Austin Seven Grasshopper
Page created : 9 March 2008 Home > Cars > Austin Seven Grasshopper
A nicely rebuilt example of the type, although without the original doors.
Photograph by courtesy of John Sutton of Motor Marques
A brief history of the Austin Seven Grasshopper - by Nigel Brown
The Austin Factory, having decided to enter a new car in competitions, announced to the Motoring Press that for the MCC Lands End Trial of Easter 1935 they would be entering a 3 car team of “Special Austin Sevens”. They were to be based on the production Austin Seven Speedy but had completely new bodies that were very much in the style of contemporary MG and Singer sports cars. A large rear mounted slab petrol tank of ten gallons capacity (fitted of course with a big lever-action filler cap) had provision for two spare wheels to be mounted behind it. Frontal appearance was very distinctive because instead of using the standard flat Austin radiator as used on Speedy, Chummy, Ulster, etc. – they chose to use a more rounded, chromed, cowling from the then-current 10HP Sports model. Full depth doors were fitted to the early cars as were full size wings rather than ‘cycle type’ lightweight ones.
A fold-flat windscreen was used and a fully instrumented panel contained: a large rev-counter (reading up to 8,000 rpm as the engines were claimed to reach 7,000 rpm), matching large speedometer (optimistically marked up to 120mph), oil pressure, water temperature, ammeter and clock. The Speedy engine was, like the Ulster, fitted with full pressure lubrication as opposed to the ‘spit and hope’ system used for the big-ends of the ordinary mass produced Seven. But it was still only a two main bearing crankshaft which placed limitations on reliability when tuned.
These first three trials cars were AOX 3, AOX 4, and AOV 343 and were to be driven on the Lands End by Milton, Richardson and Orford. Immediately after building these three ‘high-chassis’ cars, the factory then built four low-chassis cycle-winged cars for the 1935 Le Mans race, sequentially registered as BOA 57, 58, 59 and 60. After the race the factory converted these cars for trials use. In the quest for more power from the 748cc engine, one Grasshopper was entered in the 1936 Colmore Trial fitted with a belt-driven Centric supercharger blowing at 6psi. Thereafter all the trials cars were fitted with superchargers.
Four more cars were built for the 1936 Le Mans race with slightly lighter doorless bodywork. But a bigger change was the use of a well developed three bearing engine running on carburettors. Again sequentially registered, these cars were: COA 118, 119, 120 and 121. The ’36 Le Mans was in fact cancelled, so just three of these cars were entered in the ’37 Le Mans and the 12 Hour race at Donington. The factory once again then converted these racers to trials specification with Centric superchargers and significantly raised suspension. One more car appeared in Northern Ireland and is believed to have been built up from spares.
C.A.N. May’s classic “Wheelspin” contains many references to the trials exploits of these cars when driven by Dennis Buckley, Charles Goodacre, Bert Hadley and others. It is believed that seven of the twelve cars built still exist.
Grasshopper Links
- Barry Lovelock's Austin Seven Site particularly the:
- Grasshoppers page.
- Motorsnippets particularly the:
- Austin 7 Grasshopper page.
- Pre War Austin Seven Club particulary the:
- Bert Hadley Memorial Championship page.