You’ve come a long way, baby

Lap of honour

With the Austin Seven, affectionately known as the “Baby Austin”, set to be honoured at this year’s Revival, we trace the influential legacy of this economy classic

Words by Peter Hall

When motoring moptop James May introduced his 2014 TV series Cars of the People, he sidestepped the Ford Model T and focused instead on the Volkswagen Beetle, a car designed to do exactly what it said on the tin. It’s true that more than 21 million Beetles were built over 65 years, yet the Model T sold faster, finding 15 million buyers in the space of just 19 years (1908-27).

However, statistics are only one measure of success. One might also ask, firstly, whether a “people’s car” fulfils its brief and, secondly, how influential it is – and here the Model T had a worthy rival in Britain’s own Austin Seven.

Austin’s Longbridge factory had expanded to produce military hardware during the First World War, and postwar sales of its conventional 20hp car were insufficient to keep the business afloat. Company founder Herbert Austin saw a demand for more affordable vehicles, particularly after the introduction of the 1921 Road Tax – calculated at £1 per horsepower – but faced opposition from his directors. Undeterred, he took the idea home and hired 18-year-old designer Stanley Edge to draw up plans in his billiard room.

As it turned out, their new baby was smaller than the billiard table. With a simple A-frame chassis, a wheelbase of just 75 inches (1,905mm) and a track of 40in (1,016mm), it was 25in shorter and 16in narrower than Ford’s Model T, and weighed less than half as much, requiring only a tiny 696cc engine producing 7.2hp – although this was soon increased to 747cc and 10.5hp.

Named for its initial horsepower rating, the Seven was produced from 1923 until 1939, and with prices as low as £100 (less than £5,000 in today’s money), it proved hugely popular. Available in a variety of body styles, some 290,000 examples of the “Baby Austin” were sold in Britain alone, almost wiping out the cyclecar industry that had hitherto catered for cost-conscious motorists.

The little Austin’s influence extended even further, and not merely as the first mass-produced car with a modern pedal layout. In Germany, the inaugural BMW car, the 1928 Dixi, was a Seven built under licence; in Japan, Datsun (Nissan) used the Seven’s design as the basis for its Type 11 in 1932, while American Bantam derivatives of the Seven informed the design of the Second World War Jeep. At home, Sevens rebodied by the Swallow Sidecar Company of Blackpool sold so well that the firm took on bigger premises in Coventry, re-emerging in 1945 as Jaguar Cars.

The Baby Austin also made an immediate impact in motor racing, prompting the introduction of two sporting models, and for decades after the Second World War Sevens were used as the basis for home-built “specials”, notably the first-ever Lotus of 1948 and the first car raced in 1952 by a teenage Bruce McLaren. Reliant Motor Company had acquired the tooling for the 747cc engine in 1938 and developed it until 1962, while engineers such as Jem Marsh of Speedex (and later Marcos) sold tuning parts and sports bodies. The 750 Motor Club, founded by Austin enthusiasts in 1939, still thrives today, running the sports-prototype 750 Formula Championship (the world’s oldest race series) alongside other low-cost categories including historic Austin/Reliant-engined cars.

Indeed, the Seven was so well loved that its name was invoked twice more, most notably on another miniature marvel, the 1959 Mini, which likewise emerged from the Longbridge factory, blew away the bubble-car industry and became a familiar sight on road and track. But that’s another story… The Austin Seven will be celebrated at this year’s Goodwood Revival, September 16-18.