Do you know this well-travelled Seven?
In the 1970s, an expat serving with the Hong Kong police used a 1932 black-and-blue Austin Seven AG tourer, registered locally as AP 9057. When he was due to return home he sold it to American Gerald Stockton, who in 1972 took the car back to the USA with him. It is thought that he painted the car yellow and black and registered it ‘CHITTY’. In 1982 he sold it to friend Theodore Hopkins in Cleveland, Ohio, who later gave the car as payment for a roofing job done by a Mr Harrah, who used it for a while then laid it up. More than 30 years later, his widow has now sold the car to David Harrison.
The car has many modifications, such as a later engine with Nippy cylinder head and manifolds, Morris Minor hydraulic brakes, 16in wheels, and a four-speed gearbox with Hardy-spicer propshaft; these tweaks were quite common in the 1950s and ’60s. It is not known when it was exported to Hong Kong, or what its British registration was. “The paintwork is indescribable,” said Harrison. “It’s more than 4mm thick in places, and there are rodent nests in the back, where their uric acid has eaten away sizeable chunks of the rear floor.”
If you recognise the car, email harrisonsbearley@gmail.com