The first BMC and Leyland show on 7th July 2012 was a success for the register with 10 cars being present on the day. Sadly two of our members had break downs on the way to the show with Tony Billingham’s gear selectors failing near home and Mick Hannon’s fuel pump packing up just as he came through the Gaydon gates! A fortunate place to break down for Mick but he was unable to buy a replacement fuel pump at the show so returned home with the "AA".
Another very lucky member was Adrian Reynard who brought both of his 1959 Mini’s to the show. An almost matching pair of red '59’s one a Morris the other an Austin and both supporting EL number plates. The Austin Adrian was driving had started to chew through it's fan belt just as he came off the M40 to the show, Adrian was able to buy a replacement at the show and was an easy fix for a man more used to building state of the art single seater racing cars than servicing 1959 Mini’s in a field.
Some of our regular attendees to the show brought their cars along to make a great display of early cars, with Quentin Wilson and his daughter Mini brought along 900 FRL fresh from its recent restoration.
A new discovery for the register was from Alan Robinson and his wife who brought along their rally prepared '59 Morris that they’ve owned for the best part of 20 years. A wonderful example of a '59 that is used and enjoyed, the car being their daughters daily driver too.
We were privileged to have John Sheppard as our VIP guest again this year and alongside him his junior draftsman Bob Robbins. Also we were honoured to be joined for the first time by Diane Mickleborough who was the drafts room secretary. Rainier de Klark Klark Classic Cars and his wife Susanna came all the way from Sweden to meet John Sheppard and Bob Robins. Also coming along way to meet John was Michael Elsberg and his wife Annette from Denmark, Michael is a regular contributor to our variations section and helped to write our current pages.
Having met up with friends new and old, it was all in all a very successful day and we are already looking forward to next year.
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We had a very good day at BMC’s Himley Hall show this year with 9 cars on display. The day started warm & dry but the forecast rain came right on queue. Despite the weather turning we had a constant stream of visitors throughout the day.
We had some new debuts on the stand, Paul Kimpton brought along his newly restored clipper blue Morris that he rescued out of a collapsed garage 2 years ago. The roof of the garage had caved the roof in and paul has managed to pull out the roof and keep the original roof panel. Paul has left the large kink in the cant rail as evidence of the roof collapse for future generations.
Another new car to the stand was Peter Barnard’s Tartan red Austin, never restored in its 54 years, Peter has got it road worthy and back on the road completing its maiden trip with the 130mile drive from his home to the Himley show without a single hiccup.
The mid-afternoon rain slowed up visitors and saw the vast majority of clubs leave the event but none of the 59’s left everyone staying until the bitter end, a great testament to our dedicated members
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Despite nearly being cancelled due to the weather, all was well and the event went on as usual. Started to rain again in the afternoon but not badly so and it turned out to be a great day. Great credit to John Baker and all at ALF for putting on a great event.
As usual a lot of Longbridge ex employees attend this event making it very interesting as you get talking to these guys and listening to their memories. A lot to be learnt by listening to them. Amongst them were John Sheppard and Bob Robbins who worked under Alec Issigonis in the drawing office. John, who is 91 years old now never fails to amaze me with his enthusiasm for coming to these events and telling us tales of the old days at Longbridge.
There were an array of interesting cars of all models from the 1920’s to present day MG’s. Bob Hart was there with his beach car, there were a couple of ex 1970 London to Mexico rally cars as well as the cavalcade of cars that had driven up from Cowley.
We had Keith Woodfield, ex Longbridge employee, there with his 1959 Morris Mini-minor flying the flag for the 59 Register. Again Keith is a great bloke to talk to about the old days at the works. I had a change this year from taking a 1959 car and took my Austin Ant instead. Chris Tallants took his Ant too. These are the only 2 running cars in the UK so it was really nice to get them together for the first time.
This is a great informal show with no pre-booking required. No entrance fee either. You just turn up on the day. For next years event it would be nice to get a few 1959 cars there. So give it so thought.
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