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We would like to thank our independent panels of specialists judges who had the very difficult task of selecting finalists from all the nominees - and who now have to choose their winners from these very worthy finalists!
Founded in 1964, the Sammy Miller Museum, in New Milton, Hampshire, houses one of the finest collections of fully restored motorcycles in the world, including factory racers and exotic prototypes, with the collection constantly evolving as new bikes are acquired. The almost 500-strong collection showcases some of the many bikes that Sammy Miller rode in his career as the most successful trial rider of all time, as well as other rare and interesting bikes dating back as far as 1898.
In July 2021 a 10,000sq. ft. two-storey glass fronted extension was opened.
This is a living museum with almost every motorcycle in the museum in full running order. Now aged 88, Sammy demonstrates and parades bikes throughout the year.
Sammy also keeps enthusiasts up to date with regular videos from the workshop – a great treat for motorcycle fans.
Hundreds of cars gathered on the 3rd July 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. An anniversary golden paddock recreated the Beaulieu car park of 1972. It also displayed some of the amazing vehicles which took part in the original celebratory cavalcade at the museum opening, half a century ago.The new Story of Motoring in 50 Objects exhibition features 50 objects, hand-picked from a wealth of more than 1.7 million items from the internationally-acclaimed collection cared for by the National Motor Museum Trust. These special objects include the most historically important vehicles, motoring artefacts, film footage, images, documents and books from its archives.
2022 also saw the introduction of Classic Grille evenings, the new new Bond in Motion – No Time To Die exhibition, the return of the Spring Autojumble after a two-year break, and more than 26,000 showgoers turning out for Beaulieu’s International Autojumble
More than 100 cars went on display in September 2022 at a one-off charity car event when private collectors Tanya and Robert Lewis opened the doors to their outstanding assembly of premier classic, super and hyper car – one of the most unique in the country. The evening raised more than £42,000.
Tanya said: “We started the collection in May 2006, and we set about buying cars as art. Car Clubs were requesting visits quite quickly around the same time that my brother was admitted to Headley Court having been medi-vacced out of Sierra Leone. I said to Robert that we were missing a trick and we should be offering visit in exchange for donations, which is what we did raising funds for the then fledgling charity Help for Heroes and now support wonderful charities like QEF each year. We have consequently raised
£ several million over the last 16 years, something which we are both very proud of.”
Whilst it’s often said that youth is wasted on the young, old cars are most certainly not. This simple fact meant that Rally the Globe’s Generations Rally was hailed as an unqualified success by all.
Over 70 crews lined up in Low Wood Bay, Ambleside, late in March 2022 to enjoy three days of open road motoring through the most beautiful parts of Northern England. Designed specifically for existing competitors to introduce the wonders of the sport to a younger audience, the event required a crew to include members of two distinct generations.
The Historic Gold Cup race was just one part of a nostalgic three-day festival of motoring at the Cheshire circuit which celebrated almost seven decades of action at the parkland venue. Other highlights of the on-track line-up included a bumper programme of Historic Sports Car Club (HSCC) championships and series, including the showpiece Historic Formula 2 Niki Lauda Trophy.
Whilst the HSCC maintained overall stewardship of the meeting, fans at the track were also treated to a programme which featured guest categories from Masters Historic Racing, the Historic Racing Drivers Club, Vintage Sports-Car Club and Classic Sports Car Club.
The 11th edition of the brilliant Classic Nostalgia treated visitors to a weekend of action on and off the hillclimb. Iain Stallard was fastest on the hill on the Saturday in a Lotus 61 (30.06secs) while Robin Nicholson set Sunday’s best in his Mallock Mk20 (30.21secs). Among the displays was a fine selection of BRMs, as a blue plaque was unveiled to mark 60 years since the team’s World Championship win Cars on show ranged from the MK V16 to the gas-turbine Rover-BRM, while former members of the team on hand included drivers Richard Attwood and Mike Wilds.
Simon Diffey loved nothing more than putting an unsuspecting youngster into an old car telling them, ‘go on then, off you go’, making them feel alive with the adrenaline. Giving them unbounded confidence. His view was opportunity for all, rather than only the few.
The Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award was created by his wife Sarah in association with the HSA to continue in perpetuity Simon’s ethos in recognising and encouraging the next generation of young Heritage Apprentice Engineers through opportunity.
Each year the Award will be presented to an apprentice learning through the Heritage Skills Academy, identified by the apprentice's employer and a select panel of judges, for demonstrating talent in engineering, passion, enthusiasm, and exceptional commitment as a team player during their apprenticeship.
The winner of the inaugural Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award - Emilia Brown - was announced in September 2022.
Launched in July 2022, the European Breakdown App built by Wayne Scott for the TR Register Car Club can be downloaded onto your phone, either iOS or Android.
If you should break down on your trips across Europe, or at home in the UK then the app will instantly direct you to the nearest classic car-friendly garage who may be able to assist in repairing your classic car. All garages are submitted ranked and certified by the community and the App also includes neat features such as journey tracking, service monitoring and useful numbers for recovery, insurance, and other services.
