last weekend I was introduced to the use of sawn down 12 Volt batteries in Sevens.  The example I saw, it was explained, had two cells physically sawn off the 12 volt casing, retaining the internal connection to the batteries terminal post resulting in an 8 volt version upon which the Seven apparently runs well without further mods.   My informant was surprised I hadn't heard of this as it's apparently often used in the Irish Republic but I've not ever come across it in my wanderings in GB before.

Any comments ?

Ian C