Photo credits: Gordon England, Beaulieu 1970 – Tom Abernethy
Leaving an early and successful career in aviation, Eric Gordon England joined with his father George in 1922 and became interested in building Austin Seven sports cars. He gained special permission from Sir Herbert to campaign the (then) new Seven as a serious racing car utilising his own special engineering modifications.
Using skills gained with aircraft, he designed and patented new lightweight bodies made from plywood box-girders and an ash framework covered with thin plywood or aluminum panels.
He was very successful and maintained a close working relationship with Austin producing over 20,000 sports, two seater, saloon and van bodies on Austin Seven Chassis under licence until 1930 when his coach building firm closed.
This interview was conducted by Dr Kenneth Richardson of Lanchester Polytechnic (which later became Coventry University) during research for his books ’20th Century Coventry’ and ’The ‘British Motor Industry 1896-1939 – a social & economic history’.
More information about Gordon England bodied Austin Sevens can be found at: https://gordonenglandregister.wordpress.com
Early aviator and racing driver
This interview from the Richardson collection held at Coventry University (Ref. No. RIC/97, © Coventry University) is licensed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDe
Eric C. Gordon-England – Brooklands, Seagrave, “Sammy Davis”
This interview from the Richardson collection held at Coventry University (Ref. No. RIC/98, © Coventry University) is licensed under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDe
