1929 Austin 7 Chummy Tourer

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION

There aren’t many cars that can match the sheer charm of an Austin Seven, especially a ‘Chummy’ tourer from the 1920s. These enduring cars have a classless appeal that makes them as attractive as ever, even 100 years after they were built. 

This nicely presented Chummy is still wearing the same London-issued number – UL 4687 – with which it was first registered on 2 February 1929. Its history file includes its buff logbook, which shows that, by 1960, it was owned by Eric Waller in south-east London. 

By 1966, the little Austin had been acquired by its next owner – Ronald Tucker, who lived on the Norfolk coast in Great Yarmouth. Also included in its history file are MoT test certificates dating all the way back to this period. 

The Chummy was restored in the late 2000s, after which it spent a few years in storage. Having been thoroughly recommissioned, it was sold in 2015 and then passed more recently to its current owner. 

Having considered a colour change to maroon and black, he decided to keep the car in its current livery and, after consulting the logbook, noted that it had been green when new. He had the front seats retrimmed and fitted new, high-quality wool carpets with bound edges. 

He also had a new radiator matrix built to the original pattern, and the car is offered for sale with the correct jack and wheel brace, plus a new hood and a full set of sidescreens. 

Thanks to its four-wheel brakes and ‘modern’ pedal layout with the throttle on the right, the Austin Seven is an easy pre-war car to drive and guaranteed to put a smile on your face during even the shortest run. It’s also simple to maintain and benefits from an extensive and extremely active network of clubs and specialists. Little wonder that it remains such a popular choice of classic.

MODEL HISTORY  

Few cars can genuinely be described as revolutionary, but the Austin Seven is undoubtedly one of them. Announced in 1922 and put into production the following year, the ‘big car in miniature’ transformed the concept of affordable motoring and had a similar impact in the UK to the Ford Model T in America.

Devised by Sir Herbert Austin, with the help of a young draughtsman named Stanley Edge, the Seven was based around a simple A-shaped chassis. Its four-cylinder sidevalve engine was initially 696cc but was quickly enlarged to 747cc, while suspension was via quarter-elliptic leaf springs at the rear and a transverse semi-elliptic spring across the front beam axle. 

Initially available only as the ‘Chummy’ tourer, the 7 would eventually be sold in a vast array of styles that included saloons and vans. There were numerous developments and upgrades during its long production run, too. The headlamps were moved from the scuttle to the front wings in 1928, the wheelbase was extended by six inches in 1931, and from autumn 1932 a four-speed gearbox replaced the original three-speeder. 

The Seven was a runaway sales success and sounded the death knell for the precariously basic machinery that was being turned out by the cyclecar industry. It was even successful in motor racing and inspired the formation of the 750 Motor Club – one of the foundation stones of the UK’s postwar motorsport industry.

In July 1934, the Ruby model was introduced on a new chassis and production continued until March 1939. By then, the Seven had helped to rescue Austin itself – which was struggling in the years immediately following the First World War – and almost 300,000 of these ‘baby Austins’ had been built. 

The Seven also played a pivotal role in the early days of both Swallow – the company that later morphed into Jaguar – and BMW. Such was its enduring status that the name was revived in 1959 for the Austin version of another groundbreaking small car: the Mini.