What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Steve kay]

Yesterday afternoon, the stalwart Ruby volunteered for some essential shopping duty. When I emerged from Waitrose I could see a chap looking at the mighty machine, and waiting to chat, at a suitable distance of course. He started by being very flattering about how there seemed to be no drips at all which encouraged me to enthuse about silicon gaskets, our wonderful suppliers and senior Scottish  engineers who ring you up and tell you what to do. He'd evidently been looking inside, and spotted some evidence of use in events and completion. We talked about autotesting and rallying. He had not done nav rallies, but for many years had done stage rallies, latterly in a 4w drive Subaru. Before finally going I our separate directions, he told me that whilst the Ruby looked great, he actually considered that he would be far more frightened sat in the passenger's seat navying on a frosty night at 20 mph than he ever had been, wearing full harness belts inside a roll cage with plumbed in fire extinguishing, at 80 mph on a rally special stage!