What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Malcolm Parker]

Got back yesterday from the Cumbria Run.   The start was on Tuesday in Masham, N.Yorkshire and the finish at Grange over Sands in the Lake District.   The run started in sunshine but within an hour it was raining heavily.   It cleared up for the run up to Shap and down the side of Ullswater but Kirkstone Pass was shrouded in a dark cloud.   Suffice to say that the rain was biblical, aided and abetted by a strong headwind.   My RL was down to first gear half way up and about 200 yards from the summit was cutting out and surging as the fuel level in the scuttle tank caused starvation.  I got it to limp over the summit and pulled into the layby at the Kirkstone Inn.  I was desperate for a cup of coffee and a pee.   Braving the ferocious elements I struggled to the pub only to find the doors locked.  By this time I was drenched with the water cascading off the front roof of the pub.  I then had to get a gallon of petrol out of the car, put the filler nozzle on and replenish the scuttle tank. It probably took about a minute, by which time I was like a drowned rat.  I forgot about having a pee, my trousers were so wet it wouldn't have mattered.   Back in the car I set off down the other side to Windermere.   That was when I realised that I had very little brakes, the drums were so wet.   Blinded by the powerful headlights of oncoming cars, I made it down to Windermere where there was a great deal of standing water and fountains of water were erupting from the roadside drains.  Some of the water was over a foot deep but the Austin ploughed through with no bother at all and very little water came into the car.    The drivers of the pre-war MG's didn't fair so well in the deep water, the floors were awash with water and it was coming over the bonnet tops and through the scuttle.
It was the worst weather that I have ever driven an Austin 7 in but it coped very well.   Fortunately my RL has the luxury of the optional severe weather kit (Rainex, an old towel and a wash leather)
Despite the Covid, petrol shortages, weather and the fact that most of the pubs were shut, it was a good 'do'.
Sorry I haven't any photos at the top of Kirkstone Pass.