Vintage Thing No.19 - Mrs Jo Jo

I think part of the secret to Mrs Jo Jo's success is the low seat height

Mrs Jo Jo belongs to the same equipe as the Salamanda Special. Both are Austin Sevens but have been modified along different lines and at different times. Whereas the Salamanda Special is a modern interpretation using authentic materials and with a wonderful eye for detail, Mrs Jo Jo is a real piece of Brooklands history.

Mrs Jo-jo's engine room

The trick with whispering up significant horsepower gains from an Austin 7 engine seems to be to connect a blower to it, often of an equivalent capacity. In this case a Powerplus vane supercharger pressurises the little engine and it would seem a cruel thing to do to it if it didn't keep coming back for more. I've heard whispers of 60 bhp from a blown 747cc Austin 7 engine so that's a very healthy power to weight ratio.

This one of the joys of an event like Wiscombe - you can get up really close to items of interest

Wiscombe was its first time out for Mrs Jo Jo since its rebuild by the Ways. It wasn't running quite right due to a suspected faulty magneto but we saw it perform a couple of stirring climbs of the hill. I didn't speak to the Ways as they had enough to do in the paddock but there were many other blown Sevens present and I don't think they are usually so temperamental.

The blowers on these A7 motors are nearly as big as the engines. Pity the poor two bearing crank that has to spin this lot.

Vane type blowers have an eccentric rotor spinning in a drum. The Powerplus design was an improvement over earlier sliding vane designs as it used eccentrics and guide slots to maintain a close clearance with the inside of the drum instead of touching it.

Mrs Jo Jo boasts an illustrious competition career spanning many years but fell on hard times in the 1960s. In August 2005, it came up for auction and Jeremy and John Way bought it and rebuilt it.

Mrs Jo Jo was originally built as one of a pair in 1924 by Gordon England, who produced some of the best looking sporting Sevens. Both cars were entered in the 1925 JCC 200 mile race at Brooklands. It was crashed and rebuilt and by 1927 it was owned by Boyd-Carpenter (not Boyd Coddington, the late hot rod creator) who christened it Mrs Jo Jo.

According to my Austin 7 Source Book, there once was a Mr Jo Jo. This was another modified Gordon England Austin 7 also the creation of Boyd-Carpenter but is identified as a 1926 Cup Model so probably wasn't the other half of the 1925 Brooklands pair. Does Mr Jo Jo still survive?

I particularly liked the construction details of the aluminium bodywork. It was more of a fuselage, really. And that black and white split paint job looks great. It's carried onto Jeremy's crash helmet. I've seen a similar colour scheme on a supercharged Morgan three wheeler at Prescott many years ago and an Austin A60 Cambridge in Altarnun that wore alternate black and white panels back in the mid eighties. I am pretty sure the A60 wasn't blown but it still looked good. The boxy shape lent itself to such treatment.

Pete Low said that, viewed from the side, Mrs Jo Jo reminded him of Parry Thomas' Babs. Maybe Babs is Mrs Jo Jo's first name.

The Austin Seven Source Book mentions Mrs Jo Jo as being probably the most successful Austin 7 racing car of its day. Mrs Jo Jo also had a part to play in the genesis of the Vale Special when its vital organs were incorporated in the prototype Vale. When tested by the press, its handling was highly praised but the car became known as the Ugly Duckling.

Since being auctioned, Mrs Jo Jo has been rebuilt into the form it had in its heyday. I congratulate the Ways on their resurrection of this illustrious motor car.

Here we see the dark side of Mrs Jo Jo.

Being pushed - that doesn't look good. Mag probs I think

And here we see the light side.

Back on song and in the sunlight. Matching helmet is perfect.

It's just all part of the ying and yang.