Austin 7 Gordon England Special

Click Here for Full Screen Image - Click Here to Download Image

It says a lot about the Austin Motor Company, that even though they were flat-out building their hugely successful Sevens, they were still prepared to sell rolling chassis’ to outside coachbuilders.

These included some fairly major concerns such as Swallow, Taylor, Duple and Mulliner as well as smaller producers including Arrow and Boyd Carpenter. Perhaps the most successful though, in terms of output and end result was Gordon England, whose models looked good, were incredibly light thanks to their ply and fabric construction (thanks to Boyd Carpenter's aircraft background) and therefore very competitive on the track and in Reliability Trials.

Their Cup model was particularly successful and looked very pretty with its bumblebee tail. The owner of this car certainly fancied one and when the opportunity arose to do something with the remains of a 1932 Box Saloon that had come his way, a Cup model special seemed the obvious answer.

The base car, EP 5355 had been languishing in an orchard since 1956, so there was little in the way of bodywork to sacrifice. Being a slightly later model, it has a 6’9” wheelbase which has resulted in the car’s Cup-style body being somewhat more commodious than the original – 2” wider and 6” longer which will suit the taller driver.

All aspects of the chassis were restored and the engine was entrusted to Alan Fariless at Austin Racing for its overhaul. It is largely to standard spec with fresh white-metal and new pistons and a high-compression head, T4 distributor and 12volt electrics. The gearbox was rebuilt with an ‘Andes’ close ratio gearset.

The bodywork was constructed along traditional lines and a new set of wings were fabricated at a cost of £3,500. They were originally painted in undercoat, which when fitted up looked so good, a similar grey was chosen for their final finish.

As can be seen, there are lots of nice finishing touches such as correct instrumentation, body threshold plates and a good hood, tonneau and sidescreen set.

The end result is most appealing, the vendor getting lots of positive comments and interest wherever he takes it.  On offer for considerably less than it would cost to build these days, it would make a fun road car or a potentially potent trials weapon.