The app is now being successfully used by many hundreds of TR Register members touring across Europe during the Summer. The app can be adapted and re-branded for almost any motoring organisation but is aimed at car clubs like the TR Register.
To mark 100 years since the 1922 launch of the Austin Seven motor car, the Austin Seven Clubs’ Association held a week of festivities centred on the Fire Service College at Moreton‑in‑Marsh, Gloucestershire. Activities included an Austin Seven Archive Pop Up Museum, with cars of historical significance on display, technical demonstrations, drawing masterclasses ('capture your car!'). And many participants headed over to Prescott for the Austin 7 Centenary Festival of Motorsport, which saw some extremely rare cars making demonstration runs up this historic Hill.
Austin Seven enthusiasts from all over the world attended - and the culmination of the celebration was a rally of over 1,000 Austin Sevens, the largest such ever seen.
Savile Row, the London street famous for its bespoke tailors, has been associated with cars since the early days of motoring, but had never hosted a car show. Hothouse Media hatched a plan for a two-day event on Savile Row, linking classic cars and car manufacturers with specific tailors. Thirty-four very special cars were selected, including world debuts for the hybrid McLaren Artura supercar and the VO VOXI Solar Taxi, the UK debut of the Czinger C21 hypercar, plus many rarely seen historic cars from some of the world’s most important car collections. Craft demonstrations on tailoring, engine building, car trimming, instrument making and metal sculpting were held across the two days.
The event attracted approximately 6000 visitors over the two days, giving the highest Savile Row footfall in living history.
The first-ever Sir Jackie Stewart Classic – presented by Rolex, at Thirlestane Castle, delighted motorsport fans and raised more than £125,000 for global charity, Race Against Dementia.
More than 50 classic and contemporary cars sprinted up the Thirlestane Castle driveway over the weekend, including a Red Bull Formula 1 race car, which also had its own ‘pit’ garage on-site. Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the Borders Vintage Automobile Club (BVAC) which descended on Thirlestane with more than 1,000 vintage, classic and modern sports cars.
When a young industrialist took over the ailing Lagonda company in 1935,
he tasked his employees with designing and building 'the best car in the world'
They arguably succeeded with the Lagonda V12, but there was much more to the man than his brief spell at Staines, as Giles Chapman
explains in this first full account of Alan Good's career.
Mark Dixon has been delivering consistently outstanding journalism (both as a writer and photographer) for over 30 years, always finding fresh and interesting material and angles to engage readers. Little has exemplified this more than his article on a tracked Bren Gun Carrier/Universal Carrier earlier this year - a brave story for a classic car magazine (on the ground that military vehicles aren't everyone's cup of tea)!
Father and son, two aristocrats with the name Zborowski: both made their mark in motorsport, but are almost forgotten today. Yet their biographies make for compulsive reading.
Piotr Frankowski tells the fascinating tale of two generations of aristocratic yet reckless racing drivers, without whom we'd have no James Bond - and no Aston Martin.
In May 2022 we lost a bright light of the historic motorsport community. Simon Diffey made a contribution to our historic motoring and motorsport world every day, from helping people with advice, with printing, letting youngsters push or spanner his car, giving words of encouragement - whatever was needed in the moment, he was there to offer it. His wife Sarah is continuing this, launching the Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award in his memory.
Through the Apprentice Award and the memories of the cheeky chap who lit up a room and encouraged young and old, Simon will live on and his personality deserves to be recognised. Sarah took a moment of tragedy and turned it into a life-changing experience for the very youngsters that Simon always encouraged. They were always a team, and this is truly a joint Personal Endeavour.
In August 2022 , British Racing Motors announced that their MK1 P15 V16 Chassis IV would race in the Goodwood Trophy at this year’s Goodwood Revival. This announcement represented the realisation of one of the Owen family’s key objectives around re-awakening the BRM legacy – to go racing once again. The MK1 P15 V16 was last raced in the Goodwood Trophy in 1952, where Gonzales, Parnell, and Wharton achieved the famous 1st, 2nd and 3rd finish for BRM.
“We have been very clear from the start of the project that the final three MK1 P15’s are to be built so that they can be seen and be heard,” said John Owen, son of Sir Alfred Owen and BRM Director. “They form an incredibly important part of British Motor Racing and British engineering history and it is vital that this is not forgotten. What better way to demonstrate this to the next generation by actually racing?”
Paul Tunnicliffe is in his final year of presidency with the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC). During his time as President he has contributed greatly towards the success and development of the Club, and he leaves a legacy to be proud of.
Perhaps the most important contribution that Paul has made is his work with the Club’s new Carbon Offsetting Scheme, which he introduced at the VSCC’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in April this year. The introduction of this scheme has helped to put the Club at the forefront of a movement to help ensure the future of vintage cars and motorsport, whilst minimising the impact on the environment.
An exceptional restoration - on a rather large scale!
