Austin Seven Bathing Beauty - teaser 1

[Tony Griffiths]

Austin Seven Bathing Beauty - teaser 1.

[Tony Press]

A tiny one! And the door is quite 'wide' !

[Bob Culver]

It is a curious picture. Her feet seem far from the car. Her proportions quite in keeping with the times. The recommended loads now soon exceeded. Anyone over about 10 stone is a vey snug fit in the bucket seat backs.
A colleague with a short garage recently asked about car lengths. When comparing the side views I was surpries to note that the enormous door of the RN/RP is not as wide as the top part of the stepped doors.

[Greig Smith]

Tony thank you for all these pictures, I'm carefully saving them all, the plan is to have them block mounted as garage wall art !!

Aye
Greig

[Dave Mann]

I see the artists have used their skills to make the car look bigger, my saloons are 5' 3" high so that makes the bathing beauty no more than 5' 4".

[Bob Culver]

Through all the famiy photos of RP, for myself roof was below shoulders, my slight parents part way up their heads.
The lass is about the same as the wheelbase despite her partly bent legs. 
I will try and fond some Mini adverts and see what models they used.
I never managed to entice any legs as long slender young or as bare as those into my RP. There are occassions when I wish I had not taken an interest in an ancient car a decade older than me.

[Tony Griffiths]

I see the artists have used their skills to make the car look bigger, my saloons are 5' 3" high so that makes the bathing beauty no more than 5' 4".

5' 4" ?  Two inches more than you need....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbcPYJYnoxE  ...lots of period bits - and cars -
Or, more beauties from the 1920s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UE7b2LcLzs
Five foot two, eyes of blue
But oh, what those five foot could do
Has anybody seen my girl?
Turned up nose, turned down hose
Never had no other beaus
Has anybody seen my girl?
Now if you run into a
Five foot two, covered with fur
Diamond rings and all those things
Betcha' life it isn't here
But could she love, could she woo?
Could she, could she, could she coo?
Has anybody seen my girl?
Five foot two, eyes of blue
But oh, what those five foot could do
Has anybody seen my girl?
Turned up nose, turned down hose
Never had no other beaus
Has anybody seen my girl?
Now if you run into a
Five foot two, covered with fur
Diamond rings and all those things
Betcha' life it isn't here
But could she love, could she woo?
Could she, could she, could she coo?

[David Stepney]

I am sure that, 80 or 90 years ago, people were shorter than they are now.I am sure that better public health and a more plentiful supply of cheaper food is responsible for this. I am 5'7" ( I used to be 5'8" but I have appeared to have shrunk over the years) and need a cushion to sit on in my Seven to get sufficient clearance for my legs to be comfortable, even though the seat is set at its most rearward position. In this regard, I note that my great-grandson Leon, presently 14 and 5'2", having been initiated into the arcane mysteries of driving a prewar car, finds the Seven ideal for him. Incidentally, my mother (born 1915 and sadly no longer with us) was proudly 5'0". She started her driving career in 1932 at the tender age of 17 in an EA Austin Ulster (a proper one, not a replica!) owned by a boyfriend of the time. I have a photo somewhere of Mother sitting in this car wearing a milk white flying helmet! She used to manage my father's 20/25 Royce with some aplomb, although she hated it because it was so big.

[Bob Culver]

Possibly at 5 ft 2 wooing and cooing is practicable even without removing the front seat. 
Non American WW2 soldiers are scrawny by modern standards.The variation in size betwen generations is very evident here. Many elderly Chinese, products of the rigours of the cultural revolution, are very slight. But those born here are often well on the way to All Black forward proportions, for which Sevens were not designed.

[A G Wood]

Most definitely David, despite a dodgy start to life, at  6' 4" I was  2" taller at least than both my late parents, [b. 1914 & 1915]  both of whom were considered tall by their contemporaries...My wife at 5' 9" was considered one of the tallest girls at her High School, but we are both shorter than our kids, and it looks like the grandkids will eclipse their parents in due course.