Following on from the younger me and my Austin 7 thread I was thinking,Many of our little cars must have story to tell.
I think the worst time for them must have been the late fifties/early sixties when cheap new cars became available and the dreaded MOT came in.
One of my cars survived being laid up in 1961 after 3 years college duties.
This one has slightly different story.
Bought in 1959 as a spares car from a Long Eaton scrap yard for his chummy,dismantled in 1960,minus its unusual quartered down coupe body it was stored in the garage loft for the next 25 years.
Its chummy owner won a new mini in 1964 in a competition the Daily Express for running the oldest registered Austin seven.
I saw the early chummy at 750 Beaulieu sometime in the 1980's

Well not exactly a Austin Seven but a French relative. My 1930 Rosengart was purchased in Jonzac region of France and was returned to the factory at six months old for some reason until 1932 when it again went back to that area. It evidently lived for 20 years in that area until having been used by the sons of a farmer as the farms hack was shoved into a stable in 1950 . The old girl sat there watching life go by until I purchased her in 2014. Only seven miles from the dealership that had originally sold her. Although rusting and suffering from woodworm she was almost complete and yearning for a new life.

Location: Oakley hants

This is slightly the reverse - my 1928 Holden bodied Chummy at a rally in 1960 when owned by a very good friend-



Here it is 55 years later after a few changes of ownership (and an engine replacement, new hood with original side-screens plus repaint)



Tony.

Location: Malvern, Victoria, Australia.

My 1926 Top Hat/Type R Saloon (see Pinterest board at top of forum) was taken into Caffyns in Lewes for repairs in the 1950s and when the owner returned the bill was so great that he or she said 'keep the car' which they did until it came up for sale in the 1970s. The car was purchased by Mike Hogson who some members of the Forum will be familiar with, then a very characterful Harley St Dentist John Bunyon who I bought it from. I was reminded of this story only last year when I met Mike Burgess from a little village called Firle nr. Eastbourne who was with Mike when he 'picked her up'. Not many especially early Top Hat Saloons exist because they literally 'shook themselves to death!' because the roof supporting pillars were so weak, some as a result were converted to 'Chummies' a clue being less rear wing to body ratio due to the wider body of the early saloons.

Location: Ferring, West Sussex.

Morning all great thread,
Have absolutely no history on my 32rn OY2853 anyone got any information ?
Cheers Cliff

Location: Luton

Although we've no history of our RN Saloon (GG 8095, now NL-registered AM-89-99) prior to the early '50s, we consider ourselves lucky that the car survived its first twenty corrosion-infested years.

Here's a brief account of another Seven's narrow escape.
We were driving ours through Haarlem recently, when a very excited elderly cyclist flagged us down, amazed at his first sighting of a Seven in decades. He explained that his parents had owned one in the '40s and '50s, going on to relate that during WWII, all private cars in the Netherlands were eligible for confiscation by the German occupier. When the soldiers arrived to collect this particular vehicle, they took one quick look before leaving empty-handed, telling the parents they could keep the thing because it was simply far too small to be described as a car.
In retrospect, it's just as well BMW had seen the bigger picture when, years earlier, they snapped up the Dixi.

Location: Netherlands

'. Not many especially early Top Hat Saloons exist because they literally 'shook themselves to death!' because the roof supporting pillars were so weak, some as a result were converted to 'Chummies' a clue being less rear wing to body ratio due to the wider body of the early saloons.[/quote]

My 1928 tractor conversion (ex Ray Walker) was originally a Top Hat saloon, or more correctly, an R saloon. It was converted by a blacksmith in the next village to where I now live, during the war. He converted around six sevens in this way with two gearboxes, rear axle mounted directly on to the chassis and exhaust taken up through the bonnet. It retains the original scuttle and dash and we can tell that it was a Top Hat because the door latch shut plates are on the scuttle and you can see where the aluminium screen pillars have been cut. It was re registered in 1944 as a "Motor Plough", for which I have the buff logbook. I imagine it took some time to plough a field! It has survived but in a very different form.

Location: Stretham, Ely

I well remember your tractor in Ray's garage where I drank much tea in the 60s. Sorry to see his old site so derelict.

The old garage is sad now I agree. Ray used to drive the tractor to the Eagle in Benet Street sometimes for a lunchtime pint. He used to let me drive it round the yard and once along Perowne street, I would have been about thirteen and it was the first Seven I drove.

Location: Stretham, Ely

Well my Austin started with being my grandmothers first car in 1936....




And is now mine after being used through the years by my father, until I got him...

Location: Denmark

Seems an appropriate place to ask if anyone knows anything about a Chummy, registration OY 27. My father courted my mother in it. I know it is not on the Register. I now own an RK.

Location: Auckland

Bought with a collection of other spares cars in the 1970s and stripped. Laid upon the rafters of a garage ceiling until 2014 when the rafters needed to be replaced. "Oh, I forgot it was up there!"