Useless Information? But interesting to some!

[David.H]

As I was bored and, like many, in this Groundhog Day scenario, I decided to do a bit of digging and do an analysis on one of my Sevens...an AG tourer. So bear with me.
AG's seem to be a bit of a "missing link" in the Seven world...neither fish nor fowl. They were produced on the 6ft 3in chassis when Short Chassis frames were supposed to be ending production and continued to be made for more than 12 months into the "Long Chassis" era. They are late (wider) Chummy shaped, but  the bodies are made from steel with some wood framing, not from aluminium around mostly wood. The three big rear panel pressings have distinctive vertical seams (made from rolled, curved overlapping ends). The sills are also steel and this makes for a very strong body. When I got mine my first thought was to turn it into a trials car...It would stand a lot of serious bouncing!
Rinsey Mills doesn't mention the AG in his book covering" all passenger car and sports models.."...AE, AF, milk delivery(!) AH tourers, all get their place in the sun! Close reading reveals a mention under the AF label..."a steel bodied version of this style replaced the aluminium one having a slightly shorter bonnet....No half beading around the door edge." this HAS to be the mythical AG!
I now moved on to that remarkable resource...the Chassis Register and was instructed by the keeper of the files how to download a section (many thanks!) I now had a list of some 47 cars purporting to be AG's! With nothing better to do I interrogated the DVLA "Tax your car" site and came up with these numbers (E & OE Excepted as they used to say) - and may still do-:
Cars not in the UK                   seven
Cars Taxed in UK                     nineteen
Cars on SORN                          four
Untaxed/un-SORNed                nine - All a bit naughty, should be SORN surely!
Not on the DVLA database        seven. Lost and gone forever perhaps?
Turned into a Volvo !                one

Now the anorak goes on: Colours where identified showed
Maroon  eight (mine appeared to be originally maroon under the petrol tank, but is now blue)
Blue       eight
Yellow    five 
Red       three
Black     three
Green    three

Another extraordinary fact was that many engine capacities were not "747cc".. ..885, (4) 858(2) Mind you the DVLA tried to make one of mine an 848cc Austin Seven as in Mk1 Mini.... It is easy to correct with the DVLA.

Using chassis numbers, but remember the Association records only cover "known" cars, some approximate production dates can be established. If anyone has REAL numbers or production volumes "ye are to declare them!!"
I suggest the AG was in production from around Q1 1931 until end of Q4 1932. 
Concurrent with it were the AF: mid 1930 to end Q3 1932, and
AH from Q1 1931 to end Q2 1934. Even the AJ may have started production as the AG was ending.
What I cannot establish is how many AG were made. Were they using up Chassis? perhaps, but I believe Vans on short chassis were built for some years...Someone will know. A good story would be that Herbert was walking found the factory and saw a pile of Chassis and said "Turn 'em into something useful" and the AG was the result, but press tools would have been needed, so not a cheap exercise.
I have brought four Austin Sevens back from the USA, none went out there as new cars. One was a 1928AD Chummy, another a 1929 RK alloy saloon and no less than two very disreputable AG tourers. So at one time recently I owned about 10% of the running AG's in the UK!

What we do to pass the time!

[JonE]

be interesting to know the range of body numbers recorded (and what percentage have been so).

[Hedd_Jones]

If the vehicle was not licenced when the Statute bringing in the Statutory Off Road Notice was given royal ascent, (sometime in 1998 from memory) then the vehicle gained exemption from being SORNED until the next time it is licenced. 

I have a number of such vehicles including a steam roller and a chummy which are both unlicenced and not on SORN.

The chummy was a recent purchase and the DVLA sent me a snotty letter 'requiring' me to SORN it very soon after I had recieved my V5 following the keeper change. They got an equally snotty letter back pointing out their unlawful requirement. which I copied to the secetary of state for Transport (to whom the law actually requires you to notify a SORN - the DVLA are simply his agent)

It remains unlicenced and not on SORN

[Steve Jones]

I know of two AG Tourers although I haven't seen one of them or its owner for a fair few years. They have chassis numbers within a very small difference of each other such that they could have been made within the same couple of weeks. They are both so very different from each other in detail and we've always thought that the reason is that they were very much parts bin specials made using the remnants of the previous cars and available components from the new cars.

Steve

[David.H]

Hedd
Thanks for that information abut SORN....it had certainly passed me by! 
In the famous words "Not many people know that!" Well done!
D

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be interesting to know the range of body numbers recorded (and what percentage have been so).

Some body numbers are recorded....I will check them out and report back
D!

[Stuart Giles]

Mine may well be one of the red ones....



A picture taken before my hair suffered some shrinkage. Along with my special, this was my daily driver until the late 80s. It's been off the road for a long time now. It certainly isn't SORNed.

Coincidently, I started work again on the tourer a couple of days ago, I'm hoping to have it re-commissioned for the centenary rally.

The weird capacities you mention, the V5Cs state  858cc on one of my cars, 875cc on another, seem to be a result of the buff logbooks of both cars stating 7.8 HP rather than the 747cc swept volume.

[Rick F]

The weird capacities you mention, the V5Cs state  858cc on one of my cars, 875cc on another, seem to be a result of the buff logbooks of both cars stating 7.8 HP rather than the 747cc swept volume.

I thought this was down to a computer glich when the DVLA threw away foolscap paper and quill pens and all "Austin Sevens" got confused with the early Mini?

[Mike Costigan]

Yes, those engine capacities are a result of the computerisation of records - not so much a computer glitch, more like operator error (or ignorance!).

[andrew34ruby]

David, it might be easy to get engine size corrected with dvla, but I've struggled/failed to get the colour changed to be correct. My ARQ was black from new, then painted green in the fifties. Recorded as green at dvla when I got it put on their system in 1986.

Off the road and not sorned until 2019 when I told them I had painted it black. V5 came with it recorded as black. A few months later another V5 came, recorded as green/black. In some searches in shows as being 'green'. Try it HV4459

It's now on the road. At least the seats are green!

[Chris KC]

I'm quite sure you are right Hedd.

It was very much for this reason that I decided I was better off declaring SORN for mine - at least it keeps the vehicle 'live' in DVLA's systems. There's no telling what some ill-informed teenager may do with your vehicle's records while it's 'dormant', and once they've done it it may be difficult to undo.