Austin 7

Herbert Austin conceived the Seven in 1920 and had it drawn up largely by an eighteen-year-old draughtsman, Stanley Edge, who claimed the engine and gearbox as his own work. It launched in July 1922 at £165 with a 696cc side-valve four, and was nicknamed the Chummy; capacity went to 747cc in March 1923 and stayed there for the rest of the car’s life. More than fifty body designs were offered across the run, output peaked above 27,000 cars in 1935, and around 290,000 were built before the last one in 1939. Licensed abroad it became the first BMW — the Dixi of 1927 — the Rosengart in France and the American Austin, whose liquidated assets became American Bantam, the firm that built the first Jeep prototype in 1940. Herbert Austin’s son-in-law Arthur Waite won Australia’s 1928 100 Miles Road Race in one.

Three things decide most Austin Seven parts, and none of them is the year on the registration. The chassis: short 6ft 3in up to December 1930, then the long 6ft 9in from October 1931 — high-frame to June 1934, low-frame Ruby type from July 1934 — and the chassis number is the quickest way to place a car. The gearbox: three-speed crash to September 1932, four-speed after that, synchromesh on third and top from August 1933 and on second as well from July 1934, when the castings are marked 2 SYN. The brakes: cable and rod throughout, because the Seven never had hydraulics from the factory. They were uncoupled until 1930, with the pedal working the rear wheels and the handbrake the front; coupled from 1930; the drums widened from 1in to 1¼in in 1932; and riveted back-plates gave way to bolted semi-Girling ones in August 1936, which is the quickest visual test of which set you are looking at.