Portway News April 2024
Daffodil Run April 14th
This year the run will not end in Christchurch by the harbour as it has in the past. Due to increasing costs and falling entry numbers that is no longer viable. It will follow the normal format with coffee stop at Stockbridge and lunch at The Alice Lyle. Entrants will then turn back and finish at Kings Somborne village hall. There is a link on our Future Events page if you wish to enter or just pop down to Stockbridge to join them for coffee.
Drive It Day April 21st.
This will be a great opportunity to get out in the Austins and support Childline. If you wish to buy a plaque to adorn the front of your Austin you can do so Here. No doubt we all have our favorite events to take part in. If you take any nice photographs please let me have them for the web site. As there is no Portway event organized this year I will be joining the NHAEG on their run and lunch.
​
National Austin 7 Rally Beaulieu 30th June.
The entry form is now available and there is a link on our Events page. Any Austin model can enter.
​
Monthly Meeting at The Base.
We had a very good meeting in March with lots of lively chatter. In fact the chatter was so lively Bob decided to delay his quiz until April. It seemed a shame to intrude on the chatter. It was great to have Pete Flitter pay a visit while he was in the area. Some will remember him from the early days of North Hants in the 1970s.
​
Event Reports.
Please send me any photographs you have taken at events for the Past Events page. I will not be at all events so days like Popham can only be included if photographs are sent to me. Preferably with a few notes on how the day went.
​
What is going on in your garage?
This hopefully will be the start of a series of interesting blogs to keep us up to date with other member’s garage activities. Please send in anything you think others would be interested in hearing about however minor.
As there has been nothing reported to me this month I guess we all have our Austins still tucked away under dust sheets. Hopefully the sun will shine soon and we can switch from our indoor hobbies to the garage.
I will kick things off with a recent SU carb installation I carried out last autumn on my Chummy. The following is an extract from the January Portway report in the A7OC magazine.
My latest venture was to fit an SU carb when the zenith 22fz played up. Here I went with what looks like a weird but effective solution. I did not want to fit a later manifold to which you can easily attach an SU for two reasons. 1/ The two end manifold studs would need to be changed for longer ones and if you remove two studs you can be sure at least one will shear off flush with the block. 2/ With the carb so high and fed from a gravity tank an electric pump would probably be required. I could not do that as it would not be original!!!! The solution I found was to make up a flanged elbow to fit to the bottom of the inlet manifold in place of the zenith. This puts the SU at a similar level but I must admit it does look strange. It seems to be working well but is subject to a good road test when the roads are clear of salt. Not one for the purist but then my Chummy is actually supposed to be a Mulliner Fabric Saloon. Hopefully the SU will be less prone to jet blockages and will perform better than the FZ22.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
That’ all folks. Please send me anything you think others would like to know for next month.
Gordon
