by ACourtney » Sun Mar 13, 2016 10:27 am
This subject came up at yesterday's MOC committee meeting and it has been a major issue that has helped to drive many of the club's decisions in the last few years.
The consensus is that there is a lack of awareness of the Midas marque among today's car enthusiasts and that is keeping prices down. People are not going to pay out large sums of money for cars that they know little or nothing about.
This may not be immediately obvious to us as we are already Midas enthusiasts, but then as such, we have been aware of the Marque for thirty odd years or more. If you have only become interested in cars in the last twenty years, or so, then the chances are you will not know what a Midas is.
An extreme example of this lack of awareness was brought home to me some ten years ago. I had taken a stand at the Detling kit car show and was approached by a visitor who turned out to be a Midas owner. He had bought a Mk2 very cheaply, not really knowing what it was other than being Mini based and that it was worth what he paid for it in Mini parts. He expressed surprise that the marque was still going as he told me he had never seen another Midas on the road, or at a show. He wasn't aware of the Midas Owners Club, or the forum. In fact he didn't know the history of the Midas marque at all and thought that probably only half a dozen had been made. On questioning him further, it turned out that he had never visited a kit car show before, or ever read a kit car magazine. He was a Mini enthusiast, bought Mini World magazine (he knew who Adrian Dodd is) and often went to Mini shows, but had never read about Midas cars.
The problem stems from a lack of publicity out side of the kit car scene. When was the last time you read about a Midas, other than in a kit car magazine?
I think the last time was when one was covered in a kit car feature in Practical Classics back in 2002. And before that? Well you probably have to go back to the Autocar interview of Harold Dermott after he closed the first Midas Cars company.
The club has discussed this issue many times and that is why it has been making great efforts to publicize our cars. To that end the club was successful in getting features in all three kit car magazines last year, using the club's anniversary to grab their attention. However, outside of the kit car scene, it only merited a paragraph in Practical Classics magazine. Despite the club issuing press releases to nearly all the classic car magazines, no one else picked it up. The realization is that we still have a lot of work to do to get our cars recognized in the classic car community and a good first step was attending the Classic Vehicle Restoration Show in Shepton Mallet last year, where we will have been seen by some 5000 visitors.
Tony Moss has been trying to get us a stand at the Classic Car Show, held at the NEC each November. This is a world class show that attracts over 20000 visitors. But that means the organizers will only make room for clubs who can guarantee a good display. We need to be seen at more classic car shows and be seen to be showing good examples of the marque and the club can only do that with the help of its members.
The committee is putting together its events diary for 2016 and Tony should be shortly sending out a newsletter. This will include the Bristol Classic Car Show on June 18th and 19th. Yes, it is at Shepton Mallet again, but it is a bigger version of the November show and it is only by attending such shows that the cars will start to be recognised and received into the classic car community. However, the club doesn't want to just focus on shows in the South West. It wants to be seen all over the country and again it can only achieve that with the support of Midas owners.
Richard Streets has set a great example by taking his car along to many classic car and Mini shows. He plans to do the same again this year and will be publicizing the events on this forum, so if he is going to an event near year then why not take your car along and support him. His car is a great example and always makes a good impression, but two, or even three, cars will always have a bigger impact, even if they are not to the standard of Richard's. In fact Richard got us a pitch at the Stanford Hall Mini Show last September and I took along a Mk1 restoration project on my trailer (I had only picked it up a few weeks before!). I parked the trailer behind the club cars, but it got as much attention as the more polished examples and I could have sold it several times over if I had wanted to. So that is a message for anyone wanting to sell a Midas that is in need of a rebuild - don't put it on ebay, take it along to a show and stick a for sale sign on it!