The Austin Seven is a racing car! Yet, from what we have posted so far, that seems unlikely.

We have already seen, however, that one hundred years ago, this simple, affordable ‘Baby Austin’ kick-started the development of cars from manufacturers like Jaguar and BMW. So, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to hear that some names in the world of motor racing ‘cut their teeth’ on the Austin Seven.

Our final post on the theme of Austin Sevens in the Cotswold Motoring Museum collection, or cars that are associated with the success of the Austin Seven, brings us to the sportiest of the collection; the Austin Seven Ulster. The 1931 Ulster in the collection is shown below.

Even early in the life of the Austin Seven, once initial issues around the lubrication system of the engine had been addressed, the engine became remarkably reliable at racing speeds. Gordon England, using skills developed from his work on aircraft design, built a lightweight racing body and with that he took second place in the Brooklands 200-mile race in October 1923. He proceeded to set further Brooklands records, lapping the track at an average speed of 80 mph.

To meet public demand, replicas were built by Gordon England, amongst others, and marketed from 1924 as the Brooklands Super Sports. In all, under license from Austin, he went on to produce over 20,000 bodies for the Austin Seven chassis.

Austin, being aware of the sporting success of the ‘specials’, decided to add a factory-built model to their range and hence in July 1928, the car that became known as the Ulster was launched. (The name Ulster came from the success of the car in the 1929 and 1930 Ulster Tourist Trophy races).

Although production of the Austin Seven ceased in 1939, in the post war years many were rebuilt as ‘specials’ including the first racing car built by Bruce McLaren and the first Colin Chapman Lotus. Today, the racing history of the Austin Seven is perpetuated in the 750 Motor Club: 750 being a reference to the capacity of the Austin Seven engine.

This year is the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Austin Seven and this post continues with the theme of cars in the Cotswold Motoring Museum collection that have links to the Austin Seven: it brings us to the Mini or in this case, the 1972 Mini Clubman shown below.

As we saw in an earlier post, the Austin Seven was born as a consequence of a financial crisis in the 1920s.

Following the 1956 Suez fuel crisis, in which fuel rationing almost became a reality, Alec Issigonis’s concept for a small, economical car resulted in the first Morris and Austin Mini.

It was marketed under the names Austin Seven and Morris Mini-Minor. Yes, such was the power of the Austin Seven name that the company re-used it for those early versions of the Mini in 1959. The choice of name was made, in part, because it was felt that the Mini embodied many of the characteristics of the original Austin Seven. It was designed as an affordable car that would appeal to a wide cross-section of new buyers.

It wasn’t until 1962 that the Mini brand was adopted. Those original Minis were badged as Austin Se7ens or Morris Mini-Minors, depending on where they were built. The only difference between them was that the Se7en had a wavy grille whereas the Morris had a straight grille. The connection between the Austin Sevens and the Mini Clubman in the museum collection is admittedly one of the most tenuous that we have made in these posts. Our final car from the collection will be the Austin Seven Ulster where the linkage is much more than a naming convention. It returns to an example of a derivative from that 100-year-old model that has proved so enduring.

Look out for the final post very shortly.

No, (again), that is not a typo in the title to this post; it is yet another example of the formative role that, 100 years ago, the Austin Seven played in the formation of several motor manufacturing brands that today have achieved global status.

We have already seen examples of how the practice of the Austin Motor Company, licensing the Austin Seven design to other motor manufacturers, provided a launch platform for Jaguar in the UK and for American Bantam in the USA. Further examples can be found in Australia with the Holden Motor Body company, France with Rosengarts and Japan with Nissan.

Following Benz and Daimler, the third German car manufacturer to become established was the Eisenach car factory, starting in 1904, and Dixi was the brand name.

In the difficult economic climate of the 1920s, Eisenach decided that its product line needed to address the small car market, and in 1927 signed a licensing agreement with the Austin Motor Company to build a variant of the Austin Seven. A production level of 2000 cars a year was agreed upon, and Dixi paid Austin a royalty on each vehicle produced.

The first 100 cars were supplied by Austin as kits, but by December 1927 the first of the official Dixi-manufactured vehicles was coming off the production line. Apart from being left-hand drive and using metric fasteners, the car was nearly identical to the Austin. Body styles available were coupé, roadster, tourer and sedan, with a few chassis going to external coachbuilders. Most cars left the factory as tourers.

Looking to move into automobile manufacturing, BMW bought the Eisenach manufacturer in 1928 and with it, the rights to build the Dixi car. So, the Austin Seven was in fact the first BMW.

At first the cars were badged as BMW Dixi but the Dixi name was dropped in 1929.

The 1938 BMW 327 in the museum collection is one of around 2000 produced in the pre-war years from 1937-41. It is a sports / tourer car with a 2-litre, 6-cylinder engine and is about as far removed from the Austin Seven as can be imagined. It does, however, owe its existence to the humble beginnings of that first BMW car, the BMW Dixi – a clone of the Austin Seven.

Hello, Brum here again – I just wanted to pop up between all these super Austin Seven posts to give you a warning. I was sent this picture, taken in Bournemouth a few days ago. I have evidence (see my ‘Bookface page’ – I think that’s what it is called) that it is NOT me! Beware of imposters!

On the other hand, I’m told that someone called Oscar Wilde said, a long time ago:

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness”

He must have had me in mind. Oh well, bye for now Toot, Toot

We have mentioned in previous posts that the Austin Seven design was licensed to enable manufacture and sale outside of the UK. Examples exist from Australia, Germany, France, Japan and the USA. The Austin Seven Bantam in the museum collection was produced in 1934 by the American Austin Car Company. A Bantam rooster was adopted as part of the radiator name badge.

It was also in 1934 that the American Austin Car Company filed for bankruptcy before being re-born in 1935 as Austin Bantam.

Up until 1934, mechanically, the Bantam was very similar to the British built models. As is immediately obvious from the accompanying photo however, the styling, designed to appeal to the American market, is considerably less ‘box-like’ than the British models of the Austin Seven.

Once the company re-formed in 1935, the engine design departed from the British version and around 6000 Bantams, in various body styles, were produced during the period 1937 – 1941. In part, because of the Great Depression, and maybe the fact that the American car-buying public were not really that keen to adopt a small car, production of the Bantam ceased in 1941.

One final credit to the American Bantam – and a further example of the formative role that, 100 years ago, the Austin Seven played in launching the fortunes of several global motor manufacturers – is that a few thousand American Bantam vehicles were produced as pre-production models for the World War II Jeep, with around 1000 going to the British army.