Austin Seven Fabric Bodied Saloon

About the Austin Seven Fabric Bodied Saloon

The Austin 7 was an economy car produced from 1922 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by the Austin Motor Company. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin", it was one of the most popular cars ever produced for the British market, and sold well abroad. It wiped out most other British small cars and cyclecars of the early 1920s;[1] its effect on the British market was similar to that of the Model T Ford in the USA. It was also licensed and copied by companies all over the world.
The first Austin 7s were open topped, but the low budgetcar owners in the 1920s were beginning to want fully enclosed motor cars. Clearly, the Austin 7 was a low powered motor car and so a fabric covered saloon car that is generally lighter than a metal bodied car was planned and built through a contract with Gordon England in early 1926. Austin followed with the first factory built aluminium saloon and fabric saloon in May 1926.
Consumer requirements were changing to a degree that Austin tourers only just outnumbered saloons in 1928, with fabric saloon production more than double that aluminium saloon production.

In 1929 the fabric production proportion increased to the stage where saloon production was over double that of tourers.1930 saw saloon production quadruple that of tourers, yet the metal cars now accounted for double the sales of the ‘fabric bodies.

The factory ID of the fabric bodied saloons was RF.