Pre-war cars. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live… er… with ‘em. Just too slow, cramped, impractical, unreliable, and so on. Well, luckily for those of us who love them, some brave souls out there are willing to put up with all these defects (some of which are very relative anyway) and brave 21st Century traffic. It’s Roaring ‘20s Week, CC, so let us gingerly select first gear with a loud crunch and have another look at the immortal Austin Seven.
“Another look” because, let’s be entirely frank here, the definitive CC post about the little Austin was written by Roger Carr, our (main) man in Albion. So if you’re looking for the full Seven saga, click right this way.
Just a brief historical refresher: the Seven was launched in the summer of 1922, initially with a 696cc engine, though that was upped to 747cc by early 1923. Said engine, unlike nearly all contemporary European cyclecars, was a water-cooled four-stroke 4-cyl. mated to a 3-speed gearbox; the rear end also had a differential. The diminutive Austin was a scaled-down car when most of its rivals were more like four-wheeled bikes. Early cars like the one above had scuttle-mounted headlights, but that was changed to wing-mounted items in 1927-29, depending on the body type.
Thanks to its low price and above-average reliability, the Seven was a hit. Well, a hit with the context of Britain 100 years ago: over 250,000 units were made until 1939. A far cry from the Model T, which is what the Seven is always compared to, but unprecedented in Britain for sure, and well above any prewar European model. Then again, that’s a factor of the model’s longevity: comparable cars like the Citroën 5CV (1922-26, 80k made) or the Fiat 509 (1925-29, 90k made) tallied even more impressive yearly sales.
The thing that sets the Austin Seven apart was how widespread it came to be: licensed production in France, Germany and the US, the famous Swallow connection that begat Jaguar and lots of factory bodies on offer (four-seater, two-seater, hard or soft top, sporty roadsters, vans, – there was even a weird LWB four-door towards the end) made the Seven ubiquitous, even outside of its home market.
Our feature car is a very rare variant: the Coupé, also known as Type B. These aluminium-bodied and fabric-topped deluxe models were only made between late 1928 and early 1931. Kind of the VandenPlas of the Austin Seven world, if you will.
I’m guessing Austin saw the folks going for those Swallow specials and figured there was a niche to be occupied there, but soon gave up, given how pitifully low sales were. If the web is to be trusted, Austin produced about 530 units and only a dozen are still in working condition.
Austin built those cars well enough, but the rudimentary (even flimsy) nature of the chassis usually put long-term survival in jeopardy. The real gem, according to many, was the engine. I’m not sure how much power the 747cc side-valve was quoted as having in 1929. It only produced 10.5hp in the 1923 models, but this was gradually ameliorated to 17hp by the early ‘30s. Not that there’s all that much car to haul about, of course, but that’s precisely when even 1hp can make a noticeable difference. Those little 747s were still produced by French licensee Rosengart well into the ‘50s – they squeezed 21hp out of them, by the end.
The Seven was such a success that BMC re-used the name for the first Austin-branded Minis, thirty years after this car came off the Longbridge production line. The so-called “Mini” was 12cm longer, 25cm wider and almost twice the weight of its equally illustrious ancestor. Progress, eh?
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: 1929 Austin Seven – Helping Put The World On Wheels, by Roger Carr
CC Capsule: Austin Seven – Size Isn’t Everything, by Mr Tactful
Vintage Photo: 1929 Austin Seven Delivery Van – Let’s See You Get In And Drive It, by PN
Now there’s a British vs American difference I hadn’t heard before. I knew bonnets and boots and wings but I’d never heard cowl = scuttle!
The Austin 7, was the first mass produced production car, that had the pedal layout (left to right) of Clutch, Brake, Accelerator (Gas).
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That little 747cc engine, was the basis of most post WW2 race cars in the UK.
Colin Chapman’s Lotus started with it.
Nice little car. I was reading elsewhere that of the 529 of these produced, “fewer than 10” are known to still exist (that was from a 2014 source, so perhaps a few others have been found in the past decade). Regardless, it’s amazing that one winds up in Japan. I wonder if it’s been there since new.