I have just returned from the Metro and Mini Show at Gaydon today after a really great day out. We ended up with four Midases plus another four Midas owners (two in Minis!) at the show. We've never achieved large numbers at this show, I think the most I've seen is six cars a few years back, which is a shame as it really is worth a visit. The weather was perhaps too good, but the museum and car collections buildings were good places to escape from the sun. There are two collections: The Jaguar Heritage collection and the British Motor Industry Trust. The first has everything from a Swallow Austin Seven to a Jaguar R5 F1 car, with rare prototypes such as the XK180 , F-type concept car and XF coupe. The second has all sorts of prototypes and concept cars and several 'last of the line' BL cars covered in the workers autographs. The contents of the workshop is also always changing, but today we could spot a Broadspeed XJ6 coupe race car, a C-type, and an XK8 painted in the Union Flag (Austin Powers style).
Club corner by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
The show is dedicated to Metros and Minis and on the evidence of today I think that the website
http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk is way off when it tells you that there are just 16 Rover Metro MG (as their search engine would have it) left on the road. Either that or MG Metros drivers are a bunch of road tax dodgers! There were easily more than 30 MG Metros there today, not to mention Metro Ls, Vans, MG Turbos, Rover Metros and Rover 100s.
Metro stand 1 by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
Metro stand 2 by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
For the first time the club was asked to come into the display arena to be interviewed by the MC. This involved us driving in and parking up in a line with the cars in order of age, then doing our best to answer questions about our cars.
In the ring by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
From this we learned that Brian chose a Midas because it doesn't rust and Richard also went for a Midas to avoid rust. For Tony, our esteemed club secretary, it was power, lots of power he explained to the interviewer how he went for the 16V Metro GTi engine because he wanted power.
I just wanted more power by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
The interviewer had been primed that I was 'Mr Midas' so I was grilled for a bit longer than the others, but I think I managed to get across a little bit about the history of our cars and the good work that the club has been doing in raising the profile of the marque.
Interviewed by
Alistair Courtney, on Flickr
After that we decided to treat ourselves to ice creams and to cool off in the museum again.
Next weekend is the Mini Cooper Register event at Beaulieu and then its down to Shepton Mallet the following weekend for the Bristol Classic.