What have you done today with your Austin Seven

[Andy Bennett]

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Following on from my carburettor swap today, we went out to a brave new world for us and the car. Having moved 300 miles north, today was our first trip out in beautiful Northumberland.

We moved her up a couple of months ago, but with building work on the house absorbing every minute of the day we haven't taken her out. Also the reason I couldn't make the Centenary as we only had half a house at the time.

The forced inactivity for the car following our purchase of a 300+ year old Northumbrian Long House, needing complete renovation and leaving us north and the car 300 miles south over lockdowns, appeared to have made her unreliable and to be honest I was extremely worried about driving her in the roads around here, which are largely Roman in origin and so very straight, but with serious undulations. There are many quarries around here and, as a consequence, 30 tonne stone waggons thunder along B roads with no regard for others. The thought of passing over the crest of one of these roads at 20 and having a stone waggon bearing down on me at 60 has been on my mind.

But, with the carburettor replaced today the old girl has a new lease of life. 2 up we were actually accelerating up reasonable hills at 35, rather than grinding down to sub 20mph. It was an absolute revelation and we enjoyed a tour around the locality after the builders had gone home. It was just sublime and all the locals gave us a wave.

Here we are parked outside the track next to our house, sharing our view of some 50 miles down the North Tyne valley with our new neighbours, the sheep. Now I just need to join a local club having left Essex and a lot of friends in the Essex Austin 7 club behind.