Following on from the inclusion in the last issue of Nottinghamshire Mason, of W.Bro. Peter Kings Peugeot, I have received the following from Chris.

"Dear Peter, I thought I might share some observations from the slower end of the spectrum.

As you will see I sprint and hillclimb a 1925 Austin Seven Brooklands, which I built from a collection of 1925 bits and a 1960;s body frame, which I had to clad with alloy to achieve the result you see . A good friend of mine Andy Hastings of Woodthorpe , who restores vintage cars, helped and guided me in the build.

The car is built to 1925 spec. and includes such goodies as 6 inch diameter cable operated brakes, a "crash" 3 speed gearbox, wire wheels , aero screens (no hood ) 3.50 x 19 inch tyres, a bit fatter than those on your mountain bike, and about 30 bhp from its 750 cc engine, mind you that is about twice what it had when it left Longbridge in 1925.

The build took from August of 2002 and the first competitive outing was in september of 2003, during 2004 and 2005 my wife Christine shared the car at meetings and achieved some very good results till she rolled it in October of 2005 depriving me of my runs that day, she was only bruised but the car took about 6 months to repair but was out in time for me to figure in the results of The Bert Hadley Memorial Championship later in 2006, Christine having recieved the Per- War Austin Seven Clubs Nil Despirandum Award For her roll.

We have both had some class wins and more challenging, Handicap prizes for beating by a certain margin, the handicap figure based on the car/driver combination at previous meetings, this is usually set 2 or 3 seconds less than your best figure and once beaten the handicappers ensure you will never ever get close again.

If anyone is interested they can find information on the web sites of The Pre-War Austin Seven Club, or that of the Vintage Sports Car Club. yours S&F.

Chris Smith . P.Pr. G.Supt. Wks. Radcliffe Lodge 5313 Almoner.

N.B. Picture taken this last weekend in a down pour at Loton Park Hillclimb in Shropshire , came home with a class win and damp undies. "

I thank Chris for his submission, which I have included in its entirity and should anyone be interested in this or other activities mentioned, please don't hestitate to contact him. Please keep the contributions rolling in - any hobbies/pursuits are most welcome.

Finally, I thank Chris's wife for her support and bravery in his pursuits..