In the summer of 2022 this 1931 AEC Regent 486 bus was finally revealed in all its restored glory at the Wythall Transport Museum. The restoration had started several years earlier and had been on track to be completed in 2019. The bus returned to Wythall in 2019 but all was not well with the sub-contracted mechanical work and a full rebuild of the engine and other components, with interruptions by Covid, followed.
In 2021, the complete bus made its first formal static appearance at the NEC Classic Car show and earlier this year it was finally able to take to the road once more.
Under the management of Rob Hanford from the Museum, whose persistence paid off, it is now complete and back proudly on display.
This is the story of a barn find which has been conserved rather than restored. It has a fascinating history - painstakingly researched by Ecurie Bertelli's historian - having originally been owned by the actor Sir Ralph Richardson, then raced by a subsequent long-term owner, Tony Bubb, in whose barn it eventually came to languish after some five decades of ownership.
Robert and Ali Blakemore of Ecurie Bertelli bought the car from Tony and started looking for the right new owners, who would understand that conservation rather than restoration was what was needed.
Those new owners came along in the form of retired Wing Commanders Tom and Sue Wood, from Malvern, and Ecurie Bertelli began the conservation work, which was completed earlier this year. Since then 'Hedgehog', as chassis 402 is known, has travelled more than 3,500 miles, most recently on the REVS Limiter Pilgrims Tour in October.
First ordered by Antarctic explorer Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard of the 1922 Scott explorer team Terra Nova expedition, this car was subsequently sold to actor Ralph Richardson in 1946. In the 1970s its then-owner tucked it away in a barn, where it languished in an increasingly dilapidated state, until discovered there in 2018 by Steve Taylor of Alpine Eagle. Steve acquired it on behalf of a client who, undeterred by the enormity of the task in hand, allowed Alpine Eagle free rein to ensure the car was restored to a specific, well documented point in its history and remain true to Rolls-Royce design and engineering.
This was a meticulous, ground-up restoration with extraordinary attention to detail. For example,
the original wheels still retained their Dunlop transfers, so these were painstakingly re-created and added to all the refurbished road wheels - even though they are covered and will never be seen. The interior still retained its original green leather as noted in the original build sheets so Connolly Vaumol hide was colour-matched to an original unfaded sample, and Alpine Eagle sourced the original Ace backlit numbers for the rear numberplate which took hours of cleaning to make white again.
William started his business, William Heynes Ltd - a Jaguar restoration, preservation and servicing workshop - just last year, taking the keys for the business unit on 23 August 2021.
Funds were very short, so he and his
business and life partner Amy Shore travelled the length of the country to source the equipment needed.
The goal was not to overly restore the earliest marks of Jaguars (primarily E-types), but to painstakingly preserve them as they should be. William's knowledge of early E-types has been commented on by a number of people to be among the best in the UK, if not the world. He has lived and breathed the cars since he was a child, thanks to his grandfather's heritage.
One year on, William has managed to get some of the earliest Jaguar E-types into his workshop for work, including chassis 002, 015, 035, 039, 073, 113 and a number of other flat floors. He has worked 6-7 days a week, averaging 11 hour days for the last year to make the business a success. He now has 18 cars in build - 2-3 years' work.
Joe Mellor has recently completed a Classic Vehicle Restoration apprenticeship at Heritage Skills Academy, working at Tim Walker Restorations. He is a young enthusiast aspiring to own his own restoration business, and continue to build and grow the skills he has learnt in the 8 years while working in the restoration industry.
Joe is incredibly keen to promote and inspire the younger generation to join and thrive in the world of heritage vehicles and is chairman of a networking group; HVAN (Heritage Vehicle Apprentice Network) which he recently started to bring young like-minded enthusiasts together and to help the restoration industry gain from young and passionate workers.
Kyra Hill (former Office Manager at Tim Walker Restorations, currently Operations Manager at Heritage Skills Academy):
“With very little guidance, Joe project manages whole jobs from start to finish. This includes estimates, parts procurement, and dealing with the nuances of clients, which he executes in an incredibly professional manner. Aside from working on the cars, Joe throws himself into all aspects of running a business including marketing and media, events, even accounts. He also runs the blasting side of the company all by himself and will do everything he can to ensure customers are completely satisfied with the work carried out.
Jordy Smith, 26, works at Vintage Car Radiator Company. In a time where we are desperate for young people to lean the skills for heritage engineering to continue, it is people like Jordy who are leading the way. Whilst there are quite a few gifted young mechanics, there are not many young people able to produce the kind of work, (welding, brazing, soft soldering and sheet metal forming) that results in exquisite looking radiators that grace many a vintage vehicle.
From flat sheet to a finished Aston Martin Nickel Silver radiator, Jordy took three weeks to create something truly incredible to look at; something that will be the first thing many people see when they view the car. Vintage radiators are something that so often define the identity of certain marques, so the skill needed to work on such components cannot be understated. To see one up close, and to hear of the technically complex process in its making serves to show just how important it is that we encourage and reward people of Jordy's like.
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