Austin 7 RN Deluxe Saloon

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Launched in 1922, the Austin Seven was an unprecedented success that not only saved the Austin company but wiped out most other small cars and cyclecars of the early 1920s.

Simply yet brilliantly engineered by Herbert Austin and his young protégé, Stanley Edge, at Austin’s Lickey Grange home, the ‘big car in miniature’ quite literally put Britain on the road. Occupying barely more tarmac than a motorcycle and sidecar, it still had all the comforts of a family saloon and boasted such luxuries as four-wheel drum brakes and (from 1924) an electric starter.

Built around an A-frame chassis, it was powered by a 10bhp 747cc four-cylinder sidevalve engine mated to a three-speed manual transmission. Suspension was by a transverse-leaf spring at the front and quarter-elliptics to the rear. Available in a bewildering range of derivatives from a single-seater race car to a two-speed tractor, it remained in production until 1939 with some 290,000 made in total. Tough, easy to maintain and huge fun to drive, it has long been the backbone of the pre-war car movement.

This RN Deluxe long-wheelbase saloon is one of around 2,970 made between 1931 and 1932. First registered in Portsmouth in December 1931, little is known of its early history but an old buff log book indicates that it had five owners between 1939 and 1972 when it was acquired by Mike Cavanagh, owner of the Cotswold Motor Museum in Bourton-on-the-Water, who was to keep it for the next 28 years, the car spending much of this time on display in the museum.

In 2000 it was acquired by an owner on the Isle of Wight who fully restored it over the next three years at a cost of some £8,000 with many bills and photographs to document the work carried out, the odometer being re-set to zero once completed. It then covered some 3,000 miles, mainly going to local shows around the south coast where it scooped several prizes before being acquired by the current owner in 2008. A serial Austin 7 collector and restorer, he treated the car to a second engine rebuild in July 2015 by marque specialist Vince Leek of Warminster at a cost of £1,133.

Always in regular light use, the car has now covered some 4,200 miles since the restoration and is said to drive beautifully, certainly bowling along nicely when we were treated to an enjoyable test drive on the occasion of our visit with a particularly sweet sounding engine and notably effective brakes. The patinated blue leather interior is especially pleasing and retains much originality, the refurbished sliding sunroof and drawstring-operated rear sun blind also functioning as they should.

Only reluctantly being sold to free up space for the restoration of a recently acquired Chummy, this lovely RN Saloon is as good an example as we have ever offered and is sure to bring a great deal of pleasure to its fortunate new owner.