They did sell all sorts of attachments and tools to go with surplus Jeeps in the US post war. No reason the British couldn't do that with the Seven.
The Austin 7 Utility.
- Thread starter Peg Leg Pom
- Start date
That is exactly what Rover did for the Land Rover series one.
you could tow a plough, power a circular saw and many other attachments.
you could tow a plough, power a circular saw and many other attachments.
Basically everything you need when you change from using a plough horse to motorised machinery on your 50 acre farm. (Of which there are a lot in the late 40's) After a weeks work, you bolt on the fiberglass hardtop, flip up the collapsible rear seats and take the family into town for shopping and a night at the pictures.
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marathag
Banned
The Farmall F-20 of the 1930s was 28HP@1200rpm, roughly half of that for rated drawbar pull. It weighed over 4400 pounds
They ran around $900(Dollar to Pound was roughly 4 to 1, call it 225 Pounds), and could pull a two bottom plow or 8 foot disc
Lighter vehicle with smaller wheels will have a harder time, of course.
How IH got that ground clearance and larger wheels, Portal Axle gearboxes with a heavy duty center axle. Rear rims could be had from 24" to 40" depending what you were doing. Same for widths, you could get narrow axles,wide axles, and wheels had offsets so you could fine adjust your track width by reversing the rims to match the row width you needed for different crops. Farmall above had an 85" wheelbase and 80" to 96" track depending on axle and wheel setup
Guys back in the day used those small Farmalls on 400 acres spreads at times. But you would be spending a lot of hours on a small tractor doing that. Most would go with bigger machines to save time
So smaller, typical European Farms would find the Austin UV an inexpensive Tractor replacement , that would be very useful, especially if dual use for road vehicle when not in the field
This is the best chance for a Seven to live on, Farm Utility Vehicle, given my ideas for making it more heavy duty, and bit more Eight sized
for Farming
They ran around $900(Dollar to Pound was roughly 4 to 1, call it 225 Pounds), and could pull a two bottom plow or 8 foot disc
Lighter vehicle with smaller wheels will have a harder time, of course.
How IH got that ground clearance and larger wheels, Portal Axle gearboxes with a heavy duty center axle. Rear rims could be had from 24" to 40" depending what you were doing. Same for widths, you could get narrow axles,wide axles, and wheels had offsets so you could fine adjust your track width by reversing the rims to match the row width you needed for different crops. Farmall above had an 85" wheelbase and 80" to 96" track depending on axle and wheel setup
Guys back in the day used those small Farmalls on 400 acres spreads at times. But you would be spending a lot of hours on a small tractor doing that. Most would go with bigger machines to save time
So smaller, typical European Farms would find the Austin UV an inexpensive Tractor replacement , that would be very useful, especially if dual use for road vehicle when not in the field
This is the best chance for a Seven to live on, Farm Utility Vehicle, given my ideas for making it more heavy duty, and bit more Eight sized
for Farming
Nick P
Donor
A outside runner here: Bring back the Dixi DA1, aka the German Austin 7.
After WW2 BMW were reduced to making pots, pans and motorbikes. As a means of getting Germany restarted the authorities give BMW license to build small work vehicles and practical motors. So they go back to their roots and re-invent the Austin 7 which they originally built in 1928 under the Dixi/EMW badge.
After WW2 BMW were reduced to making pots, pans and motorbikes. As a means of getting Germany restarted the authorities give BMW license to build small work vehicles and practical motors. So they go back to their roots and re-invent the Austin 7 which they originally built in 1928 under the Dixi/EMW badge.
I think a more likely company to restart production of their version of the Seven would be Nissan. This time though they'd have to pay Austin for the privilege.
IIRC the BMW 3/20 engine was built from the same tooling used to develop the BMW 3/15 aka Dixi / German Austin 7 and the 1182cc M78 Straight-Six engine initially used the same bore and stroke as the 3/20 engine. Fwiw it was said to be this design that Alec Issigonis drew inspiration from when later developing the belt-driven OHC 4/6-cylinder engine for the 9X project, whose construction was said to be identical to the 7 engine.
