So took the Austin Seven to a VE day thing on Sunday at Barton Under Needwood (lovely little village in Staffordshire), they had contact the club and asked if anyone could bring some period appropriate cars and wanted people to get dressed up 1940s style etc.. and we had a lovely time but when 5 pm rocks around even though there is a wonderful band playing I needed to get back home and also that was when the road event segment ended so with a Marshall leading the convoy we snake out of the road closure heading for the salacious exotic destinations of places like Yoxall, Kings Bromley, Lichfield, Birmingham and myself aiming for Worcestershire via Stratford.
I join the A38 just outside Lichfield and although I am (quite frankly driving like a hooligan in an A7) doing between 30 and 40mph depending on gradient, wind direction, karma and Sir Herbert Austin’s judgements from beyond the grave…
This is where it kind of gets X-Files / “Top Gear”ish when they are on adventures when they get stalked/haunted by the support car.
So I am on my way in to the 75/80 miles journey (depending if I fuck up at a junction and go the wrong way) and a Red Rover 218(might have been a 216 but an old boxy saloon with faded bumpers) passes me…
first thought: “not seen one of those in a while”
second thought: “wasn’t that a good example of an old car that nobody else would preserve?”
third thought: “Someone much actually be really working on that to keep it running as even if it was one owner from new there it should have died along time ago.”
So looked like this sort of thing (but faded a bit and not as shiny and I think a slightly earlier model).
You have plenty of time for thoughts when you are travelling in an Austin Seven… Then “That red Rover 21x has just gone past again? WTF”. I was sure it must be the same one (now knowing the road layout in that general area I just thought they could be lost) and as I am just tootling along people passing me is normal.
Now if one car is haunting another car surely it should be the Austin Seven haunting a Rover for what they did to the name…
Then further down the road there is a red Rover 21x pulled in a layby and I saw it thought wtf are you up to?
I can’t remember if we had another leap frog before the finale but this sets the scene.
So tootling along in the not hatch asbo 17hp (maybe a long time ago) beast and the red Rover 21x pulls up along side me on the dual carriageway and he wound the window down and he shouted across to me, now I am used to various questions usually from passers by or other cars in traffic asking what / how old it is but not this time…
The legend in the red Rover 21x : “I AM RESTORING AN AUSTIN SEVEN RUBY CAN I HAVE A LOOK AT YOUR ROOF PLEASE?!”
So I pulled over at the next layby and we had a chat and he took pictures. The Ruby has a sliding fabric roof and he had the frame and some of the rails but wanted to see how it all was supposed to fit together.
He had tried to hunt me down after it was his kids in the back of the rover (something for social services) said “isn’t that an austin seven like yours Dad?” and he was baffled on how to flag me down.
He was a really nice chap and kept apologising for the whole thing but he was able to take some pictures and see how it all worked because he had put a temporary roof on his and it had been bugging him for a couple of years 🙂
It has to go in at #1 for top questions I have ever been asked about the car…