Nice cars in Oz here.
Particularly that one:

Location: Sunny springtime in Brittany

The Australian bodied supercharged Super Sport being prepared for the 100 Mile Race at Phillip Island Monday March 26th 1928. No 3 was A Waite's car and that looks like him behind it.

Sorry, the body of the above car was not built in Oz, and the first Australian Grand Prix was held on March 31st, 1928 (postponed from 26th). Although the pre-printed Program read "the 100 mile road race", by the time the event started it was referred to by both the Organisers and the Press as a Grand Prix. It has been recognized as such ever since.
For anyone interested, the replica (as seen on the stamps etc) of the above car was built by me for my own use, from photos (including the one shown)I acquired from several people including Arthur Waite himself. Waite remembered most things about the original car, but I never asked him about the colour. I was told by some that it was red, others brown, which latter was correct to a point. But I later found after having it painted brown that in fact the original car was varnished which looked brown from a distance but up close one could see the aluminium underneath. I faithfully replicated the alum. bonnet which Waite had had made here (because, he told me, that with the Chummy bonnet it didn't look like a racing car) on the imported body, which apart from the scuttle upsweep was in fact a Super Sports shape without the offseat seats, the scuttle sides, the spare wheel hatch. Unlike the SS it had a detachable floorpan but for convenience I made the floor as in a Chummy set-up. When I found that Graeme had acquired Waite's engine (& he already had the gearbox), I sold him the rolling chassis and body. Graeme then said he'd like to compete at the upcoming annual Historic Winton meeting (which incidentally I instigated in 1977 & ran the first two - next weekend is the 40th), which then was on in 6 weeks time. He got Jim Wilde (some will remember Jim from the 1981 Raid to England) to build a steel frame inside which altered the tail backrest a little, & fitted bucket seats inside. Can't remember why now, but Graeme later replaced the bonnet with one having slightly different louvres. With the aid of Barry Papps (famous mostly for MGs but had been a A7 man) the motor and blower was completed and Graeme gave me the honour and pleasure of being the first to compete with it, we taking turns. The reason for the details given here, in more recent years I built another replica body, with Graeme's permission, and exported it to an Aussie living/working in England - in case you're confused . Most details of the latter are closer to Waite's original car, including the detachable floorpan etc, but in trying to emulate the see-through-varnish effect, the painter in the UK ended up with a mustardly-looking colour. This car will be up and running soon. Cheers, Bill in Oz

Location: Victoria, AUS.

Thanks for putting us straight on this Bill. It is interesting how when half truths and errors are published in books and magazines they become the accepted truth. I would suggest that most in the seven world would have been under the mistaken belief that the body was locally built.
Bill it is probably about time that you put into print much of your vast knowledge of Seven history and body construction.

Location: Auckland NZ

Ian,

Bill has at least two books on the go but won't stand still long enough to finish them - the Table Tennis involvement doesn't help

The mention of Barry Papps reminds me about seeing his lovely PA MG outside 'Downshire Motors Service' in Waverley Road East Malvern. This garage is still running and I pass it regularly.

Seeing this MG this caused me to buy a very well worn but quite famous PA which I stripped - and put back together (not very well) some 56 years ago- this car is still in the Pre War MG Club.

I still kept my Austin 7 Meteor though - much easier to work on than that fussy little four cylinder OHC engine !

Tony.

Location: Malvern, Melbourne, Australia.

Ian - Thank you for your kindness. One thing that has contributed to the confusion is that the excellent book "Australian Grand Prix" by Graham Howard printed the wrong date for the 1st AGP. Apart from getting a lot of A7 material from me, he and I were to proof-read the book before publication. Sadly the publishers were so anxious to get it into the shops, we never got to see it! Another confusing item was Cyril Dickason, Sales Manager at Austin Distributors Ltd in Melbourne at the time, decided to have three replicas of Waite's car built in time for the 1930 AGP as a "factory team", (so I wasn't the first!) Most people wouldn't know one car from another. They were built locally and I still have to establish if they were steel (or aluminium like ACRW's), because very few bodies were built here in alum at that time. (The exception was the A7 Standard Sports, made up of flat, joined, sections - only the tail top had a compound curve). The difference from the '28 car of course was that the "team" cars were built on the later chassis with the taller radiators, and had a deeper tail as did the Longbridge Ulsters. And they were extremely successful. Back to Waite's car, it's also commonly claimed that the '28 AGP was it's last success, but not so. I'll save that for the book! Cheers, Bill in Oz

Location: Victoria, AUS.