What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Ivor Hawkins]

And also the type of font used, or are they signwritten? I’d be interested to learn before I start wielding the paint brush or cutting out vinyl letters.

Either way, the plate finishes the car off beautifully.

It's a cheat! 

I did the artwork in Adobe Illustrator. A bit of messing around with a rather ugly combination of letters and numbers.

The main font is Myriad Pro but the 'J' is Arial, cropped at the top.

The numbers are resized to match the 'P' and there is kerning (space adjustment) of the whole lot. 

The vinyl letters were cut on a Roland sign cutter from APS Matt Sahara sign vinyl.

I must point out that I was responsible only for the number plates. All the important main work was done by Martin Whittaker in remarkably quick time.

Thanks Henry, I thought it might be! Thankfully I have all the software on my Mac from when I was working, so I shall have a bash to get the lettering just right...thanks for the heads up, that’s just what I needed!

[Steve kay]

[center]     [/center]

The sporting calendar is beginning to revive, but what is acceptable inside  a closed circuit or hillclimb venue underlines the problems when events are out in the wide world. Gathering at start/finish venues and entrants and officials maintaining the correct distances is a challenge. We were just about to abandon the VSCC Welsh Scatter when the idea of Shobdon Airfield was proposed, so today we had a meeting with the airfield controller and catering manager. Suddenly, all problems of space, access, competitors' parking, tea and cakes  not to mention toilets were dealt with!  Sharpen those pencils, find the Romer in the desk drawer, in October nav rallying should return to the roads of the Marches. Fingers crossed, candles lit and chickens livers sacrificed to the relevant deities of course.

[Dave Mann]

Oh dear Oxford Diecast standards are slipping, their website lists PJ 5222 as an RN saloon whilst the real thing is an RP.

[sparkeysprite]

   

I've had my first "7" for over a month now and have only used it very locally within about 5 miles of home, getting used to it and it's abilities (and learning to drive it to a respectable standard!) This evening I decided to venture a little further afield and took it for a run up to Buxton via "Long Hill".  Long Hill is a great driving road in a fast car or motorcycle but as it's name suggests it is a long hill and from my house to Buxton it's all uphill - about 8 or 9 miles of mostly reasonably gentle climb I wasn't sure how the little Austin would manage it.   It was fine and keeping momentum up through the many bends I managed to keep in top gear at around 30- 35mph the whole way, then a descent into Buxton to let it cool down a bit.  The climb out of buxton on the way back is a bit steeper, but again proved no problem and even got close to 50mph on the drive back down.  About 40 miles in total today, so confidence in the little chap's ability is increasing !

[Henry Harris]

I think an evening at the Carpenters...

   

[andrew34ruby]

I've had my first "7" for over a month now and have only used it very locally within about 5 miles of home, getting used to it and it's abilities (and learning to drive it to a respectable standard!) This evening I decided to venture a little further afield and took it for a run up to Buxton via "Long Hill".  Long Hill is a great driving road in a fast car or motorcycle but as it's name suggests it is a long hill and from my house to Buxton it's all uphill - about 8 or 9 miles of mostly reasonably gentle climb I wasn't sure how the little Austin would manage it.   It was fine and keeping momentum up through the many bends I managed to keep in top gear at around 30- 35mph the whole way, then a descent into Buxton to let it cool down a bit.  The climb out of buxton on the way back is a bit steeper, but again proved no problem and even got close to 50mph on the drive back down.  About 40 miles in total today, so confidence in the little chap's ability is increasing !

Did you find it was noisy? 40 miles in mine today and my ears were still ringing a couple of hours afterwards.

[David Stepney]

I've had my first "7" for over a month now and have only used it very locally within about 5 miles of home, getting used to it and it's abilities (and learning to drive it to a respectable standard!) This evening I decided to venture a little further afield and took it for a run up to Buxton via "Long Hill".  Long Hill is a great driving road in a fast car or motorcycle but as it's name suggests it is a long hill and from my house to Buxton it's all uphill - about 8 or 9 miles of mostly reasonably gentle climb I wasn't sure how the little Austin would manage it.   It was fine and keeping momentum up through the many bends I managed to keep in top gear at around 30- 35mph the whole way, then a descent into Buxton to let it cool down a bit.  The climb out of buxton on the way back is a bit steeper, but again proved no problem and even got close to 50mph on the drive back down.  About 40 miles in total today, so confidence in the little chap's ability is increasing !

Did you find it was noisy? 40 miles in mine today and my ears were still ringing a couple of hours afterwards.

MY RP saloon is not as noisy in the cab as my diesel Landrover, but one is certainly aware of the Seven's mechanical nature. The sound was once described as "industrial sewing machine with a hint of tin tray down stone steps."

[sparkeysprite]

I've had my first "7" for over a month now and have only used it very locally within about 5 miles of home, getting used to it and it's abilities (and learning to drive it to a respectable standard!) This evening I decided to venture a little further afield and took it for a run up to Buxton via "Long Hill".  Long Hill is a great driving road in a fast car or motorcycle but as it's name suggests it is a long hill and from my house to Buxton it's all uphill - about 8 or 9 miles of mostly reasonably gentle climb I wasn't sure how the little Austin would manage it.   It was fine and keeping momentum up through the many bends I managed to keep in top gear at around 30- 35mph the whole way, then a descent into Buxton to let it cool down a bit.  The climb out of buxton on the way back is a bit steeper, but again proved no problem and even got close to 50mph on the drive back down.  About 40 miles in total today, so confidence in the little chap's ability is increasing !

Did you find it was noisy? 40 miles in mine today and my ears were still ringing a couple of hours afterwards.

Yes, it makes quite a racket, particularly at higher revs.  I was trying to decide if its normal or not as I'm still new to these cars and whilst the noise is fairly harsh and mechanical I don't think it's "wrong"..  It also changes quite a bit dependent on where my advance/retard is set as I've been experimenting with that.  Increasing advance at higher revs gives a little bit more power but also makes the engine sound harsher - a harder and less pleasant sound.  I would say the noise level is about the same as an early "series" landrover.

[Reckless Rat]

When I did my run to Santiago de Compostella last year I went armed with a supply of ear plugs, but never used them. I set myself a cruising speed of 45-50mph on the speedo, a rate of knots at which the engine seemed to be in its sweet spot. I drive with the window open as well whenever I can.

Thrashing the nuts off the engine with the ignition too far advanced will make things harsher, and will probably result in premature failure of the crank if it's not a phoenix. It's far better to arrive late than not at all, and it is a much pleasant experience rather than fighting the car at high speed.

A large beardy bloke once said that the gearbox on my car is the quietest 4 speed crash he'd ever experienced. Perhaps I'm just lucky.

[Barry Townsend]

I found that the rear of the engine block was in contact with the firewall on my RN, I managed to insert a piece of felt between which stopped a lot of the 'drumming' and quietened it down a fair bit.