Hi

i'm finially starting to get the ruby together and she finially starts and drives.

Though she comes with a great history, i am unsure when it was first registered, is there a way of finding this out along with how many had been build before her?

Car Number ARQ01787 (believe before july 1935?)
Chassis Number 221924
Reg BTT721

I hope in time as I get to know her better I will be able to help some other owners with my knowledge.

thanks

Martin,
The Austin Seven Clubs Association website has an online version of the chassis register - see

www.a7ca.org/register_of_cars.html

I also think there is a website where you can enter your reg and it will tell you where and when it was issued, but cannot find it at the moment.

Daveg

Hi Martin,BTT-721 would have been first registered in Devonshire, unfortunately all Devonshire records are presumed destroyed as none are known to exist at the present time.

Martin - The Austin Seven Companion shows chassis number 220,395 as being April 1935, the next entry being 224,864 for July, so you are somewhere between the two.

Martin I have just checked the DVLA site and see your car is down as registered on 13/09/1989 and that you are paying road tax on it????? Do you know that it should be ‘free’ for your car. Get back to us if you are paying and we can advise on the way forward to change the registration date to 1935. BTW where do you live and are you in an A7 club? Ian M

matin,acording to the austin seven association your car was first registerd on the 1/4/1935
with reg No TSU270 arq ruby mk1 black.paste this in browser,its near bottom of list.
http://www.a7ca.org/Registers/Chassis%20175,000%20to%20230,000.pdf.
chris.

Thanks all for your responses

The car was registered in 1935 with plates BTT721, as it was stored and not used for close on 50 years, and the orig log book could not be found. Christies (auction house in charge of selling the estate it came from) would not sell the vehicle wihout it having ownership details and as such DVLA issued a related plate in this case TSU ??? to give it suitable right to be sold a a vehicle not scrap. This was in 1989 when the car was sold to my father when it did not make its reserve, high prices in those days!

When my dad purchased the car in 1989 he approached DVLA and in those days with much evidence of the orig registration BTT721 including photos, documents showing owned by the family etc and leter from A7 club(all now missing presumed in a loft someshere) and they agreed after much paperwork to reallocate the plate BTT721 and like most cannot be transferred which is fine by me as it is in its rightful place.

This car did close on 10,000 miles a year in the first 4 years of its life and was then was stored when the war came and the army took over the estate where it was bought for unforuntely some of documents from this time have been destroyed so I have been trying to get some more details of exactly where it was purchased from and what date. It has now done 43K which on inspection of the engine that all apers original no rebore/oversized pistons and little wear appears genuine. I am not paying tax and it is currently certed as sorn.

Thanks all, interesting it came from Devon but went to an estate in Hampshire.

Chris,

I agree entirely, that's what it says on the chassis register, that the registration now is BTT 721 and was formally TSU 270. However TSU 270 looks suspiciously to me like an age related plate issued by the DVLA in the eighties when the car was obviously re-registered. So perhaps this car lost it's original registration, was given TSU 270 then re-registered again in 1989 as BTT 721 - perhaps even getting its original registration number back?

Martin, does the history you have about the car suggest that BTT 721 was its registration when new?
Ruby chassis started I think at number 198596 - July 7th 1934, so yours is 23,328 chassis after commencement of Ruby production, however not all chassis produced were low frame Ruby's.

Jeff

Martin,

Sorry hadn't seen your reply above before posting, mine was supposed to follow Chris's reply.

Jeff

no probs, you know what its like trying to trace history, you can get to a point then get completly stuck.

I have much of its history which is great but not the very first part, which is something i will proberbly never know unless i uncover some documents from the estate, i spoke to my dad a short while ago and he said that he was told that it possibly came from a dealers in Exeter but this was hearsay from an old boy in the area, but i am unsure how to trace this.

thanks

Martin,

Ian suggests that all Devonshire records are presumed destroyed - he may well be right, however in the book - 'How to trace the History of Your Car', vehicles registered TT are listed as part of Exeter B records 1934 to 74, which the book claims are still held at Exeter Vehicle Registration Office, Hanover House, Manaton Close, Matford Business Park, Marsh Barton, Exeter EX2 8EF - could be worth dropping them a line.

Jeff.

will do cheers