The motor for the million

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Everyone by now is aware that 2022 marks the Austin Seven’s centenary. You may not find this exciting if you think there’s not much more to Seven ownership than pub lunch runs in a box saloon, but you’ll be surprised. So versatile was the baby Austin that owners and drivers enjoyed all manner of exploits, from racing successes to John Coleman’s famous drive from Buenos Aires to New York in a 1925 Chummy.

Austin Seven

The example you see here is one of the most fascinating of them all, despite a relatively gentle life. Dating from 1923, its claim to fame is that it’s the oldest surviving unrestored Austin Seven. Bought new by a Mr and Mrs Bracey of suburban Hertfordshire, its survival in almost totally original condition is due to Stan Snoxall, who saved it from the scrap man after it had languished at the back of Mrs Bracey’s garage for more than 20 years, following her husband’s death.

It was 1950 when Snoxall, an enthusiast for early cars since his teenage years in the 1920s, rescued chassis 2026. At a time when most people would have been happy to thrash it to death on a grass track, he recognised the importance of preserving it for the future.

Zack Stiling considers 2026’s rôle in the social history of the motor car in Britain and the beginnings of the historic-vehicle preservation movement in the August issue of The Automobile, on sale now.

Words by Zack Stiling. Photographs by Reverendpixel.

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