Narrow road, small car, Peak District.

[Austin in the Shed]

Do I spy Lotus 7 front mudguards on the yellow van?

They do look similar,I was told Roach manufacturing made them.Bought the car as a doctors coupe/ special but turned it into this to be more practical and get the dogs in.However one of the dogs we have now almost fills the back on his own.

[Mike Costigan]

What a lovely machine. I was going to make a comment about not having seen a van with a sunroof before, but now see that would have been totally inappropriate 

[Bob Culver]

I find my inherited Jazz a pain on narrow metalled roads. The enormous windscren is a worry. Unlike the Seven and later the wheels are at the full width, which, combined with width, takes up as much road room as a light truck. Over the decades I have had a few incidents where keeping extreme left my car has started to slip down the edge camber; with rwd can power out but with fwd less control.
 The original baked enamel  thick seemingly high carbon Seven guards resist brushes, but with moderns the merest touch leaves a crease in the tinfoil.
For fifty years , several times a year, in my ancient conveyances, I have travelled 360 mile up and down NI and hunted out all not too indirect alternative routes. Grass growing in the centre is a good sign but now hard to find, and near everything has succumbed to large bulldozers, there being no ancient walls or bridges or buidings to obstruct.

[Duncan Grimmond]

Now I can see them better they are classic “ailes de papillon “ much used on French cyclecars. I’ve made several sets for customers and my own cars and three-wheelers        

[Austin in the Shed]

Is that a BSA ? Someone had one near where I lived around 1970-1, I once saw it with another chassis strapped to the side.Never got to meet its owner,or what happened to it.
What are they like to drive ?

[Steve Jones]

Yes, Dave, that's Duncan's BSA. Seen it a number of times but no idea how it goes, but well I imagine. My Father had a four wheel BSA in the late 1930's. He told me that he liked it a lot but on the unmetaled roads that existed then, the steeper it got, the more the front wheels spun and lost drive. This is it and the only photo I have of him in the many cars he had pre-war. On the back it says 'BSA Scout 1938. 9HP SV engine. Top Speed about 75 - 80 MPH. Dorset.' He swaped it once war broke out for a significantly more economical A7 Ruby of which his only comment was '...the least said the better but it did its job'!


  BSA 1.jpg (Size: 31.87 KB / Downloads: 145)



Steve

[Duncan Grimmond]

A few of the trials boys fitted bearers to carry tractor weights or an ammunition box full of tools to help the fwd traction.
At last year’s National rally I was able to leave the ride-out party standing when an open lane presented itself. I haven’t weighed my trike but it’s considerably lighter than a standard trike and with twin Amals I managed an indicated 70mph before discretion beat valour! There was more left to go but…