What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Malcolm Parker]

Splendid effort!   I take it you have the crash 4 speed gearbox with the crawler ratios?   My RL with its 4.9 axle wouldn't look at that hill.
In terms of steepness, I think the top of Old Wyche in Malvern might rival it, but that is only a short stretch of road in comparison.   Being the UK, all traffic is now prohibited from Old Wyche but a few years ago the Light Car Section of the VSCC got permission to use it for a demonstration (or as Fred Dybnah would have said 'a demonsteration')  run by cyclecars and three wheeler Morgans (assisted by the Morgan Factory in Malvern).  I was one of the marshals at the top of the hill, equipped with a long length of rope to put across the back of any cars that failed to climb the hill, all very 1920's.   It was a red hot day and the pub at the top of the hill, where it joins the main road at an impossibly steep gradient, was crowded with well lubricated spectators.   A young policeman had been sent  to oversee the junction.
What he didn't realise was that some of the 3-wheeler Morgans were racing machines which are very highly geared.  They could only get up the very steep gradient by approaching it at high speed.   A magical afternoon that will long remain in my memory.   The marginally legal motor events are generally the best!