Intrigued by the idea of Austin in ATL taking a similar path as BMW, Datsun and American Austin / Bantam in building a new redesigned OHV engine on renewed Seven tooling for a proper pre-war Seven successor (in the manner of a pre-war ATL Austin version of the OTL post-war 1947-1950 Datsun DA and 1950-1954 Datsun DS Series) instead of going with the Big Seven and Eight (though would retain the Eight and have the ATL new pre-war Seven resemble a smaller Eight).
Would have the new ATL pre-war OHV unit feature a latent ability to be bored and stroked up to say 63-66mm and 80mm (or a square 68mm bore and stroke yet in practice remaining at 750cc at most), with a Colin Chapman inspired de-siamised four-inlet port head* as was reputedly been used in the OTL Lotus Mark III and said to be planned for the Lotus Mark V prototype (it has also been said that an eight-port version was developed). Resulting in a pre-war Austin engine design with a similar level of potential production longevity as the post-war Renault Billancourt and Fiat 100 series engines.
Worth mentioning OTL Reliant used a derivative of the Austin Seven engine for their early three-wheelers before it was replaced by a different all-alloy OHV engine in the 1962 Reliant Regal.
*- More on the de-siamised port story here - http://www.lotus7register.co.uk/lss2.htm
Intrigued by the idea of Austin in ATL taking a similar path as BMW, Datsun and American Austin / Bantam in building a new redesigned OHV engine on renewed Seven tooling for a proper pre-war Seven successor (in the manner of a pre-war ATL Austin version of the OTL post-war 1947-1950 Datsun DA and 1950-1954 Datsun DS Series) instead of going with the Big Seven and Eight (though would retain the Eight and have the ATL new pre-war Seven resemble a smaller Eight).
Would have the new ATL pre-war OHV unit feature a latent ability to be bored and stroked up to say 63-66mm and 80mm (or a square 68mm bore and stroke yet in practice remaining at 750cc at most), with a Colin Chapman inspired de-siamised four-inlet port head* as was reputedly been used in the OTL Lotus Mark III and said to be planned for the Lotus Mark V prototype (it has also been said that an eight-port version was developed). Resulting in a pre-war Austin engine design with a similar level of potential production longevity as the post-war Renault Billancourt and Fiat 100 series engines.
Worth mentioning OTL Reliant used a derivative of the Austin Seven engine for their early three-wheelers before it was replaced by a different all-alloy OHV engine in the 1962 Reliant Regal.
*- More on the de-siamised port story here - http://www.lotus7register.co.uk/lss2.htm
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Yes, but that was what the Land Rover and the Austin Champ were designed to do. Any agricultural utility version would also have to compete with the Ferguson TE20 tractor.
There was indeed a 'hot rod' culture based on the Seven in the 1950's, when petrol rationing was finally lifted. I don't think there was much demand till then. Anyone who could afford to buy new was looking for something bigger.
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An Austin Seven based utility should be chasing the sidecar market rather than a Landrover one. Back then commercial sidecars were not uncommon. Lightweight, simple, reliable and easy to work on. A light van/pickup with a folding/removable rear seat. A comparison might be to the Citroen 2CV.
marathag
Banned
Subject to Lend Lease, so most were not retained with War's end, so wouldn't need to be paid for.
But they gave people an idea what a small 1/4 Utility vehicle could do, and Land Rover filled that.
Austin has a very short window to capitalize on that before Rover releases the Series I
Plus of course the Jeep was designed by Bantam, which was American Austin, who made the Austin Seven under licence.
An earlier POD where Austin was more involved and expanded its US presence a bit more in ATL would have allowed it to benefit from the development and wartime production of the Jeep, where it’s version instead utilises the 4-cylinder Austin D-Series engines - basically an earlier pre-war version of what later appeared in the post-war Austin 16 hp.
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It's the middle of winter and you have to use this to get your work done.
An Austin Seven light van looks really attractive, especially as there's a force 8 gale blowing and it's starting to sleet.