First introduced in 1922, the diminutive Austin 7 quickly became Britain’s first true ‘peoples car’, going on to become something of an institution, this technically conventional yet utterly revolutionary tiny car effectively wiping out the briefly popular cycle cars of the era (just is its spiritual Austin 7 successor – the Mini – did in 1959, causing the thankful demise of the contemporary and mostly grim and inadequate microcars).
The simple side-valve straight-four 747cc Austin 7 soon out-sold the earlier Morris (Bullnose) Oxford as Britain’s most successful car, with almost 300,000 examples built in Longbridge alone between 1922 and ’39 in more than 35 differing ‘factory’ body varieties, all pre-dating Britain’s beloved Morris Minor and BMC/BL Mini by decades.
The Seven also served as the foundation of a couple of today’s motoring giants – BMW and Nissan – via the first Dixi and Datsun models, built locally under licence (at least in the case of the former!), along with other global Seven derivatives produced under agreement by Bantam in the USA (the originators of the World War II Jeep) and Rosengart in France.
In addition, other now established and revered car makers past and present, such as Jaguar (via Swallow Sidecars/SS) and Jensen, owe their very existence to the little Austin by offering fetching coachbuilt ‘alternative’ sporting and luxury derivatives of the model in the 1920s and ’30s.