Austin Seven (and other) values........

[Dave Prior]

We need to remember that when many of us started in Austin Sevens they were no more than thirty or forty years old; that's like a Vauxhall Nova to today's youngsters. They will look on an Austin Seven now much as we may have looked on the earliest of Veterans - totally impractical and financially out of reach.

Yes, very important point, we mustn't forget this. My first classic car was in 1976, I was 21 and bought a 1955 TR2 for £280, and it was just becoming a classic, because Classic Cars had just done an article on them a few years before.

It is amusing though to see Escort Mk1/2s selling for silly money, but there are specialists supplying parts for them, and of course only 40 odd years old.

Nostalgia is probably just still alive and kicking, but no doubt there's some treatment for it...electric shocks/saline baths etc.

Anybody here like 1940s/50s pinup paintings...preferably on the sides of B-17s etc? Take a look at some of the seriously non PC advertising of the era...superb "nostalgic" stuff, then there's the case for retro/chic nonsense, but it is good to see recycling/upcycling, so perhaps full circle, and there's no argument to be had.

It would be fascinating to see if "continuation" Sevens might sell and at what price...what a contentious and interesting idea?!

Now, chassis would be relatively easy, bodywork could be fabricated or dare I say it...out of grp, what about engines...3 cylinder Suzuki perhaps?

Arthur

Speaking as a "young person" (I'm 26, so I think I still count)  all I can say is the main thing I find appealing about driving Sevens is the fact they feel so primitive and raw. I spent the first 6 years of my driving career primarily driving a 1958 A35 and that feels like a spaceship in comparison. Now my daily is a modern and the Sevens are even more appealing. It's such a different experience and whilst it is daunting at first I find few things as exhilarating as doing 55 in our 1934 PD. You're not going to get the same feeling with anything else. 
People don't have the opportunity to try things out. Many of the above points are true to a greater or lesser extent, but I would say the biggest problem is purely exposure, or rather a lack of it. You don't really see them being driven. I grew up with access to Sevens and was lucky to have done so. I know many people my age who would love to own one, but they don't know where to start.