Our Austin 7 Ruby has had its first outing! Me and Richard took the Austin from the archive to the Gawsworth Classic Car Show on May Day bank holiday Monday, where it had pride of place on display with the MHVC cars. We were very apprehensive about taking it out – people had told us the brakes would be awful, the acceleration feeble, and so on. Well, yes they were, but it was still truly a joy to drive.

We were also delighted at the interest the car generated at the show. People made a bee-line for the Austin, and we heard lots of stories like, ‘My grandfather had one of those’, ‘I remember I was taken to school in one of those’, and so on. It is a car that draws people in, and cheers them up. We displayed our magnetic Archive display boards on the car and that got some people talking too.

The car behaved perfectly too. It started easily, and we soon adapted to the slow and crunchy gearchange and the lethargic brakes. It’s not that these are bad – it’s just that modern cars are now so good that to drive a modern is like being a pilot rather than a driver.

Richard drove the car there and learnt to leave lots of space between us and the car in front, and to anticipate more keenly. When he was driving, I was grinning like an idiot! It was my turn to drive it back, and I quickly found the clutch was of the ‘either in or out’ variety, and that nothing can be rushed.

We were gifted the Austin on the understanding that it would be used and not kept in a dusty archive. We are more than happy to honour this, and very much look forward to the next trip.