Why buy an Austin Seven?

Good question and one I do not have a ready answer to. My friends think it is some perverse desire to pretend to be Noddy to which I say "Well if I'm Noddy you must be Big Ears, get in." which usually shuts them up. The fact is that I am too young to remember those post war days when an A7 cost a fiver and you ran it until it fell apart. I can only assume that during my childhood (late sixties and seventies) I saw some at a rally or racing because by the age of sixteen (1980) I wanted one. However I did not have the money so I had to content myself with buying and doing up cheap motor cycles, mainly KH250 triples. I remember reading the car sales magazines and seeing ads for Austin Sevens and thinking that they were a very affordable vintage car, a fact that is still true today.

At about this time I left school and went to work for a Peterborough based company who specialized in restoring vintage Jaguars as an auto electrician. It was great to work on XK120's, XK140's, MK2's, E types, D-types and even a C -type (I wonder where they are now). Unfortunately my joy was cut short as the company went bust with in weeks of my joining it.

There my interest had to stop until 2001. I was working in the city at the time of 11/9/2001 for a company heavily involved in the financial world. We had 150 employees in both the World Trade Canter and the Pentagon of which, very fortunately, not one was hurt. However it made my rethink my priorities and so I decided to do some of the things I had been saying I would like to do for years. After all we only have one life and no-one dies saying "oh, I wish I had spent more time at the office".

I therefore purchased my EA sports, (although it wasn't sold as an EA sports but that's another story), even though I had never been in an Austin Seven. Still my instinct proved correct the first time I drove MFF157 after she was delivered. Immediately I loved the feeling of freedom that the open cockpit gives, the closeness of the road, all the sound and smells which you don't get in an enclosed modern car (L.T.C. Rolt was right, it is the best way to travel).

For me it is a real 'Toad of Toad Hall' experience driving through my village wearing my flying helmet, goggles and flying jacket. Lots of people wave, many people stop to talk to me. I am quite sure more than a few people laugh but what do I care. I am having the best time ever!