18-05-2019, 03:56 PM
At the risk of playing 'fast and loose' with the title of this thread, this post is not so much "what have you done today with your Austin Seven" but more of "What have you done for the last ten days with your Austin Seven?" The answer is: Used it as my daily.
This week I have managed to do over three hundred miles in it, and, apart from checking the oil and water levels every day, I have had to do nothing at all to it. it has, quite simply, behaved itself impeccably.
Mind you, that does not mean that there has been no excitement. Every journey is a bit of an adventure.
The itinerary looked something like this:
Monday: Over to mountains to Llangynog to feed the horses and my friend's sheep, a round trip of 26 miles
Tuesday: Over to Cefn Mawr, Wrexham to work, a round trip of some 60 miles plus a bit of running round whilst I was there.
Wednesday: Over to the horses and then on to Llansilin and back, 50 miles round trip
Thursday: I went to the horses with the Landrover, as three bags of animal feed, one dog and me don't fit into a box saloon. In the evening, however, I took a friend down to Llanbrynmair. This required climbing Cader Idris on the A470. Three miles of third gear followed by about half a mile in second to get over the top. Coming back, the Machynlleth side of the pass is a bit steeper but I managed the last 200 yards to the summit in second (just!) at about walking pace with about ten cars behind me. A round trip of 84 miles.. Even so, the running time each way was about one hour twenty minutes, so an average speed of 31.5 mph.
Friday: Work again and this morning over to the horses.
Average fuel consumption 36 mpg and about one and a half pints of oil (mostly leaked).
All in all, a most enjoyable experience. And, after 85 years, the slogan "You can depend on an Austin" was no mere advertising 'puff'.
My only criticism is it's leisurely hill climbing ability. Ruairidh has very kindly put me in touch with Robert Foreman who modifies standard low compression heads to give higher compression, so, if anyone has a low comp head in half decent nick that I can acquire..........
This week I have managed to do over three hundred miles in it, and, apart from checking the oil and water levels every day, I have had to do nothing at all to it. it has, quite simply, behaved itself impeccably.
Mind you, that does not mean that there has been no excitement. Every journey is a bit of an adventure.
The itinerary looked something like this:
Monday: Over to mountains to Llangynog to feed the horses and my friend's sheep, a round trip of 26 miles
Tuesday: Over to Cefn Mawr, Wrexham to work, a round trip of some 60 miles plus a bit of running round whilst I was there.
Wednesday: Over to the horses and then on to Llansilin and back, 50 miles round trip
Thursday: I went to the horses with the Landrover, as three bags of animal feed, one dog and me don't fit into a box saloon. In the evening, however, I took a friend down to Llanbrynmair. This required climbing Cader Idris on the A470. Three miles of third gear followed by about half a mile in second to get over the top. Coming back, the Machynlleth side of the pass is a bit steeper but I managed the last 200 yards to the summit in second (just!) at about walking pace with about ten cars behind me. A round trip of 84 miles.. Even so, the running time each way was about one hour twenty minutes, so an average speed of 31.5 mph.
Friday: Work again and this morning over to the horses.
Average fuel consumption 36 mpg and about one and a half pints of oil (mostly leaked).
All in all, a most enjoyable experience. And, after 85 years, the slogan "You can depend on an Austin" was no mere advertising 'puff'.
My only criticism is it's leisurely hill climbing ability. Ruairidh has very kindly put me in touch with Robert Foreman who modifies standard low compression heads to give higher compression, so, if anyone has a low comp head in half decent nick that I can acquire..........