BMC & Leyland Show, British Motor Museum
Visitors to this celebration of British motors meant a capacity crowd… and long queues to get in
No-one predicted that this brilliant combination of classics and important anniversaries would be so successful that the British Motor Museum would have to turn people away, having reached its maximum number of visitors under COVID-19 restrictions.
Some cars that did get in faced a half-mile tailback and delays of up to 45 minutes. Not that people were complaining – they were just so pleased to be at a big show again, although one notable change to this show’s previous iterations was the lack of judges looking at attendees’ classics, another change brought in to help the museum protect classic fans during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
Two major 40th anniversaries were celebrated at the event, which also incorporated the National Metro & Mini show – the Austin/MG Metro, of which 77 were counted from 6R4s to Citys, with the turnout including Victoria Fisher’s 1991 Heinz Metro, believed to be the sole surviving example.
Everything from Austin Sevens to BMW Minis were out in force, with Rover 75s and even a trio of Tomcats attracting attention.
A delicious display of historic rally cars was provided courtesy of the Historic Marathon Rally Group, with Paddy Hopkirk one of the most notable visitors to its packed stand.
A fine display of Morris Itals, a Range Rover P38 used as control vehicle in Princess Diana’s funeral procession and an excellent line-up of Daimler SP250 ‘Darts’ and a brown Austin Maestro were among the many other attractions, There was also a magnificent gathering of cars from the, erm, MkIII Zephyr & Zodiac Owners’ Club, which was also celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Club spokesman, Dave Keeping, said: ‘ We weren’t able to have our display at the museum’s recent Ford event so we were invited here. We’ve had an excellent response though people were surprised to see us!’