During the late 70s and early 80s a little British girl was being taken all round Europe in the back seat of a tiny, 1932, 7hp, Austin Seven. 25 years later that girl, Diana, now not so little, is living and working in the USA as a Forensic Toxicologist.
Those European tours were organised by the British ‘750 Motor Club’ – founded in 1939, the year Austin Seven production ceased. Tours took them as far as Monte Carlo, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Andorra, and Hamburg.
In 2000, while working in California, Diana had her parents, Ron and Veronica Garside, over for a holiday. During that time they found and drove part of Route 66 including the Mojave desert. The experience made quite an impression on them and they vowed to do the whole length sometime in the future. Unfortunately Ron fell ill and died last fall.
At the funeral, Veronica and Diana got talking to a friend about Route 66 and their hopes of driving it. Said friend, Vince Leek, had organised successful Austin 7 tours to Gibraltar and across South America from Buenos Aires to Santiago in Chile and back. Together they cooked up a scheme to take a small group of Austin Sevens across the Atlantic and drive the Mother Road in memory of Ron.
Vince would take on overall organisation, including arranging insurance, and shipping the cars to Newark, Veronica would plan the itinerary and Diana, now living in North Carolina, would handle publicity and liaison with the US ‘American Austin and Bantam Club’, ‘Pacific Bantam and Austin Club’ and other US organisations. Another of the group, Ken Cooke would organise flights for the crews and other liaison duties. No longer having an Austin 7 in the family, Diana would co-drive Vince’s 1929 car and River Dukes, Diana’s boyfriend, would drive a hire car co-crewed by Veronica with her friend, Wendy Hilder.
All the drivers are well travelled in Austin 7s though out Europe and 4 of them did the 3,500 mile South American Adventure in 2005.
The crews will arrive at Newark on the 23rd of August, have a quick look at the Big Apple and collect the Austin Sevens from the docks. Then they will drive them across to Chicago for the start of the big adventure on the 3rd of September. On the way they hope to meet members of the American Austin Bantam Club and visit Butler, PA, where the American Austin and Bantam was manufactured from 1928 to 1940. The American Austin and Bantam cars were based on the British Austin Seven and built under licence from the Austin Motor Company.
The first recorded occasion in which an Austin 7 drove the length of Route 66 was in 1946 when Jack Rittenhouse drove the route in a 1939 Bantam. Jack wrote a book about the route entitled “A Guide Book To Highway 66”. This trip will also celebratie the 60th anniversary of that epic drive. .
The Austin Seven is a 750cc car with a 75 inch wheelbase, introduced in 1922 as a small car for the masses. It was known from the start as the ‘Baby Austin’. Herbert Austin was a friend of Henry Ford, and he has admitted using many of Ford’s mass production methods with the Seven. A portrait of Ford features in Herbert Austin’s preserved office at the factory in Longbridge, Birmingham - or was until the collapse of the company a year ago. Originally the car was only available as an open 4 seater (2 adults and two Children) but soon had sports and saloon versions available. Over 390,000 units were produced in the UK with several thousands under licence in France, as the Rosengart, Germany as the Dixi (later taken over by BMW to become their first Automobile) and as already mentioned as the American Austin and later Bantam. Also before Bill Lyons’ company produced a Jaguar, he made very attractive open and closed cars on the Austin Seven Chassis. The late Colin Chapman raced an Austin 7 special with the 750 Motor Club before he started producing Lotus sports and racing cars.
It is hoped to drive about 150 to 180 miles per day with a couple of free days and side trips to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. We should arrive in Santa Monica on the 23rd of September.
In planning this trip, we have already had an enormous amount of support and offers of assistance from US enthusiasts including the above clubs, Route 66 guru, Robert Paige and several newspapers.
We are all very much looking forward to the trip, seeing so much of US history of the same period of our cars, and seeing many of the sights and meeting of the people that we have read about on seen on the Rote 66 films.
