Tales from the Archive: our Austin 7 Ruby back on the road!

Tales from the Archive: our Austin 7 Ruby back on the road!

Last year the Richard Roberts Archive trust was gifted a lovely little Austin 7 Ruby, a 1937 model. We were delighted when our volunteer Paul – the car came from the estate of his late brother – drove it here from Staffordshire and formally handed over the keys. We got thinking and realised it would be a good idea to use the car to promote ourselves, so had some magnetic signs made to put on the doors. When we took it out on a few local trips last year, we stuck these on when we parked up. 

Our biggest trip out last year was to the Gawsworth Classic Car Show, where we had pride of place on the stand of the Manchester Historic Vehicle Club (see The first outing of our Austin 7 Ruby — The Richard Roberts Archive). We didn’t make many trips though, before the engine started making alarming noises and we were lucky to get it back to the archive before it packed in altogether. (For the technically minded, it was the failure of the centre main bearing, a common fault with our particular model.) As we stripped down the engine we found more parts that needed attention, and in the end the car was off the road for a year.

But we’re now pleased to report that, with the help of our volunteer John French and local Austin specialist David Mann, we finally have the engine back in and have recently taken it for its first drive out! It’s great to be back on the road – pedestrians wave and fellow drivers engage us in conversation at traffic lights. And the engine sounds lovely – special thanks to Dave Gregson here. Paul ensured it was washed and waxed too – it had got rather dusty sitting in the archive for all that time.

Driving a 90-year-old car takes some getting used to. The clutch is brutal (either in or out, nothing inbetween), and the brakes are scary, especially if you’re used to a modern. It has little semaphore indicators that pop up, so using hand signals as well is advisable! Plus, the headlights are rather feeble, to say the least. But this is what gives it so much charm – if you have to have air con and power steering, this car is not for you…

We can always use help, specialist or not, to keep the Ruby on the road. We also have a 1950s motorcycle, a BSA Bantam, in bits which needs reassembling. If you’d like to help, get in touch on volunteering@richardrobertsarchive.org.uk