What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Reckless Rat]

Mine doesn't go up hills very quickly, buit it always gets to the top. With my Grandson Nic as co-pilot we had a run out this morning in the RP to a supposed old car get together about 10 miles from here, but it was a bit of a let down. Nothing much of interest and mostly 2CVs, with some plastic 2CV coupé barstards, a 280SL, a Cadiddlyac Eldorado and an early 4CV with suicide doors. We didn't stay long, and instead had a run into Alès to tackle the chemin St Julien (again). As usual, the RP romped to the top of the 33% climb in 1st gear without hassle.

The Chemin de Saint Julien is the 5th steepest road on the planet and the steepest one in France, according to Google. Not very long (about 400m) but four king steep and very narrow. Ideal for a Seven.

[Steve kay]

Nowt wrong with 2CVs, having no functioning Sevens, a 2CV took me to the Lawns. Being neither a vintage car nor a TR2 or Swallow Dorreti, I was sent to the car park containing moderns, which later contained another 2CV and a van, not known to me. As for the steepest, or nearly steepest hill on the planet, it makes me think of The Oldest Pub in Wales, of which there were thirty seven at the last count.

[Chris Garner]

Here in Nottingham we have The Trip to Jerusalem, purporting to be the oldest pub in England...however we also have Ye Olde Salutation Inn and The Bell in the city, both claiming to be the oldest... and both within staggering distance of  "The Trip " as it's affectionately known!!

[John Mason]

Well Chris that brings back some happy memories. I used to visit the Salutation regularly back in the sixties. The Old Trip on and off over the years mainly when escorting foreign visitor in the last thirty years. The Americans thought it was great and helped with the disappointment of the castle then (The castle at Nottingham has not been a castle since the English civil war when it was destroyed by Oliver Cromwell.) Before I am in trouble with the council can I add the castle has had a real make over since then and is now a major attraction in the city.

John Mason

[Chris Garner]

Yes John, The Trip is a tourist haunt + students, who, lets face it, are tourists for three or so years!
A couple of years back I had a pint there with one of our contributors - Erich in Seattle - and his son. The first time I'd been since I was a lad.
The Castle make over is, well, a make over - not to my taste. The atmosphere of the old Castle is captured in the 1960 film, Saturday Night & Sunday Morning.

[MartinH]

Good video of Sevens and others at Prescott. It was a great weekend and the weather was unbelievably kind given what has been happening elsewhere.

https://youtu.be/gn97QE3-_KM

[Nick Salmon]

I have an update on that photo of 'Chitty' in a London Mews posted on page 313 of this thread (https://www.austinsevenfriends.co.uk/for...1&page=313)

Chitty I was last raced by the Count at the September 1922 meeting at Brooklands. During practice he crashed after shredding a tyre and although he rebuilt it, Zborowski never raced the car again. 

In 1924 he was invited to drive for Mercedes and it was while competing in a Mercedes 2-litre car in that year’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza that the Count was killed after crashing into a tree. Legend has it that when he died he was wearing the same cufflinks that had brought about the death of his racing-driver father, Eliot Zborowski, when one of them had caught up in the hand throttle of the car during a hill climb in 1903 at La Turbie in Provence.

After Louis Zborowski's death Chitty 1 was bought by the Conan Doyle brothers,Adrian and Denis, playboy sons of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes.They subsequently ran the car at a speed trial in the 1930s and it was then exhibited at Brooklands but subsequently abandoned outside.The weather took its toll but the end came when someone sawed the chassis in half to get the gearbox out for use in another car. Apparently the gearbox was found not to fit but this was the last of Chitty 1 and the remains went for scrap.

The picture shows Chitty 1 in Lancaster Mews W2, presumably some time in the 1930’s.The picture is captioned as showing the Conan Doyle brothers in the driving seats of the cars but as there was only a year between them in age there is doubt about the attribution.

[sparkeysprite]

Tonight I got my little boat tail tourer up to 50mph!  My speedo always reads 70-80mph when I go any faster than walking pace so I downloaded a phone app to try and see what speed it's doing in general driving - it can hold top gear and around 30mph on most of the less steep hills around here.  But when you've got an accurate speedo for the first time it's too tempting to see what it'll do.  On a slight downhill, 2-up, it hit exactly 50mph on the GPS speedo thing and I doubt it will do much more, but I'm quite pleased with that..

Easily amused..
Steve

[Renaud]

Easily amused..
Steve

Rightly!  
Renaud

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Strictly speaking it was yesterday...

First organised run out for over two years, managed to hold my own with the Riley Sprite despite his best efforts to outrun me!

Kilcreggan, Cove and Glen