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Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

The Chummy to Tom's right is Alex Mitchell's and the RK behind is mine.The very first car we ever owned,and still own.
The Ruby is John's and the RK Paul's
I think the ORT was owned by the late Gwen Lewis.

Location: Bristol

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Sunday, 14th April 1975. Me, aged 17 years and 14 days, practising for my (successful) driving test in the RP three days later. The car is still my daily driver.

 photo Sunday13thApril1975_zps1bfbc8f9.jpg

Location: Herefordshire, with an "E" not a "T".

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Martin Prior
Sunday, 14th April 1975. Me, aged 17 years and 14 days, practising for my (successful) driving test in the RP three days later. The car is still my daily driver.

 photo Sunday13thApril1975_zps1bfbc8f9.jpg


A year earlier, in April 1974, I was half-way through the car's first restoration:

 photo VJ 4985 and Martin April 1974_zpslbarrzki.jpg

Earlier still, in late 1971, a 13-year-old me with my first car, a £25 1955 A30 Seven (so it counts!). I still have this one, too.

 photo 10Martinaged13withthenewly-acquiredA30_zps57f6cdac.jpg

Another family stalwart, now my daughter Charlotte's transport, was the 1934 PD two-seater bought by my brother Stephen in 1974, seen here blasting across a field with a nervous-looking cousin in the passenger seat! Ah, the happy days when spotty schoolkids could afford a running Austin 7!

 photo Dandruff 1974 9_zps3i34diut.jpg

Same car, 42 years later, with my son David at the wheel. Maybe he can us this to revive this thread in a few decades!

 photo IMG_0681_zpse9054d9f.jpg





Location: Herefordshire, with an "E" not a "T".

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Hi Bill. Ruairidh has just alerted me to this thread. I know Euroa and used to come through every year. I am planning to head your way this December. We must get in touch. I'm about to post in A7 friends with my story. Cheers!

Location: Aldgate, Adelaide, South Australia.

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Thanks, Ruairidh for alerting me to this thread. Here is my story (from my FB page)of the younger me with Krystal. She now sits in my shed, and will be taken for a run next Sunday with the A7 Club of SA for Sir Herbert Austin's 150th Birthday bash. She is about to have a complete overhaul and tidy up. Hopefully some photos later. Can someone tell me how to upload pics to this site?

"My 'new' car - 1929 Austin 7 KR1079
How often do you get the chance to buy your first car back, some 40 years later? I drove her whilst in England recently, and Tony Hursey, the current owner and an old friend, has kindly offered her to me - the 'original and rightful' owner. [She had done little driving in some 30 years with the new Bristol owner and sat in a shed for most of that time, then Tony bought her about 10 years ago and got her mobile again] So I'm now arranging shipping, and she should arrive in about 8 - 10 weeks time.

I'd bought her in 1965 as a wreck when I was 16 from a back garden in Portishead (near Bristol, England) for 2 pounds 10s ('Are you sure you want it?') and pushed her back to Clapton Farm a mile away. After the first restoration (I did it again later) I drove her to school when I was 17 once I'd got my licence. Meanwhile I'd joined the Bristol Austin 7 Club and had some wonderful adventures. Runs and tours of England, Ireland, France etc. Great days, great people, great Club. I'm about to join again! [Indeed I have, with my original membership number!] Paul Verney sold her for me in 1975 when I'd decided to stay in Australia.

She is virtually the same as when I left her some 40 years ago. Same hood, seats etc which I'd made in the late 1960s. Body and paint the same with just a few marks. Same SU (non-original) carb. I drove her while in England recently - still goes like a rocket, but Tony has improved the decoupled brakes a lot! I understand she has done no more than 500 miles since I sold her.
She still has the stainless exhaust system I'd made at Rolls Royce (Aero) while an apprentice, and nickle plating done there for a packet of fags - the currency of the day!"

She arrived in Oz last February - a great thrill for me, and has the same Kent number plate here - KR 1079. When I look at the work I'd done I say to myself: 'Not too shabby!' Virtually everything is the same as I'd left her: I'd done all mechanicals, made the hood, seats, sidescreens, painted, electrics etc etc.

Location: Aldgate, Adelaide, South Australia.

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Dan - email me the photos and I will post them for you.

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

And no-one has answered my question yet - was it Dan in the photo? I'm sure we wouldn't recognise each other nowadays anyway. I thought I remembered him being in Oz once, but presumed he was back in Old Blighty and wasn't sure he was still vertical! Cheers, Bill

Location: Euroa, Australia

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

I didn't because I couldn't Bill - my guess would be that it is not Dan but as I wasn't born when the photo was taken I am not best qualified to make such assumptions :)

Here are Dan's photos:

At 17

 photo 01-A7-Dan01-KR1079-Age17_zpseideeolt.jpg

 photo 01-A7-Dans A7-KR1079-01_zpsqoipzged.jpg


Racing in Ireland

 photo 01-A7-Dans A7-KR1079-01-Ireland_zpskywquujc.jpg

 photo 01-Dan-UK-A7-Ireland04-KR1079_zpsr4ddgh07.jpg

 photo 01-A7-Dans A7-KR1079-02-Ireland_zpsehawepcq.jpg

Pulling Krystal up the dunes in Wales (?)

 photo 01-Dan-UK-A7-KR1079-MM-Sand Dunes02_zps1zyyudze.jpg

Brittany

 photo 01-A7-KR1079-Brittany-03-Sands_zps9foydwji.jpg

Now - reunited

 photo 10-A7-KR1079-14Mar2016-Prospect Hill 009_zpsmdt5qzcg.jpg

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Thanks for uploading these pics, Ruairidh. I have to say I love your pics above - wonderful happy kids, and your impression of Ian - so lifelike!!! Cheers, Dan.

