minitici
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| posted on 14/9/10 at 06:58 PM |
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Seven Special goes hillclimbing
Further to my 1st start video last week, I got the 1937 Austin Seven Special to the Bo'ness Revival Hillclimb at the weekend.
The car was finished at about 9.30pm on Friday night and was trailered to the event at 10.30pm.
The Seven was running in the Saloon & Sports Cars pre 31st December 1946 class.
The other cars in the class were: Alvis 12/70, Morgan 4/4, supercharged MG J2, MG Midget PA and the 4.5 litre Batten Special.
The event started with a wet practice session on Saturday morning.
My first run was fairly uneventful (slow...).
When the batch was called for second practice the accelerator cable decided to come adrift but I managed to tag on at the end of the batch and
improved my time a bit.
Final practice run on Saturday was dry and I managed to get down to 55.10 seconds and was only a second behind the two MGs.
The big Batten Special was well out in front as expected (low 40's).
In Sunday morning's practice (slightly damp) I had a 55.25 run. On my second practice run my accelerator cable came adrift again, this time on
the steepest part of the hill between Crawyett and Old Padock Bend.
A quick bit of pedal bending and cable adustment meant that I should not be able to overstretch the cable again.
On the first timed run, my time was 50.89 which exactly matched the time of the MG J2 and was fractionally faster than the MG Midget.
On the second run I made a hash of the gears/braking for the hairpin but picked up good time further up the hill and improved to 50.72 seconds.
The MG J2 did not improve but the Midget got to within 2 hundredths of a second at 50.74.
Needless to say the class was won by the Batten Special but I did get second place honours in a very close fought battle.
The Seven was reasonably nippy off the line (2.86 second 64' which shamed a few more modern cars.
I was thrilled to be given the Jimmy Gibbon Memorial Trophy which is awarded to "Bo'ness Specials".
This award is given to specials which either competed at the original Bo'ness events, or in my case - one car per year can be nominated by the
committee to become a Bo'ness Special if that car was of a type likely to have competed in period.
By my own admission, the Hamblin bodywork is not the pettiest and the suspension needs lowering (currently running on a standard Austin Ruby saloon
chassis/suspension), the car did however attract a fair bit of attention in the paddock.
[I just need the clown shoes, red nose, wig and eccentric wheels to complete the ensemble]
Video
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myke pocock
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| posted on 14/9/10 at 07:06 PM |
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Very nice.Theres a bloke in our club, Fell Side Auto Club, called John Bamber who has built a classic trials 7 special with a front end very similar
to yours. His isnt, er how shall I say this, as clean as yours due to the fact that us classic triallers do it in mud and not on tarmac!!! Say no more
squire!
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minitici
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| posted on 14/9/10 at 07:10 PM |
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The Seven looks better in the photos
Paintwork is not too brilliant and a good number of stress cracks and old holes for lights etc.
Did not have time to touch the bodywork.
For next year I want to do some mods to the body and possibly paint the car silver (I have too many red cars).
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SeaBass
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| posted on 14/9/10 at 08:17 PM |
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It looked great going up the hill... well worth the effort. I had a quick chat with you in the padlock about the seat height etc.
Jc
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zilspeed
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| posted on 14/9/10 at 09:10 PM |
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Very pleased for you.
Even getting it to the line was a great achievement, the other things must have added to the occasion.
Again - very well done sir.
I promise, I'm getting there too.
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minitici
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| posted on 15/9/10 at 07:58 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by SeaBass
It looked great going up the hill... well worth the effort. I had a quick chat with you in the padlock about the seat height etc.
Jc
Nice to meet you.
I must admit I felt a lot more comfortable when I removed the seat cushion and sat a couple of inches lower.
Doug
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MikeRJ
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| posted on 15/9/10 at 08:36 AM |
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That's a nice looking special, and congrats on the days performance! Do you have any larger pictures of the car?
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athoirs
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| posted on 15/9/10 at 09:29 AM |
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Well done Doug!
Good to see you got it finished in time -
bet it broke because you were pushing to hard on the loud pedal!
Andy
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minitici
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| posted on 15/9/10 at 11:23 AM |
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Hamblin at Bo'ness Hillclimb
Only got a couple of pictures on the phone.
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Mike Wood
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| posted on 13/9/15 at 10:28 AM |
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Good to see the Hamblin, a Speedex and other Austin Seven specials at Bo'Ness 2015 revival last weekend. Great event.
How is the car going?
Cheers
Mike
[Edited on 13/9/15 by Mike Wood]
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