“You don'thave to be a rivet counter to enjoy the Dunsfold Collection open weekend”

Collection and open weekend volunteer is that you get to drive some of the vehicles once everyone has gone home on the Sunday. So for only £35 you could drive a rare Land Rover.

While much of the focus is around the collection I allow myself a stroll around general public car park as it too houses some very impressive classics. It was there that I spotted Roger Crathorne, the man they call Mr Land Rover. He was on a very special mission on behalf of JLR. As this is the last year that they are producing the Defender as we know it in the UK, Roger had been tasked to find 50 suitable Land Rovers for this year’s Goodwood Revival event in September. These 50 handpicked Land Rovers will do a round of the circuit on each of the three days of the festival. This is in commemoration of the first Land Rover produced in 1948 and to say goodbye to the last Defender of 2015. Some might argue the end of the rather distinctive looking Land Rover.

Next, I made my way to the various club stands. They too had turned it on for the weekend and it seemed as if the Land Rover Series One Club and the Land Rover Series Two Club had bigger stands than at the other big Land Rover shows such as Billing and Peterborough. Their members wanted to showcase their vehicles and rightly so.

To get some sort of idea of how highly regarded the collection is one only needs to look at the type of person that attends the open weekend. The most obvious attendee is the rivet counter of course, but I also spotted several rather senior past and present Jaguar Land Rover staff members. It’s nice to know that they take an active interest in the heritage of the brand we so love. Collection trustee and the man with the golden voice, Richard Beddall, was on the microphone during the day, he also introduced some of the guest speakers and Land Rover legends such as Dave Harlow, David Sneath, Mike Gould and Graham Archer.

Some of them gave informative talks during the course of the weekend. On the Saturday night Richard took charge of a very successful auction of rare Land Rover memorabilia, which raised over £5000 for the collection.

You don’t have to be a rivet counter to enjoy the Dunsfold Collection open weekend, all you need is an interest in our past. On the Friday evening I stood around the BBQ chatting to a fellow who had come all the way from Australia to see the finest collection of Land Rovers in the world. He was just one of many that have travelled from afar.