By Mike Sullivan

THOUSANDS of enthusiasts make the pilgrimage each year to the mecca of the motor: Britain.

Many motoring clubs, such as the Jaguar Drivers Clubs of Australia, New Zealand and America, organize special tours for members to see the birthplace of their cars and join in a range of motoring events that coincide annually.

Others travel in the tyre-prints of Formula 1 Racing, extra-enthused by the intoxicating Netflix annual series, Drive to Survive.

Until now, there has been no definitive guide to travelling Britain to imbibe your petrol-fuelled passion. How easy is it to join a motor factory tour; find a rare collection of vintage machines; watch a circuit race, rally, or hillclimb; follow Britain’s F1 industry; or simply find those rare parts you are looking for to complete your classic motoring pride-and-joy back home?

This pilgrimage used to require a lot of reading of car magazines, a lot of wrong turns on English B-roads and a lot of dumb luck. Travelog changes all that as our editorial director, Mike Sullivan, begins the first in a series of articles and URPs that outline UnReal’s Great British Motor Trail. Here is the first in the series, giving an overview of how to go about navigating – and enjoying – the Best of the British Big Bangers.

Or, and as experienced British motoring ‘Car-chaeologists’ might put it: “The lay of the Land’s End to John O’Groates”.

‘DRIVERS, start your engines …’

YOU CAN STILL HEAR those famous words ring loud and clear to start so many great classic motor races throughout Britain each summer.

This is the time of year that British motor enthusiasts unplug the pipes to their Carcoons and turn off the heat and de-humidifiers in their garages, prepare their rare and cosseted Austin-Healeys, Morgans, Jaguars, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Lea-Francises, MGs, Lotuses, Jensens, Sunbeams, TVRs, Triumphs and Rolls Royces, start them gingerly … and drive them as hard as they’ve ever been driven before, while the sun shines.

Of course, once upon a time motor racing used to begin with the starter’s call: ‘Gentlemen, start your engines …’ But with the huge growth in female drivers participating across circuit racing, hillclimbs and rallies – and winning! – the term ‘gentlemen’ has gone the way of some of the great British manufacturers of bygone years.

‘Drivers … start your engines’ works just fine on the British start line today – and the competition on the track is as furious as it has ever been.

Just like the British Empire steadily gave up its turf, so the vast and varied British motor industry went from its position of innovation and domination before World War II – losing names such as Riley, Humber, Singer, Lagonda and others – and surrendered its hallowed ground.

Sure, there were some upstarts that did pretty well after the war – Jaguar, Aston-Martin, Austin-Healey and Lotus among them – but even they were steadily swallowed up with others by the American and German juggernauts Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, BMW Voolkswagen and Mercedes.

Today, in an amazing turnaround, many of the Great British marques are steadily being revitalized by this century’s manufacturing powerhouse: China.

Probably the best example is MG, which is selling more vehicles from its Shanghai factories worldwide per year than the octagonal badge managed from Abingdon in all the post-war decades of its illustrious life.

The good news is, MG is doing so well that it is on the verge of bringing its fascinating sportscar concepts to life. While MG’s latest owners, Shanghai-based SAIC, no longer hold the marque’s Abingdon buildings (but the MG Car Club does own and inhabit the original Kimber House headquarters), they did design and build the original MG3 hatchback in the UK at the old MG Rover Longbridge factory.

Abingdon is a delightful market town, on the upper reaches of the River Thames.

It is well worth a visit – even better if you, perhaps in a rush of auto-adrenalin, hire yourself an MGB for a truly atmospheric tour of the region?

You will feel like you belong (pump accelerator twice before take-off and remember to double-de-clutch) as many locals still cannot resist offering a wistful ‘thumbs-up’ to passing MGAs, Bs and GTs…

Exhaustive collectors

While the Brits did not score very well in preserving their home motorcar manufacturing industry, they have always done very well in collecting and preserving the best of what has gone before.

This is the land of the collector – especially those keen on historic mo’ors.

The great collections of authentic motor vehicles and memorabilia are all here. What the Americans will repaint, rebuild, re-polish and set aside as static displays, the Brits will characteristically get working ‘righ’ and try to rally or race these precious vehicles.

That’s the fundamental joy of trailing around Britain exploring the motoring scene: the people you meet are all heavily involved and love to participate.

The world’s largest autojumble is held at the site of the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, twice yearly and attracts tens of thousands of enthusiasts from around the globe.

