Now who was it who wanted to drag up a box saloon last year? Ebay item 180339851049.

That's quite a find Barry. Exquisite execution of the deep button-back upholstery; sophisticated interior fitments; beautifully detailed engine compartment; and a paint finish that would be right up there at Pebble Beach. In short - Yuk, Yuk and Triple Yuk! Let's club together and buy it for a ceremonial burning at Beaulieu.

I was wondering what happened to Bill Boddy's car. Nick, you are a man who likes to puff on a small cigar - setting fire to this Austin would be a 'Hamlet' moment.

Link.

I quite like it! Not one for the purists though...

I guess it comes down to where it came from. If a solid box died a horrible death to create this then that's terrible, but if a scrap body had come back to the road then it can only be a bit of fun to smile at.

The chassis is probably an Ulster replica by now.

Would make a good sister car to Rubellion!!!!

Precisely, Andy B. I very much doubt anyone would rip apart a good box saloon to make this. It is because someone (one of us?) decided to build yet another Ulster Rep that this body ended up mated to the strange pile of bits you see here. The other option would have been scrap.

Slowly Austineers are following other vintage types in disapproving of turning perfectly good original saloons into specials of doubtful merit. If you did that to an Alvis 12/50 saloon you'd be struck off the Register!

Sermon over...

Geoffrey

theres a big bag of worms to be opened.

most of the activity in all clubs now is from people building sports specials.

not saying it should be done to any vintage car.but if it wasn`t.were would all the chassis needed come from.

also you wouldn`t be able to get the new parts for your old car.if people were not making them into sports.

as the ask for new parts would not be enough to make them.

as an owner you only see the outside of the tin.have a look inside and see why we all need those sports,specials,boobys.and yes even dragsters.

now thats a sermon

Does anyone here remember 'Wild Honey'? A Hot Rod built under a Ruby bodyshell - I have a memory of seeing it once at Santa Pod in the 70's - that truly could have been described as an Austin 7 dragster. I wonder where that went?

Tony Its a bleak picture you paint if most of Austin Seven activity is Special based.I would say from my observation that at club meetings and rallies most of the sevens are standard and they will continue to need spares to keep them on the road.

Heres Rubellion:


Based around a Ruby body, this car has quite a history as a Hot Rod. If you do a google image search you'll see it went from a standard Ruby body to a roof chop and then various colours and configurations until current day.

I've got an early issue of Custom car, which features "Wild Honey". I will have to dig it out!!

As a special owner I would love to own an original car
, and may one day own one. However 6 years ago I bought a pile of bits that had been off the road for 30 years and built a special, so bits of the original Ruby live on, even though I never have owned the body!

Why did I build a special?

The same reason people have been building them for donkeys years, I liked motor racing and was skint, history showed that an Austin Seven special could be fun to build and own, which is why I got involved in the Austin Seven scene.

Keeping old bits alive by building specials is a good thing, considering the throw away world we live in, BUT I have to agree that most people including myself would frown upon an original car being broken up to make a special nowadays. Do people actually break up good saloons to build Ulster reps??? This would seem wrong .

Steve.

How about this beauty? Was it ever a 750 racer?

Bantam.

The 1st pic does look like the 750 racer built by Mike Forrest. But looking at pictures in Alan Stanniforths book I see that the Forrest car was substantially lower. The book lists a number of stages of evolution of Mike Forrests car so maybe this is a copy by someone or perhaps an early experiment.

Steve.