Welington’s Brits and Euros gather

After more than 30 years, the format of Wellington’s British Car Day changed in 2018 to welcome all European cars. The third British and European Car Day took place at Trentham Memorial Park on Sunday, 9 February. Its organizers would have breathed a collective sigh of relief when the morning dawned with near-ideal conditions for the show, after rain the night before.

I’d say this year had more cars than I can remember from both forms of the event I’ve attended. Others believed the number was up with best, while some reckoned more cars came last year. The inclusion of the European cars has definitely grown the numbers, with sizable displays of Porsche, Citroën, BMW and Volkswagen among them.

Regulars would have noticed two changes to this year’s show: they would have missed the enthusiastic tones of announcer Roy Mcguinness coming from the sound system, with George Walter ably filled in for the ailing Roy. The other change involved 96-year old Melby Scott, a tireless collector for the Wellington Free Ambulance. Each year Melby does a lap of the grounds with a collection box mounted to the front of his classic Vauxhall but the 1954 Velox was replaced this year with his neat 1973 Firenza. As is the tradition with both forms of British Car Day, profits went to the Wellington Free Ambulance to help keep this unique service free.

Members from the Jaguar Club found one of the few shady areas, parking under the trees, and the Land Rover Club took advantage of the humps on the right side to display their classics to best advantage.

A 1970 MGB named Goldie, which is taking John and Ros Bastian around the world, probably attracted the most attention. Goldie’s signage showed where the car has taken them since 2012.

The day’s tongue-in-cheek number plate was ‘Hoon’ fitted to a 2007 Ferrari F430 Spider. If you are going to hoon, that’s the way to do it.