I thought that there was a picture of three ‘Grasshoppers’ in Wyatt on a trials course all with COA registrations. (I know there is one with a BOA plate) I seem to have been mistaken.
Anyone know which book the pic/pics where in? was it possibly in the Grey mag?
Also how many were made and how many are thought to survive? I am not usually interested in the sports versions of the sevens, but have been intrigued with the interest over the last few days. Did they all have Birmingham COA and BOA registrations?

Location: 'In a foam rubber lined room' near Bristol UK

Ian,
A7CA Magazine 1995D has an article 'Grasshopper Reunion'
- centre spread - 5 cars featured plus write up.
Bryan

Location: Hertfordshire

Location: Near Lands End..

Sandy,

If you spent less time drinking Bass,playing music at all hours,fooling around with The Cornwall Austin 7 Club,and got on Austinsevenfriends.com in the middle of the night like the rest of us Sad Old Men,you wouldn't miss all the exciting developements in the rapidly expanding, Grasshopper world.

Yet another Ian.

Location: Frampton Cotterell

Actually, if this is being a sad old man, I wish I'd got to it a bit earlier in life!

Ian, here is a list of registration nos. etc;

http://freespace.virgin.net/john.lovelock4/Grasshopper.htm

I recall a picture of several Grasshoppers plus an Austin 10 Ripley sports outside an hotel in the VSCC Bulletin sometime in the last twenty years! Not a great help.....Regards, Stuart

PS there are quite a few pictures in Wyatt's "Pictorial Tribute" - perhaps that's what you remember?
S

Of the original 12 cars, there are 7 remaining:

AOV 343 West Midlands
AOX 3 Portugal
BOA 59 Hampshire
COA 118 London
COA 119 Dunoon (or possibly Wiltshire)
COA 121 Hampshire
UI 3345 Hampshire

Location: Farnham

Thanks Stuart, I looked in every book I have except the pictorial tribute, and yes those are the pictures I was thinking about.
Bryan, thank you also for pointing me to Peter Hornby’s article in 1995D. Interesting last sentence on page 17 when talking about William Delafield’s BOA-59 < an interesting feature of this car is the green “undergraduate light’ on the radiator grill, which was required to be fitted when the owner was a student at Cambridge> would be interested to know more about this if anyone knows.
Thanks for the list Peter, surprised to see so few made, with a good proportion surviving. Regards and thanks to all Ian

Location: 'In a foam rubber lined room' near Bristol UK

Got it wrong all those years ago; actually Oxford (rather than Cambridge) undergraduate light. Apparently undergraduates in those days had to have a green light on the front of their cars for evening use!

Location: Farnham

There is a good photo of BOA 58 on Page 158 of a lovely book "The Golden Age of British Motoring" Roy Bacon on the work of W.J. Brunell Published (Reprinted) in 1996. I would be happy to 'e' mail a copy to anyone specifically interested.

I'm sure I've seen better versions of this shot:



I'll do some digging, when I get a moment.

Location: Near Bicester

have a look at this site for pics of grasshoppers here
regards Ian.

I’m still interested in that, ‘undergraduate green light’ can it just be seen next to the spotlight on Ivor’s pic of BOA-59? Was it just so they could spot each other on midnight forays or was necessary to allow the car into the campus?

Location: 'In a foam rubber lined room' near Bristol UK

Peter

Given that there are seven out of twelve Grasshoppers remaining, does that mean, now that we can discount COA120 ever being found, that there could possibly be four more people out there who have just lost their dear old dads and are, as we speak, photographing his pile of bits in the shed with a view to putting them up on ebay...........?!!!!

Location: The Sunny South

Location: Colchester

AOX 4 was built for the 1935 'Exeter' and was driven by RJ Richardson for all of its 'works' life. It duly became blown and raised to high chassis spec around 1937. In June 1938 it was purchased by JH Blyth to become a successful member of the Scottish Tartan Grasshopper team, taking the premier award in the 1939 Highland Two-day Trial.
It was subsequently owned by RKN Clarkson during the war, who fitted LMB swing axle ifs and continued to campaign it. The photograph appeared in an article in The light Car (Feb 1946) 'A Grasshopper Without a Hop', when still owned by Clarkson.
By 1948, it had passed into the hands of RH Dyson, who used it as the basis of the 'Ausford' special, with more abbreviated, contemporary trials body and a supercharged Ford 10 engine in the original chassis. He sold the car to David Findlay in that year, and it subsequently disappeared. There is no trace of the original body or engine, and the car (ie Ausford or AOX 4) is no longer registered with the authorities.

Location: Farnham

Hi,
COA119 last October was still in Dunoon but was moved from the hardware shop in Dunoon to a family garage on the Cowal Penninsula.
Hope this helps
Simon

Location: co durham

For those interested in non-hoax Austin Seven Grasshoppers, see Grey Mag. 2011D when it appears. Cheers, Bill in Oz

Location: Mount Eliza, Melbourne, Australia

Just on the off-chance does anyone know the chassis number of AOX4?

Location: The south-eastern corner of Surrey

Original chassis number of AOX4 was XE1020.

Location: Farnham

Of the original 12 cars, there are 7 remaining:

AOV 343 West Midlands .... Not recorded with any Club after year 2000
AOX 3 Portugal .................. No details on The Register of Surv...
BOA 59 Hampshire ............ Not recorded with any Club after year 2000
COA 118 London ............... On The Register
COA 119 Dunoon (...) ......... On The Register
COA 121 Hampshire ........... Not recorded with any Club after year 2000
UI 3345 Hampshire ............. On The Register

'Not recorded with any Club after year 2000'
That's the date the Register data I took over was up to, no details have come forth since then and indeed some records like that were last entered on the Register say in the late 1970's....
These cars are probaly with the VSCC, they only hold records of their Members, not the Cars they have - apparently.

At least The Register has six of the cars details, if not the current Club they are with, but, for me, AOX 3 has gone under the radar.

Location: Near Lands End.

Location: The south-eastern corner of Surrey

Whilst visiting a friend I was flicking through an old 1952 ( I think but can check) copy of Motorsport and came across an advertisement in the small ads for the Ausford Special. I wonder if this was when David Findlay sold it?

Location: Auckland NZ

Peter Hornby alerted me to this thread, one I had overlooked. In preparing the reprint of our 'Grasshopper' book we were mortified to discover we had incorrectly identified this Ausfod as the converted Grasshopper AOX 4. This has now been corrected. Findlay's Ausfod bore the registration number HXJ 831. He advertised it for sale in Motor World, 27 January 1950:

FOR SALE
AUSFOD TRIALS SPECIAL
With latest type Ford 10 engine and
Brand new gearbox; Scintilla mag.,
etc.: 600 x 16 tyres etc. £250
J. M. FINDLAY
Springhill Nurseries
Phone 98 Baillieston

The new owner was H. J. Barrington who seemed to have used it in Scottish trials throughout 1950 and into 1951.

There were a number of Ausfods in use during this period and many classified adverts for 'Ausfords', a generic term for a Ford engined trials special built on the Austin 7 chassis. Ausfod Motor Engineering was the company name used by R. H. Dyson and was based in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. The company was wound up in 1955 and the premises bulldozed during the 1960s to make way for the Mancunian Way.

Location: Doncaster

You are absolutely right, of course, Mick about the generic nature of the term "Ausford" for a Ford engined A7.

Allow me to observe that the alternative, "Forstin", is so much more graphic and to my shame I prefer it.

All the best,
Stuart

I have a Reliant engine sitting in my part built special, I suppose that makes it a Rustin!

Location: Pembrokeshire