I am a member of both the Austin 7 Owners Club and the Austin 10 Drivers club and thought you may be interested in a copy of an article (below) that I did for the Austin 10 Sussex Group Magazine on the Austin 7 Millennium Run.

Yours sincerely, (signed) Ken Tully

The London to Brighton Austin 7 Millennium Run

   After two beautiful days it was a dull damp cold start to Sunday but we set off for London at about 7 am, travelling through Brighton - it was like a ghost town all the Saturday Night revellers were still in bed. Due to the empty roads we were able to really race to London touching nearly 40 mph on occasions. These old cars are so draughty at such high speeds and with dead fingers we were very pleased to see a 'McDonalds' sign around the Croydon area. We thought we could kill two birds with one stone here as they say - get a hot drink and well you know what? Finally we arrived at Crystal Palace to a water-logged start with mud everywhere. All these beautiful cars soon looked as if they had been driving Cross Country. It was a great atmosphere with over 300 Austin Sevens all shapes and sizes travelling on the A23. The halfway stop was Pease Pottage - what a sight in the car park, it looked more like pre-war days. After getting our card stamped and taking another hot drink we set off for the final stage to Brighton.

   It was a really good ran until we reached the outskirts of Brighton then it was stop/start all the way to the Madeira Drive. The problem at the finish was made worse because there was no indication to other motorists that Madeira Drive was closed mid way along, for the finish of the Austin 7 rally. It was chaos with modern cars and coaches trying to turn around in an already congested road.  

   There was a Jazz band to greet us and I understand that the Mayor of Brighton was present. All in all it was a good day, even the sun was out on our arrival and our "Baby Jo" behaved well.

By Ken Tully