12-09-2020, 12:42 PM
What I did was not drive an Austin Seven, but be part of the team that organised the Salopian Ascents Tour. Starting from Ludlow, this went up five historic hillclimbs, and ended up at Bridgnorth Station for that perfume delight of hot cylinder oil wafting alongside the Castrol R. Of the strictly limited number of 25 participants, 34 started, including a fair flock of Rileys and a splendidly noisy swarm of three wheel Morgans. Austin Sevens were Nettie and Adrian Bradshaw in their memorable Chummy, and Richard Houlgate, navigated rather than bounced by Jim Wood. Richard was in his trials Seven, wholly untroubled by any of the banks, unlike certain makes of car which politeness prevents me from mentioning. The other Longbridge entrant was Simon Barringer in his Austin Twenty, almost as big as the 19.6 Crossley in which I spent the day. The pictures are taken at the hairpin at Farlow, described in 1920 as "having one hairpin and two bad corners" on a gradient of 1 in 5, those who successfully ascended had their characters fully formed!