PETER NAULLS’ AUSTIN 7 RUBY REGISTERED DAF 157 – 8 MARCH 1937
Peter’s family have owned the Ruby since 1954, twelve years before he was born. ‘My mother, Rene, bought it from a couple who hadn’t had it long. Apparently they were too big to fit in it comfortably. This didn’t deter my mother, who was pregnant with my brother, John. My father was horrified because they went everywhere by bike. Yet fourteen years later, replacing it with a Morris Traveller, my father couldn’t part with it; instead extending the garage where the Ruby then sat unused for eight years. This was in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The earliest photo we have is of my brother, John, standing on the seat holding the steering wheel.
‘We have little information on the previous owners and no photos. As a child I remember summer holiday entertainment was to wash the old car and play in it, then we pushed it back in the garage. It was used as a store and also to hide Christmas presents in.’ In summer 1974, elder brother John’s curiosity overcame him. ‘My sister and I helped John push the Ruby outside, then he got some fresh petrol and to everyone’s amazement it started. A year or so later the Ruby passed its MOT test and my mother started using it again.
‘We’d got into the habit of storing things on or in the car and one day my mother drove off with a bucket of King Edward potatoes hanging off the front bumper. To keep the Ruby going we needed advice so we joined the owners’ club and attended the North Herts Rally in 1976.’ By 1979 the Ruby needed a full restoration. ‘Aided by new-found friends from the 750 Motor Club the repairs began. The floor, rear valance, sills, wheelarches and three wings needed replacing. Accident damage had been masked with filler and newspaper. I did most of the donkey work and paint because by then I was a capable teenager; that little car lead me into a new hobby and an enduring passion for cars.’
Peter celebrated the restoration completion in 1984 by passing his test in the Ruby. ‘A couple of years later I left home and bought my own Seven.’ In the interim years Peter’s parents used the Ruby sparingly but when Rene died and Reg could no longer drive, Peter took over. ‘It was almost 60 years to the day of its purchase that in November 2014 I transported it to my home in Inverness. It needed a full mechanical rebuild. Since then I often use it for my 36-mile commute. My wife drives it and my daughter wants to when she’s old enough. It’s part of the family.’