Location: Aldgate, SA Australia

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Hi Dan

Great to see you are still Sevening and in your old Chummy!!
The photographs of the 1971 or was it 1972? Irish holiday bring back super memories.
The sand racing on the beach organised by the locals instead of their regular horse racing was brilliant. Even the bit where we had to drive in and out of a stream halfway down the beach before turning round a wellie and heading back.
The centre photo may have been taken when we went off piste and you started the peat fight at the top of the track. I remember you being floored by a well aimed clump of peat delivered by Dave Blessley.
The picture of the Chummy loaded with wood ready for our final evenings BBQ on the beach. I seem to remember the main component of the bonfire being a large tree dragged down to the beach by a tractor!!

Enjoy the Chummy
Gordon

Location: North Hampshire

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

From Dave Mann:

Hi Ruairidh
Please can you post the attached photo on the Austin Seven Friends forum. Does anybody recognise this RN which was at Beaulieu in 1968? Regards Dave Mann


 photo Beaulieu 1968 copy_zpsg3poms7u.jpg

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Hi Ian, I looked and looked and thought how the h*ll can he see ORT on one of those plates? Penny dropped Open Road Tourer. Bet you did that on purpose,well and truly caught Ian M

Location: Bristol

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

blimey -now its 13729 views

and 146 replies...

wot have I started?

I do hope there is more to come ? :)

 photo van4_zpspgsedgsg.jpg

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Sorry Ian.
Couldn't remember the correct numerical designation for the ORT.
Decades ago we had an effort to rename them "Diamonds"but it didn't catch on as half the owners had no idea what we were talking about.

Location: Bristol

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Great memories, Gordon. That Irish holiday really was a trip that sticks in my mind. I vaguely recall the peat fight with Dave Blesseley and still have memories of drinking huge quantities of Guinness and Paddy's Irish whiskey, being almost abducted by an old fisherman ('no better man') who wanted to take me to sea (!) and John Fitch falling off a cliff outside the pub. Those were the days! However, I am much more mature now and can't wait to do it all again some day!!!

Location: Aldgate, Adelaide, South Australia

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Well Paul, you started this thread, so if you haven't seen enough of that van and your hair style, here you are again (right) with your 1st Seven and your brother peeping over the van, with his 1st Seven too, the 1930 Mulliner and also the current Mrs Mike Tebbett. He keeps threatening to restore her, the Mulliner; please have a word with him will you. On the road to Beaulieu I think.
 photo Misc A7s_zpswhuainpy.jpg

Here's my own 1st Seven, an extremely tatty Top Hat, suffering from the Trials for which it was converted. Went, handled and stopped well but gradually fell apart around me. Shown in 1965 in a suitably derelict area of Coventry where my college course had 2 portacabins on a bombsite.
Other photo shows its final resting place in my private scrap yard. The other curious car was found in a suburban green house, its chassis went to Terry McGrath, at 10/-, for his racer, with the body from the Tebbett recreation of OK 7095. Gordon Phillips rebuilt the Top Hat body for his own car. Recycling at its best.

target="_blank"> photo Misc A7s - Copy - Copy 3_zpsoxerihzh.jpg



 photo Misc A7s - Copy - Copy 2_zpsntzfo8zi.jpg

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Robin Boyce
Well Paul, you started this thread, so if you haven't seen enough of that van and your hair style, here you are again (right) with your 1st Seven and your brother peeping over the van, with his 1st Seven too, the 1930 Mulliner and also the current Mrs Mike Tebbett. He keeps threatening to restore her, the Mulliner; please have a word with him will you. On the road to Beaulieu I think.
 photo Misc A7s_zpswhuainpy.jpg






ooo - yeh - & thats was her brand new MGB in the background [he married well, you know]

Re: The younger me and my Austin 7

Bill Sheehan writes:

Hi again R. If you don't mind could you post this old photo for me please, with the following caption -
Just to prove I haven't always been biased toward Sevens, here's a shot from the early Sixties of a special built from a Big Seven that had a rotted-out body. In spite of Oz's hot weather we still had plenty of mud! The car was standard and the nosepiece was from my Speedway Midget. After a couple of Observed Section trials I took pity on the rescue teams and withdrew from comps - it was so heavy. Cheers, Bill


 photo Bill 1 jpeg_zpsqunmpisg.jpg