“We don’t know where it all comes from, but every year new people come out of the woodwork with previously unknown stock of rare spare parts,” grinned Beaulieu Enterprises commercial director Stephen Munn (who has since retired after 25 years enthusing about Beaulieu, just like his visitors). “It’s what keeps everyone coming back.

“We have more than 1500 stands at the Autojumble – we actually have busloads of American enthusiasts who come over every year and they always say they go home with bits they didn’t expect to find anywhere.”

Britain is also one of the few places you can go to visit a motor factory and get close to the people involved, such as the motor engineers at Aston Martin, who still build the entire unit by hand – and their final flourish is to fit their own personal name-plaque.

The same holds true for the remanufacturing sector. You can talk first hand to the people at Martin Robey, for instance, who make everything from small rubber components, chrome bumpers and modern electric steering systems through to new body shells for E-Type Jaguars, along with rare spares for Jensen Interceptor saloons and Jensen-Healey convertible sportscars.

Or Moss, who do the same for MG, Triumph, Austin-Healey, Classic Mini, Morris, Jaguar (and MX-5s!).

The Brits have even created the British Motor Heritage Group, who re-manufacture a broad range of spares for the famous marques – often from original tooling which has been preserved.

You can actually walk the historic production line at Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell and chat with the chaps who build the engines individually – of course you have to book ahead unless you happen to be buying one, in which case they welcome you anytime with a friendly smile and a piping hot cup of tea. The same is possible at Morgan in the delightful township of Malvern.

And you will get some friendly help and advice from the local salvage yards, as you fill up a box with rare bits from your English classic car and hand over about £12 for what you’d expect to pay hundreds for in Australia, Canada or the US.

That’s what the UnReal Great British Motor Trail is all about. It details what’s available and easily travelled for the average motor enthusiast who may want to take in the collections and museums, chat with some weekend classic circuit racers and visit a few remanufacturers and salvage yards to hunt down some treasured bits.

Drivers and collectors … start your mo’ors.

From London …

If you have a bent for British cars, you really don’t want to bend them, or yourself. That’s why we recommend you take a day and night on arrival in London to sleep and get your bearings.

Or take a day to discover the wonderful links to motoring in the city itself, using our UnReal Britain Motor Trail URPs. More about that in a separate story (Part 5 coming soon).

You can collect your hire car at Heathrow or Gatwick and charge out onto the M25 if you really want to, but even though technically you are slowing down from 500 miles an hour to about 80-85mph, it’s not the safest way to do things.

Take the night off, go to a B&B close by, and gather your wits about you. You’ll enjoy the trip a lot more.

The next day, you can hop into your, say, Ford Focus (great economy and cruises well at high motorway speeds, plus there’s plenty of room) and tackle the awesome (sometimes awesomely gridlocked) M25 with confidence.

Even better, if you’ve decided to really treat yourself and hire a classic car, it’s advised to head off early to avoid the big lorries and heavy traffic of peak hours.

For this particular introductory road trip, we’ve opted to do a counter-clockwise circuit, heading up towards Bedford to take in the Shuttleworth Collection and Aston Martin Newport Pagnell first. Then, over the next few days, we take in all there is to offer as you pass through the epicentres of English motoring and racing: Northamptonshire, Coventry, Birmingham and the West Midlands, down through Somerset and Oxfordshire to MG heartland and back to London.

The Shuttleworth Collection

Possibly the world’s greatest collection of airworthy vintage aircraft and rare operational vintage and antique motor cars resides in the simple 1930s aircraft hangars at the Old Warden Airfield near Biggleswade. 

Yes, you read it right, those of you (probably mostly boys) who have enjoyed the airman James Bigglesworth novels of Captain W.E. Johns. There is much speculation that the name Bigglesworth is a combination of the aviation and car collection begun by RAF airman Richard Shuttleworth and the local township of Biggleswade.

The Shuttleworth family made their extensive fortune manufacturing steam-powered engines and machinery in the 19^th century. Richard inherited a love for machinery from this business and his family encouraged him to use various cycle and powered carriage machines around the Old Warden property.

So began a love affair for machines that started with Richard collecting all manner of rare moving vehicles, including deHavilland aircraft and even ex-World War I aircraft such as the Sopwith Camel and Pup.

While the air collection gets most of the attention these days, this is also the base for an extraordinary collection of cars and road-going vehicles. Most of these find their way out onto the airfield in support of the period flying days.

One of the rarest exhibits – remember, all of these machines can be used, and are occasionally used ‘in anger’ at various races and rallies– is surely the bright blue Railton sports convertible. It’s a big British-styled car based on the shortened chassis and massive straight eight of the Hudson Terraplane of the 1930s.

