Probably (though not necessarily) the last batch from this venue. As you can see, apart from the storage section, very well lit and flash not required. In some ways, this really will be a museum, showcasing makes and models and individuality that is being phased out or has already long gone from Britain's heritage. The Leyland years were sad in so many ways, and if you really want to understand a lot of what went on, I highly recommend you read Sir Michael Edwardes book 'Back From The Brink'.
Those of us of my age who grew up with a proliferation of small manufacturers, some better than others, larger local manufacturers, some better than others, although many were rubbish if compared to today's offerings, they can at least be looked back on with a degree of fondness that the current generation(s) will never, ever understand.
The last photograph in the batch above has 10 vehicles that never made it to full production, including an estate version (Rover), replacement prototypes, jet cars, twin-engine vehicles, convertibles and so on. Thank goodness these are available to view, as quite frankly, I can't see future generations visiting museums of the future, showing current offerings or current prototypes which are generally so characterless that you can't even tell what they are without reading a badge.
Sorry about so many front three-quarter views, but as stated before, they are for a library and not for winning a photographic or artistic competition.
Last edited by ERC; 11-07-2016 at 02:39 AM.
ERC, Ray thanks for more pics, some very interesting cars, the Rover Gas and Prototypes the Minis, the same never seen on the road.. and one of my favourite's the Group #44 E -Type.. finally that TVR, closest I have got to that is the two 1;43 models that grace my English / European cabinet .. cheers oops forgot the 30's Riley, must show that to my uncle when I get back to NZ in December ..
Last edited by Roger Dowding; 11-07-2016 at 08:09 AM.
Although I called in briefly at Donington, once again, I opted to not go through as so many great cars have gone and the staff could only really offer the addition of a couple of modern F1 cars since my last visit. If you have never been before, the Donington Collection is worth a visit and as it backs on to the race track, you may be lucky to be there when they have a track day. That being the case, if you head down towards the paddock, the chances are that they'll let you in for free.
My last car call of this 2016 solo trip, was en route to Heathrow, the London Motor Museum at Hayes. I'd stayed at Watford Junction the night before so I didn't have the hassle of the M25 which can be a bit of a gamble at times and Hayes was just a short hop.
The entry fee was way over the top and the most expensive of the trip. I didn't know too much about the place in advance other than I knew there were custom cars and hot rods included. This is a privately owned museum and one person's personal collection and therefore represents his interests. The first picture is of the notice displayed just inside. Pity about the spelling mistake...
An Opel...
The Lincoln Zephyr referred to on the notice.
Ferrari ute...
The museum info is often misleading by quoting real cars yet displaying replicas, some of which were quite poor. This obvious replica had no info attached at all, real or fake.
Some of the customised cars were either unfinished or dreadful, or both. Others were very impressive.
Last edited by ERC; 11-08-2016 at 03:00 AM.
Despite the notice stating "All cars are customised", that is blatantly incorrect, as there were plenty that were unmolested. They seem to push the sale of alloy wheels and at least three exhibits had totally inappropriate modern alloys - but with no sign of any other customising. A bit pointless.
Gumpert Apollo - I needed to read up on that one as like so many small volume super cars, there is little real external individuality.
Last edited by ERC; 11-07-2016 at 09:38 PM.
TripAdvisor feedback states that rather than the collection growing, it has been shrinking. Given the owner's LA and USA connections, there are several cars with movie associations, again, real or copies I wouldn't know, such as the James Bond Lotus and a Batman duo, Disney 'Cars' and so on.
Just one example of a classic car with inappropriate wheels
Last edited by ERC; 11-07-2016 at 10:00 PM.
Last batch from this venue (thank goodness I hear you purists say...).
See post #930 for the interior. Barf bags not supplied.
Maybe this last pic sums it up rather well?
Last edited by ERC; 11-08-2016 at 12:24 AM.
A little closer to home and another private collection. This is NOT open to the public and if you do know the owner, then please do not publish the location!
This Bentley is ex South Africa and whilst there, fitted with a different grille and was badged and registered as a Rolls Royce!
For the pedantic ones, this is NOT a Jensen Healey GT, but is correctly labelled as a Jensen GT. The Americans have a lot to answer for with their 'safety' regulations.
Last edited by ERC; 11-08-2016 at 09:05 PM.
Dratted attachments disappeared again...
This car very nearly had 'Royal Connections' but the visiting Royals' advance security advisors considered the lovely convertible would expose them.
Not shown is the amazing collection of model vehicles, still in their boxes.
Last edited by ERC; 11-08-2016 at 09:59 PM.
Back to a real Mix of Pics! What follows is a reversion to a mix of recent digital, older digital and past slides and negatives.
A three wheeling ever exuberant Gordon Burr
Spotted at a motorway services area near Donington, what appears to be the latest incarnation of the GTM, orginally called the Cox GTM and a rear engined, Mini based kit car.
A rather nice Scimitar outside the British Motor Museum.
Another from the local collection.
Last edited by ERC; 11-09-2016 at 10:57 PM.
Did they, the Americans, really think that fitting bumpers on steroids to cars was going to make any difference in a crash ? I have been to this collection with the VCC.......allsorts of interesting stuff, and the shed itself is a work of art.......
Did the 'Merit' range of plastic construction kits make it to NZ? Dad managed the full set and made a good job of building them. I think I have them here in NZ. Although from memory, about three or four times the price of the 2/- Airfix kits that were my staple as a teenager, they were affordable.
The nearest I have got to them in recent years are the Tamiya kits - and I got hooked on the Jaguar MkII kits when I was recovering from (the first) spinal fusion operation about 18 years ago.
