What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Bob Olive]

IF - you have faith in satnav, GPS, etc., try the (free) app called Speedometer.  The speedo (a Ruby type) in my '32 AH tourer was completely accurate on several different tests carried out on our way to and back from Beaulieu over the weekend.  Quite reassuring in many ways, but no faster than 45 mph - and that was downhill... but not flat foot to floor!

[Hedd_Jones]

My experience agrees with Bob, the PA in the chummy on 350x19's is pretty accurate. Vs GPS, and those particularly useful flashy signs that is kind enough to give you a speed and a smiley or sad face. Theres two round here and its good vs both of them.

The fleet of 2005/6 VW beetles are awfull on both fronts - reading faster than actual by a good margin vs GPS and flashy signs.

The RL on 350/400's is a little out, I find I'm going faster than the PA says I'm going, but Ive only had a speedo in it about 2 months after 20years on the road. This is the car I've had the longest and so have simply driven it on feel. And thats how I drive them all.

The RP on 400s is a fair bit out, same again, it goes faster than indicated. Its still better than the beetles though.

Speed is relative, the family has always considered 7's as nothing more than a car. Drive it, use it break it, fix it. I don't even own a trailer that I could put a complete one on. I don't know how others drive a seven, but once on the open road I guess I use the throttle like a switch, and avoid using the brakes at all cost. Momentum is hard won - particularly in the saloons. There are a number of routes round here with a decent level run and or long gradual decent where 60 is seen regularly, the chummy hits it far easier being lighter, though the vibration meant that I have chosen to ease off at 50. Both saloons are driven far harder, particularly when you realise how much more they lean round corners, the chummy with its saggy rear springs is like a roller skate in comparision. In my 20's I had a ride from Rugby to the Midshires club meet in David Cochranes 25 chummy. I seem to remember feeling like I was going to fall out going round some corners. Well when alone thats how I drive mine!

P.S the tupperware special I had - a fairly standard 1937 low chassis, with a breathed on cam, an SU with a close ratio box and a fibreblass Microplas Stiletto body would hit 70 without too much effort. Though it did get a bit lairy if you lifted off completley at 70. I quickly learnt not to do that.

[Malcolm Parker]

My RL which has been my regular Austin 7 since 1999 has a mildly tuned engine and goes quite well.   The speedo is very accurate, having been rebuilt and calibrated by Ron Bailey.  The other day, following some adjustments and replacing the AN needle in the 1 1/8" SU with an EK, it was going very well so I took it up the fearsome 1 in 4 Sneck Yate just outside the village, two thirds of the climb was in 2nd and the rest in first gear but no problem at all.  Austin 7's with a 4.9 axle can find Sneck Yate quite a challenge.  At the top I turned onto the old drove road along the top of Sutton Bank and it was going so well I was soon nudging 55mph.  Being a single track road with passing places, I told myself not to be a silly bugger and slowed down.   The engine was very smooth and surprisingly quiet at that speed which equates to around 3500 rpm.  In normal use I rarely go over 50mph and cruise at 45 to 48mph.   The tuned engine is more useful for the enhanced hill-climbing and acceleration than outright top speed.
As regards body lean on cornering, I think the RL/RM is not  so bad as it is quite light and the roof is wood and fabric rather than metal.  Having had Austin 7's for 48 years I am still of the opinion that corners need to be treated with respect if you are on highly cambered springs.
It's rather nice to get excited about doing 50mph in a car!

[Tony Griffiths]

Wind resistance makes a huge difference. On a chummy, open the top half of the screen - it's worth about 4 m.p.h. Take the screen off and it seems to add about 7 m.p.h. In the late 1960s, late at night in PL3002, I drafted a friend's mini van on a flat section of road and, with its well-run-in but standard engine, it clocked 75 m.ph. on the van's speedo - so, say 69 m.p.h.? On the same night, I ran the car for several miles flat out with the ignition well retarded. Stopped, opened the bonnet and the exhaust manifold was glowing red hot. Oh, how hard we used our 7s then.

[Mike Costigan]

Wind resistance makes a huge difference. On a chummy, open the top half of the screen - it's worth about 4 m.p.h. Take the screen off and it seems to add about 7 m.p.h. In the late 1960s, late at night in PL3002, I drafted a friend's mini van on a flat section of road and, with its well-run-in but standard engine, it clocked 75 m.ph. on the van's speedo - so, say 69 m.p.h.? On the same night, I ran the car for several miles flat out with the ignition well retarded. Stopped, opened the bonnet and the exhaust manifold was glowing red hot. Oh, how hard we used our 7s then.

It's difficult to appreciate how our travelling has changed, even over the last few years. In the mid-1970s I entered a VSCC rally based in the New Forest. In order to make the 200-mile journey there more palatable for my wife I created a chart plotting various locations and target times. Unfortunately that document seems to have failed to survive our last house move, but I recall looking at in around the year 2000 and wondering how on earth we managed to average over 40mph in a standard RK saloon for the whole journey (no motorways, or town bypasses, and including all feeding and watering stops). Just a month ago I drove down to Moreton in my modern for a meeting regarding the forthcoming Centenary event, and driving flat out, failed to achieve a 30mph average over the same roads.

[Ivor Hawkins]

Yes my box saloon does about 48 mph, but I am running it in, so you never know, in a few hundred miles time it may loosen up and I might be able to race Hedd!

In the meantime I’ll take it easy and change the oil before having a blast to Moreton, still not sure it’ll do sixty without it going bang though...

[Ivor Hawkins]

Went out to wind the church clock, then up to Sainsbury’s with Rosie, got a registered 50 mph out of the box on the A43 (thankfully I only have to use for about half a mile).

Then noticed how enormous the new Mini is...they should have resurrected the Maxi name...    

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Fixed Tony’s weathervane up in the garden  .

Thanks Tony!

Cheers

Howard


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[Bob Olive]

Nice weather up there in L W by the look of that blue sky, a bit overcast here as you can see. Problem with my weather vane is that since the RP (it is exact scale BTW the angle has distorted the photo a bit) went years ago and I now have an AH tourer., should I ‘cut and shut’ it? It is a long way up…

[Hedd_Jones]

Ivor, agree 100%, particularly as each iteration gets bigger and bigger. They should be called Maxis not Minis

For my part I've given the nickle and chrome plate on the chummy a gentle polish. The rain on the way home last night marked it a bit. Looks like a nicer evening for it tonight.