Austin Seven Route 66 tour of US

[Erich]

Hi All,

I realize this is a bit of a long shot. I have a friend and colleague who was shooting a video in Death Valley a few years ago and she has told me about encountering some old English cars touring Route 66. She swears they were prewar Austins. The owners had shipped them over to drive Route 66, an iconic highway here in the US. Was she mistaken or did a group of Austineers undertake such a trip. She mentioned that they had a trailer to pick up any break downs and the owners were, "a riot". Knowing my friend, that is quite the compliment. Can anyone provide any information on such a trip? Truly Austin Sevens?

Erich in Mukilteo

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Bishop, Mooney, Leek, Price and Cooke - 2006.

Full trip was documented in an A7CA Magazine around that time.



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[Erich]

Ruairidh, thank you for answering my question. I had somewhat doubted, my friend being uninterested in cars per se, that they were actually Austin Sevens. Do you have a link to the article which I could send to her?

Erich in Mukilteo

[Vancevr]

just wondering but would any seveners in the us do this nowadays? I would wonder if someone could put together a fun little drive. maybe not all 2,500 miles but it would be different.

[Nigel Ricardo]

The green Special is Richard and Marlise Bishop, the white Cambridge is George and Joy Mooney and the Chummy nnext to the Cambriddge is Vince Leek.

[Oxford Jack]

2013 On a journey from Buenos Aires to New York, three Austin 7's and 3 of the people, but only one of the cars on Route 66 arrived in Laredo and drove across the southern States to Bynum, North Carolina and the north to New York, arriving in Times Square in the wheel tracks of John Coleman who finished in the same place in 1959.
The difficulty these days is not the journey, the roads or the cars, it is the impossibility of obtaining insurance.  Our trip was very nearly scuppered in this way and only solved at the last moment by the purchase of incredibly expensive insurance for one of the three through Hagerty, whose entire profit for that year was made on one Austin 7 being in the States for about 3.5 weeks.
However, apart from one Patrol Officer just outside Laredo who was rather dismissive of the speed we could make, we had a fabulous run on minor roads, through stunning scenery and quite homely towns. The Skyline was probably the highlight for me and crossing the Delaware, oh and arriving in Times Square following the recent bombing with no notice taken of us at all. We parked on the pavement three abreast for about 90 minutes and I think only one person spoke to us. 
Entry to the States in Laredo
   
Lunch overlooking the Shenandoah Valley from the Skyline
   
Approaching the Holland Tunnel  and Manhattan from Newark
   
Diana Garside, River Dukes, Stan Price, Amanda Peters, Jack Peppiatt, Times Square, NYC. 12th June 2013
   

[Vancevr]

now you people know why i can only drive my seven occasionally because Hagerty will gouge you if you want to drive your car more.