Austin Seven beach racer - Camber Sands August 1947

[zenrat]

When my Grandfather Lance Corporal Fred got home to South London after being demobbed in 1945 he found he had inherited his Godfather's Austin Seven.  Not exactly thrilled by the performance delivered by a 750cc sidevalve engine he managed to obtain a model A Ford engine which he souped up by installing an inlet over exhaust cylinder head conversion and a set of straight through pipes.
The Ford engine was considerably larger than the original Austin donk which combined with the tapered design of the front of the chassis meant most of it ended up inside the car taking up the space where Fred's feet had been.  He dealt with this by moving the seat to the middle of the car and sitting with a foot on either side of the bellhousing (He didn't think he needed a firewall - it would only add weight).  While he was rearranging the accommodation Fred also installed a war surplus fuel tank next to his seat where it was conveniently within reach so he could pressurise it with a hand pump fitted directly to the tank.
Fred also installed a Ford rear end after the original lasted exactly 20 seconds into his first midnight test run along Sidcup Highstreet.
The pictures are the only ones I have and were taken at Camber Sands in August 1947.







This is a Revell (ex-Heller) BMW Dixi with a Revell Ford banger.  Rear axle is from my parts box, velocity stacks are electrical ferrules and wheels are Tamiya VW Beetle (and thus strictly are too modern but they look the part).



I started building this thinking it could be part of the 2014 Group Build.  I had some vague plan about resources not used fighting wars and expanding borders meaning Germany's motor industry led the world and a Hot Rod culture developed with illegal street races on semi completed Autobahns.
However, do you know how hard it is to find a 1930's German engine in 1/25?
So it became an Austin Seven beach racer.

[Hobbes]

Cool! 

[NARSES2]

Oh I like that 

I also have fond memories of Camber Sands, not beach racing but at least a little racy......at least for 1970 

[Weaver]

Nice one! I'd never even heard of the Dixi!

My grandparents had an Austin 7 in the 1930s.

[McColm]

Does look good.

[Go4fun]

Oh that does look like a real hot rod and like all the early American hot rods they were built with whatever was at hand or cheap. I really need to find an older model kit or two and try something like this.

[Paul]

Very cool! 

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.