1936 Austin 7 Nippy

This is a genuine 1936 Austin 7 Nippy restored and modified by the current owner.

HISTORY:

We will let the owner tell you more about this fabulous Nippy:

‘At 15 years old my parents bought me a Super-Accessories Special to keep me off motorbikes. I bought this Nippy when my son was seven, with a view to the same result. It took until Harry was 21 to finish the restoration, by which time Harry had grown to 6ft 4in and no longer fits in the car! Hence the sale. The log-book says silver and black, so that is the colour combination. However I doubt silver was available in the 1930’s. The 14 years allowed time to collect together all the period tuning and improvement parts of the time, so the car is now around the best one could spec in 1936.’

‘Anyone who’s driven an Austin 7 knows the brakes are terrible. This Nippy has the Bowdenex cable conversion that improves things from “poor” to maybe “adequate”. The chassis is boxed as per the original racing spec which significantly improves stiffness and handling (and the brakes a bit). All else is standard Nippy until one gets to the engine.’

‘An Austin 7 uses “spit and hope” lubrication whereby a jet of oil is fired across the crank-case to hopefully impinge on drillings in the crank that then lead oil to the big-ends by centrifugal force. This works surprisingly well on a 17bhp engine but is left wanting thereafter. This engine has a balanced pressure-fed crank with oil fed through drillings from the timing gear end. The cranking handle is redundant. Sealing is by miniature piston rings in grooves. It is important to warm the engine up gently and to monitor the auxiliary oil pressure gauge until warm. This engine is still running in. In 1000 miles the gauge can revert to the original one. All bearings are new. New +60 pistons are fitted. Big valves, heavier valve springs, sports cam and followers. The original 1936 cylinder head is actually a better unit than the alloy heads of the time, so this is skimmed and re-fitted. The block and combustion chamber entry is ported as per period recommendations. A Bosch distributor with matched centrifugal advance is fitted. It also has a high capacity aluminium sump and crank-case stiffener. A 4-branch exhaust and ultra-rare down-draught inlet manifold with down-draught SU carburetor completes the engine specification. The intention and prediction is to achieve 30bhp after run-in.’

‘To cope with the doubling of power a thermosyphon type alloy radiator hides behind the cowl. To cope with modern fuel and its low vapourisation point (giving hot-start issues on old cars) an electric fuel pump is fitted near the rear. A modern air filter sits atop the carb for safety. For period use this can be dispensed with.’

The car came from the previous owner as a box of bits and has been rebuilt over time while accumulating period performance parts along the way. We do not have any history prior to the current owner unfortunately. It is believed only circa 800 Nippys were built so this is a very rare survivor.

SPECIFICATION

See above for the engine details. The car is black and silver (we believe a Saab silver), the rear wheel is correctly mounted in the rear ‘boot’, with two individual seats (some have a bench).

CONDITION

In lovely ‘usable’ condition (see video above for a walkaround) the paint is good with just a few chips, the roof is brand-new, wheel and tyres in excellent condition (including the spare) and the interior presents very well with newly upholstered seats in vivid blue. The engine bay presents beautifully and the area where the spare wheel is housed is very good. The chrome work is good bar the radiator surround which is original to the car and wears its patina with pride. Registered as a historic vehicle and therefore tax and MOT exempt.