IAN GWYNNE: THE KEEPER OF THE RALLYING JEWELS
At the heart of Rallyday is a stunning collection of rally cars prepared and tended by BGMsport, the company set up by the late Bill Gwynne and now run by his son Ian.
With the cars generously loaned out to rally stars, and driven the way they were originally intended, the spectacle is what makes Rallyday. As well as managing the whole show, Ian Gwynne will drive any of the cars with aplomb.
Gwynne said: “The business has changed a lot since my dad Bill ran it. When dad had the business it was completely rally orientated. Then when I took over I simply fell into a different market place through one or two customers outside of rallying.
“Then the restoration side developed and here we are now.
It’s totally different and I think we’ve got more than 50 cars in the workshop. They’re owned by a whole range of customers but they’re all special in their own way. We don’t do any run-of-the-mill regular cars at all. They’ve all pretty much got a pedigree or a history.
“There’s seven or eight of us there, depending on what’s going on. We don’t do any competition events anymore. It’s all demonstration and show-type events like this. That’s all we do because none of these cars are ever going to be rallied again. They’re too rare or they’re too valuable. But you know, Steve Rimmer from DirtFish is a classic example of a car owner. He loves his car’s being displayed and used, though I think he gets a bit nervous sometimes of people driving a whole range of his cars!
“Here at Castle Combe we have 15 cars and two period service vans as well. The Bedford is a proper period Blydenstein Vauxhall service van and the Ford Transit is just an original van that has only done 4000 miles.”