Whenuapai of course and one of my favourite cars to photograph. This is the 1986 event.
And 1987.
The Waitemata VCC Chelsea Hillclimb - when they had noisy cars... Must be on shortly and my guess is that it will probably clash with TACCOC's Pukekohe meet.
Was there ever a car like it! Once heard, never forgotten - and there weren't any at Goodwood this year. This was the 1996 Festival meeting (hillclimb) and I think there were 3 V16s there. At that meeting, I used a digital camera for the first time. The quality was terrible...
Manfeild Whittaker's meeting, 1997. Even without the delicious Nigella pushing their products, we have bought Whittakers chocolate for years. Their support of motorsport was one of the initial reasons, but now, we buy it because it is so good.
Last edited by ERC; 11-10-2016 at 08:47 PM.
Originally Posted by ERC
[CENTER]
Did the 'Merit' range of plastic construction kits make it to NZ? Dad managed the full set and made a good job of building them. I think I have them here in NZ. Although from memory, about three or four times the price of the 2/- Airfix kits that were my staple as a teenager, they were affordable.
The nearest I have got to them in recent years are the Tamiya kits - and I got hooked on the Jaguar MkII kits when I was recovering from (the first) spinal fusion operation about 18 years ago.
Yes they did. This is a very poor scan of the box my Vanwall model came in.
Skipping around a bit as I try and clean up some folders on the PC, deleting duplicates or some with dodgy focus that have been superceded.
Last edited by ERC; 11-11-2016 at 02:26 AM.
One of my extensive collection of race programmes! Programmes often offer very interesting insights into the sport and those from earlier years are always worth a read. Note the illustration on the cover, of Starkey's Bridge. Can you imagine hurling those 500+BHP Mercedes and Auto Unions through there?
Dad's pic of course from the above meeting - Lagonda chases Riley.
My pic from the reopening of Donington, 40 years later. Mick Hill's F5000 Trojan based VW Chev. Mick sadly passed away not so long ago but was a key figure in the success of the UK Super Saloons as a builder and driver. Interesting that at the British GP meeting, the F1 fraternity were very interested in this car and that led to Dr Harvey Postlethwaite assisting Mick with the car - for free.
Mick was fairly local to Donington and trained as a Post Office engineer, so was very much a local celebrity, starting off his passion for large engines in smaller cars with the well known Janglia and V8 Capris, the Jaguar XK8, then after the VW, Skodas and even a BMW M1 - and others.
The VW was sold to Border Reiver's driver Doug Niven, who painted it blue and had a lot of success with it, particularly at the northern and Scottish tracks.
It appeared at the Goodwood Festival a couple of years ago, back in this livery and Mick was present to see it run.
Richard Dodkins well campaigned Ginetta. Richard raced that fearsome March Canam car at Hampton Downs.
Ellerslie Concours was usually on my calendar, but I have missed it for the last three years simply because it comes at a very busy time of the year with Taupo, HD x 2 and even Leadfoot all crammed into a few weeks.
Last edited by ERC; 11-11-2016 at 10:30 PM.
The Ellerslie dates may or may not be correct...
Five years on and Garrat's Riley is there again...
Last edited by ERC; 11-11-2016 at 11:19 PM.
The Waitemata VCC Chelsea Hillclimb - when they had noisy cars... Must be on shortly and my guess is that it will probably clash with TACCOC's Pukekohe meet.
Chelsea hillclimb is this coming Sunday 20 November. TACCOC at Pukekohe is on Sunday 27 November.
Wouldn't some descriptions be WONDERFUL?Skipping around a bit as I try and clean up some folders on the PC, deleting duplicates or some with dodgy focus that have been superceded.
Thanks Roger.
What descriptions would you like Terry? Most are fairly self explanatory in terms of broad identification, for anyone with a smidgin of general motoring knowledge.
Often, I simply just take a pic and apart from the make of car, which is usually obvious, I don't necessarily know too much. Where any previous pic since your last grizzle, might not be too clear, I have added something appropriate.
If you can't recognize a Ford Escort, Mercedes or Ford Anglia or even the giant Renault and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang from the pics, then I'm really not sure why you are still dipping in here. If you need locations or dates - which may or may not be obvious, or have another specific query on any posted pic, then by all means ask. As pointed out before, all my pics are dated as accurately as possible from the file name, but as I also pointed out before, those on PC's don't seem to have a problem, just you and your i-pad. Posting the pics takes enough time without also writing a book.
There are also some pics where I don't know what they are either, particularly 1940's and 1950's Americana, standard or customized - and even some single seaters, particularly Formula Fords.
Thankfully, many of the regular posters on here are able to fill in some of the gaps, particularly with regard to NZ events in the 1983 to 1990 bracket, when I neither kept a daily diary nor managed to get a programme.
Some pics take a lot of detective work and assumptions such as the pic of the Mick Hill VW. I wasn't sure what year it was, 1977 or 1978, and it took a good half hour of research to confirm it was indeed 1977 as it had sat in my 'undated folder' since it was first scanned.
An email to Bell and Colvill in the UK was sent yesterday, to try and date a pic of their BRM - which hopefully, will also enable me to date several other pics from that race meeting and move them out of that 'in limbo' folder. The research and detective work can be very time consuming just to try and avoid errors, but alas, sometimes, a lot of work leads to dead-ends and zero responses, which is very frustrating.
Modern digital is easy, but the internet/Google doesn't always come up with the answers.
I'm sorry if you want more on every pic, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon. I'm still cataloguing the film negatives most of which haven't yet been scanned, and I'm up to 12,000 so far - admittedly, that includes family and work pics.
Last edited by ERC; 11-12-2016 at 03:49 AM.
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