Vintage Austin Sevens to Travel
Old Route 66 Through New Mexico

This September 2006, five vintage Austin Sevens from Britain - all members of the 750 Motor Club, founded in 1939 mainly for such cars - plan to pass through New Mexico as they travel Old Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.

They will commence their epic journey tentatively on September 3, 2006, and plan to stop in Tucumcari on the night of September 10^th, in Santa Fe on September 11-12^th, Grants on the 13^th and reach Santa Monica, California, by the 23^rd, if all goes well.

The driver of the support vehicle and her daughter, who is co-driving one of the Austins, are making the journey in memory of their late husband and father, who had hoped to travel Route 66.

"All the cars and crews have traveled extensively in Europe in their Sevens and four of them completed a 3,500-mile journey from Buenos Aires, across the Andes to Santiago, Chile, and back in February 2005," said Ken Cooke, an organizer of the event along with Vince Leek. "The cars date from 1929 to 1938 and are the type of car on which the 'American Austin' and 'Bantam' cars were based."

Cooke said Jack Rittenhouse did the same Route 66 trip in a Bantam in 1946 and wrote about it in his book, "A Guide Book to Highway 66", which is another inspiration for the return trip 60 years later.

The cars arrive in New York by sea and the crews by air on August 23. Five days later they leave for Chicago for the start of what "we anticipate will be a fascinating journey," Cooke said. The cars and their drivers will return to the United Kingdom at the end of September.

The participants include Richard and Marlies Bishop from Exeter, Devon in a 1938 sports; Ken and Eileen Cooke from Hertfordshire in a 1930 four-seat tourer (roadster); Vince Leek from Warminster and Diana Garside from North Carolina in a 1929 tourer; George and Joy Mooney from Bournemouth in a 1934 Cambridge special; Stan Price from Carlisle in a 1932 'box' saloon (sedan); and Veronica Garside from Swindon Wilts and Wendy Hider from Epsom in the support car.

For more information contact:
Ken Cooke, ken.cooke@ntlworld.com, or
Vince Leek, leek@austin7engineering.freeserve.co.uk

Mike Stauffer,
Communications Director, New Mexico Tourism Department
505-827-7379, mike.stauffer@state.nm.us

Sarah Robarts
sarah@ballantinespr.com
310-454-3080 Tel.
310 570 7355 Cell

http://www.ballantinespr.com