The Shuttleworth family had the car active on the Old Warden farm, originally as a utility, but Richard created his own style for it in 1939 as ‘the big sports machine’. After his death in 1940 from an RAF training accident, as a tribute the family fully developed the car using the craftsmen at the Invicta works at Kettering. Most Railtons of the time were four seaters, making this handsome two-seater very special indeed.

The list of rare cars at the Shuttleworth collection is extraordinary. One to thrill the true enthusiasts is the 1903 Richard-Brasier, which made history in the 1990s completing the London-to-Brighton run (the annual event that celebrates the lifting of the speed limit in Britain to 14 miles per hour).

There, sitting ready for its next burst is the oldest production car in the world, the 1898 Benz International, and an exceptionally beautiful 1899 Mors ‘Petit Duc’. Few will be able to walk past the 1901 Locomobile, a Stanley Steamer design that still used tiller steering.

The rest of the collection reads like a dream list of the guild of international motor collectors. From Panhard Levassors to ancient Wolseleys to rare Jowetts and even such novelties as a Fiat Topolino, the motor collection is a wonderland of motoring history and achievement.

And, after an hour’s strolling and perhaps talking with the charming and enthusiastic team leader of the volunteer motor repairers, you haven’t even gotten to the carriage section, the stream engines or the rickshaw and bicycle collections …

CARS AT SHUTTLEWORTH

1939 Railton sports car

1898 Panhard Levassor

1912 Wolseley Type M5

1925 Ford Model T

1931 Austin Burnham

1912 Crossley Model T5

1926 Jowett Type C

1913 Morris Oxford Bullnose

Austin Seven AAK

1900 Marot-Gardan

The last RAC Combi

Fiat Topolino

Aston Martin at Newport Pagnell

If ever there was a car that personified the best of British motoring, surely it must be Aston Martin and the products that come out of its Newport Pagnell facility – where the entire facility is now devoted to restoring and upgrading classic Aston Martin models – and, these days, the Gaydon headquarters where the sports cars are made. (Oh, the DBX707 SUV range is proudly manufactured in St Athan, Wales).

Aston Martin has held on to the Newport-Pagnell factory created by its famous owner David Brown (of tractor production fame – and the ‘DB’ in Aston’s sportscar naming system), after it relocated to Gaydon in the 1990s. The relocation of Aston Martin to the former V-bomber RAF base at Gaydon came about when it was part of the Ford stable, bought from David Brown, along with Jaguar. Aston Martin and Jaguar headquarters are still neighbours today at Gaydon and they share access to the test track that now weaves across the old runways.

Aston Martin is happy to continue the story of its renaissance, at levels not seen since 007 actor Sean Connery drove that extraordinarily equipped silver birch Aston Martin DB5 around Switzerland in Goldfinger.

Now really is the time to visit the home of this grand marque, if you can, for there is more to look at around the Newport Pagnell facilities than ever before.

Aston has in recent years released its new V12, superseding the original that powered both the DB range (the DB7 was originally made at the Bloxham facilities of racecar driver and team owner Tom Walkinshaw, but all sportscar and GT production is now at Gaydon) and the Aston Martin machines made at the traditional Newport Pagnell heart of the legend.

On the factory tours at Newport Pagnell you can speak with the individual engineers who make each engine – they are responsible for assembly in total and confirm it at the end by bolting on their own name plaque. With an Aston, if you have an engine problem you really can talk to the man who made it …

You can have a guided tour of the factory anytime – as long as you are buying an Aston Martin – but for the unfortunate remainder of us, there is a distinct waiting list. You have to book ahead and there is a £10 charge – but that’s well worth it, for the memories and memorabilia you collect.

However, the pressures of restoring more classic Astons and the ensuing development of the factory site may make these tours a rare opportunity in the future – phone ahead.

Nevertheless, whatever you can see of the facility will restore your faith not only in the brand but also in the enthusiasm that pervades special vehicle manufacturing and restoration in Britain.

Aston Martin has been restoring its classics ‘at the factory’ for decades now and in the original version of this story I asked the question, “How many other new car makers will take an old model and restore it for you, offering a factory guarantee on completion?”

Where once that answer only came up Aston Martin, now you have to add their classic rivals Jaguar, who only recently introduced a similar service: Jaguar Classic and Land Rover Classic, based at Ryton-on-Dunsmore in the West Midlands. 

 ENDS

Part 2: Motor on to Coventry. Not yet published, but coming soon.