Vintage Thing No.18 - The Salamanda Special

Of all the four wheeled contrivances at Wiscombe earlier this month the Salamanda Special was the one I wanted to take home the most. It was cute enough to wear as a badge.


It looked as if it might have been piloted by a glamorous aviatrix, like the Wind Flower from Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet.

The Salamanda Special is a recently built Austin 7 special but it looks like no other. The overall style, craftsmanship and attention to detail are what made it stand out. The more I looked at it in the paddock at Wiscombe Park at this month's recent VSCC meeting, the more I noticed to admire.

The rear bodywork is beautifully made out of laminated strips of birch wood ply. A wide leather strip running down from the filler cap prevents fuel spills from staining the woodwork or affecting the varnish. Inside, the aluminium bracing hints at airship construction.

The headlamps are authentic Marchal items and contribute to the Salamanda Special's frontal expression. I particularly liked the wire bracing for the mudgaurds, just like a string bag biplane.

Another wonderful feature was the fly screen, made not of modern perspex but out of mesh. The cockpit is so snug, to get in and out, you have to remove the steering wheel. The shut lines and hinges on the bonnet tell their own tale.

Whoever built this car obviously really enjoyed making it.

Having seen the Salamanda Special perform on the hill, Pete Low and I had a second look back in the paddock and there we met its driver, Amanda Fane de Salis. It seems my initial impressions of the driver were not far off the mark. Amanda told us that the Salamanda Special had been built for her by Oliver Way. From his name I imagined Oliver Way to be some time served artisan called out of retirement to achieve great things around some vintage motor car components but I subsequently discovered that Oliver Way is a recent graduate from my old Industrial Design course in Coventry. Instead of designing new stuff he's designing old stuff and realising his designs as finished cars. This hardly ever happens if you restrict yourself to just new stuff. And the way (the Oliver Way!) that he'd achieved this gave a faux authenticity to the final result.

Amanda told us an interesting story. She was originally hoping to buy another Austin 7 special at auction, called Mrs Jo Jo. I'd heard of this car before. It was a famous Brooklands racer that had recently been re-discovered and offered for sale. On the day, Amanda was just pipped at the post but sportingly went over to wish the winning bidders luck. These were Jeremy and John Way who much appreciated this gesture and a friendship was kindled that resulted in the Salamanda special produced by Oliver Way. Mrs Jo Jo was competing at Wiscombe on the same day, campaigned by Jeremy Way and effectively as part of the same equipe of enthusiasts that included Amanda and her Salamanda. Amanda said they were collectively having some problems with magnetos and were having to swap what appeared to be one good one between the two cars, although, on the day, she seemed to be having fewer troubles than her team mates.

The Salamanda Special is based on a 1926 Austin 7 chassis and weighs only 350kg. I don't know what an unsupercharged Austin 7 engine pumps out these days but if the engine internals were to the same quality as the rest of the car the output must have been extremely respectable. According to Austin Seven competition cars 1922-1982 by Matin Eyre, a good unblown 7 might yield 35bhp, which would give a power to weight ratio similar to that of a Citroen AX GT.

Let's not mention that to the Max Power boys.

The programme for the event featured a target or handicap time for each competitor. For Amanda in her Salamanda this seemed a little drawn out compared to the other competitors. I quizzed her about this and she grinned.

"I just really like hanging the tail out," she replied. "If I want a good time I shouldn't do it but it feels so good."

With the Salamanda, I reckon she'd have a good time anyway - such a good time driving it that she wouldn't want it to end.