My father's 1928 Austin 7

The legacy my late father left behind from his ownership of a 1928 Austin 7, registration No. B 2405, is a silver cup presented by Borneo Motors Ltd on 21st July 1952 and some pictures which I have yet to find, among my increasing pile of papers and documents.

I can still remember back in the ‘60s when I used to see an Indian man admiring our neglected car. One day, he managed to convince my father, for Rm500, to sell to him with his promise to him of a pre-emption right to buy back later, that is, only if he were to sell!

Out of the blue, we received in the post, pictures of the car in various stages of restoration and his descriptions on the back of those pictures.

Fond memories include once, my eldest brother showed us how he could accelerate without touching the pedal. Actually, there was a lever on the steering wheel which acted as accelerator too! Sometimes, he needed to use a crank to start the engine. He also liked to switch off the engine to run on its own momentum to save fuel! Those were the days.

Fast forward 20 years, in the early ‘80s, I got to know one of our tenants, Mari, a keen collector and restorer of vintage cars. He happened to know Mr. Peters and his Austin 7. A mutual friend, David, later told me that his son is the famous guitarist, Alex Peters! It was another 20 years later that I got to listen to Alex’s demo at Bentley in Jalan Bukit Bintang. Pity, we did not stay until he finished and I did not have a chance to talk about it.

Keen collectors can be crafty too, maybe because of their obsession. Somehow, after Peters’ demise, Mari managed to exchange a newer vintage car for the Austin 7. Alex is probably more into Fenders and Hofners than Austin 7 or Morris 8. Mari’s workshop was just below and next to our office and I got to see him working on restoring the car.

A car scrapyard dealer used to complain that Mari cheated him of a registration card which he later used for one of his vintage cars!

Anyway, back to our Austin 7. One day, I was surprised to see on television, the car on display at the old Subang Airport where there was a Motor show!

At the moment, I have no idea where the car is, as Mari has passed on few years ago, nor who owns it.

For sentimental reasons, I am hanging on to the cup and some old photos. Even with pre-emption right then, I could not afford to buy back the car as I reckoned it was worth at least Rm100,000!