Austin 7

Michael Harrison speaking about his Austin 7

On Thursday 1st June our speaker was Mike Harrison of Lunesdale Rotary. Mike's very interesting talk was entitled "A brief history of my Austin 7".

He began with the background of the founder Herbert Austin of the Austin Motor Company, who travelled to Australia and became involved with the engineering industry there where he patented a sheep shearing device. On his return to England he worked for Wolsey Engineering, before setting up his own company manufacturing vehicles mainly for military use in World war 1. After the war he made the Austin 20, a 3.6litre car, but it was too expensive for a mass market. He used £3000 from his company to develop and build a prototype car with the same wheelbase as a motor cycle and sidecar. He launched the resulting Austin 7 on 21 July 1922. The car sold for £225 but as sales increased the price was reduced to £165. He developed van models of the car and allowed coach builders to add their own bodywork.

Mike bought an Austin Ruby as a restoration project for £125. The car was first registered in 1935. A full rewire was carried out. Body panels were restored and the car was resprayed to its original Westminster Green with Black Wings. The sunroof was replaced and the original seats reupholstered in leather.

In July 2022 Mike took the car to the Austin 7 Centenary Rally held in Moreton in the Marsh. There were over 1000 Austin 7 models present at the week-long rally including 100 Ruby saloons.

Mike said 330,000 models were produced and currently there are about 10,000 still existing in various parts of the world.

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