• Rare Raleigh Safety Seven

 • Original registration number

 • Only five owners in 88 years!

 • Older restoration

 • Said to run and drive fine

Name a three-wheeler that begins with the letter ‘R’? That’s right, Raleigh. More famed for their safety bicycles, Raleigh branched out into motor vehicles in 1899, starting off with motorcycles and by 1930 they’d even developed a bike to carry cargo.

Their Raleigh Safety Seven Light Car was their first foray into the car market designed to take advantage of a tax loophole that meant tax cost a mere £4 per year. Production started in late 1933, with this example being registered on 1 June 1934. Built in Nottingham, the model sported a 742cc V-twin engine mated up to a Sturmey Archer gearbox that transmitted drive to the rear axle via a shaft. It could carry four people and had a top speed that was claimed to be 55mph. Presumably downhill with just the brave driver clinging on!

It wasn’t a huge sales hit and production ceased by 1936 with Raleigh opting to stick to bikes, so chief designer Tom Williams took over the remaining equipment and parts to found Reliant in Tamworth (he had to use a name starting with an ‘R’ as lots of the parts were stamped with the letter…).

This particular example is finished in a delightful shade of green that looks identical to the original sales brochure (which is included in the sale and valuable in its own right) offset by a red vinyl interior. The 88-year old had an extensive restoration 17 years ago commissioned by a former president of the Vintage Motorcycle Club and is said to be in excellent working and driving condition.

If you want something rare that most people haven’t even heard about, let alone seen, then form an orderly queue!

 • Only five owners since new

 • Older restoration to a high standard

 • Logbook present and original sales brochure

This Safety Seven has only had five owners in its 88 years, with the current owner buying it in March 2021 after he’d seen one in his historic North Lincolnshire village and ‘wanted to be the second man in the village with something that unusual!’

A keen vintage bike fan, the current owner traded in his classic Panther bike, which he was finding a bit too hard to kick over. As he points out ‘with no power-steering, an electric starter and a roof, what more could you want?!’ He’s enjoyed the vehicle taking it on short journeys around his village over the last year, but wants to return to his classic bike roots and buy another bike.

Prior to his custodianship, the Raleigh belonged to a former president of the Vintage Motorcycle Club who, around 17 years ago, commissioned John Boothe to rebuild the vehicle to a high standard. The original engine was fully overhauled and a new clutch fitted, while the bodywork was also painstakingly restored.

There is a correspondence between the previous owners, detailing much of the work that has been done to it, together with its original buff logbook and a previous logbook, which both indicate that this is the original registration of the vehicle and tally with the chassis number.

The vehicle is tax and MoT exempt and was last MoT’d in September 2012 at 41,111 miles. There were no advisories.

Also supplied with the vehicle is copy of the handbook, together with a blue Raleigh Instruction Book and Spare Parts Price List which is delightfully illustrated. Best of all, the original sales brochure is supplied with the car, which features beautiful fold-out artwork. Amusingly, it also has a 95 Guineas price-tag on it, stuck over the original 100 Guineas price – they were discounted as they were not a big-seller in period!

 • Original dashboard instruments

 • Restored sympathetically

 • Retrimmed seats for four

The interior has clearly been retrimmed as part of a previous restoration, but the work has been sympathic, with red vinyl trim not covering the four seats, with the original dash instruments retaining their lovely period patina.

The functional black dash contains just four British-made instruments, with black faces used on the Lucas ammeter, Raleigh oil pressure gauge and the Cooper Stewart speedo (whose needle rotates counter-clockwise like a Cobra!) which indicates 41,704 miles. The Smiths clock uses a cream-coloured face and is said to need attention (all the other gauges work).

Unlike many bike-engined vehicles of this period, the Safety Seven uses an electric starter to fire it into life – this is via a push button on the floor by the driver’s seat. Pleasingly the clutch and brake pedal are branded with the letter ‘R’.

With a tactile selection of twist and pull knobs to actuate all the controls, it’s a back to basics design that should be a hoot to drive.

 • Period colour bodywork

 • Comes with convertible hood and tonneau cover

The Raleigh is constructed in the traditional British method of the time, using a steel chassis with the body clad in aluminium over a wooden frame. Restored about 17 years ago, it’s still in good condition with the paint having gained a minor patina and the odd tiny mark here and there. For the body to look this good after 17 years, it clearly had an excellent job done and has been carefully looked after and garaged.

What really sets the Raleigh apart is the detailing on it, from the diamond-shaped grille badge to the elegant tapering spars on the windscreen surround (complete with safety glass), they clearly had a lot of pride in their work. This is evident from the proud ‘Raleigh, Nottingham’ stamped into the chromed rear wheel hubs.

With lots of louvres stamped into the engine cover to keep the air-cooled V-twin cool, it looks quite sporty at the front and the elegantly curved rear wheelarches and spoken wheels make it look like three-quarters of a Morgan!

The hood erects easily via a few basic fixings and there’s also a tonneau cover supplied with it.

Piloting this tiny trike looks like a lot of fun and the owner reports it’s a giggle to drive so long as you don’t expect to keep pace with modern traffic. Having said that the previous owner is reported to have driven it extensively around Wales, so he clearly enjoyed himself.

 • V-twin Raleigh 742cc engine (7.42hp, 17bhp)

 • Alloy aluminium finned heads with exposed valves

 • Sturmey Archer 3-speed forward and one-speed reverse crash gearbox

Weighing just 403.2kg unladen, this trike is a real featherweight and should be enormous fun to pilot thanks to the air-cooled bike engine powering it. This unit develops just over 7hp (hence the name) which equates to around 17bhp. The Raleigh-built unit uses a Sturmey Archer three-speed gearbox to transmit the drive to the rear spoked wheels.

Classic bike enthusiasts will love the girder-style front fork with a single beefy spring and friction dampers. The green-spoked rear wheels are shod in a 4.50-18 Dunlop Gold Seal tyre on the offside and a Goodyear All Weather 4.50-18 tyre on the nearside that are both showing some sidewall cracking. The spare US Royal tyres looks to be crack-free, while the front Cheng Shin tyre appears more recent and is in good condition.

The brakes are said to work fine all round and the engine starts on the button thanks to recently being equipped with a new 6V battery (nestled under the rear seat). Also supplied is a starting handle and the Raleigh is said to be easy to start with this thanks to the low compression of these older engines.

Looking at the period brochure you can appreciate what a back to basics frill-free machine this is and it would be a delight to tinker with it on the weekends – everything looks very accessible and it must be one of the few cars that you can adjust the tappets on without having to remove a thing.

This is clearly aimed at those people who love tinkering with old British engineering and the clue is that there’s actually a small toolbox built into the firewall. Equally, the owner’s manual supplied with the vehicle details all sorts of exciting mechanical bits you can fettle.

This a rare one-year only vehicle that is 88 years old and represents a fascinating bit of British engineering heritage. It offers a unique slice of pre-war British quirkiness that you can’t help but admire. There’s an active and enthusiastic owners club for these models, too, making ownership a fun experience.

You can’t help but smile when you see this pint-sized three wheeler and it’s quirky good looks make it really stand out. The photoshoot took twice as long as usual thanks to all the curious pedestrians who’d never see anything like it. Even at a classic car or bike rally it would be a rare sight.

Thanks to its previous restoration and the care with which the current owner has looked after it, the vehicle is all ready to be enjoyed by its next custodian and would offer the ultimate wow factor at any summer car show.