It was yet another extremely chilly Sunday morning when Eastern Region members met at Beacon Hill Services at 7.30am for a day trip to the Heritage Motor Centre at Gaydon in Warwickshire. Seven 5s left from Beacon Hill, picking up one more on the first part of the route before stopping at the Brampton Hut half way point to collect four further cars. Another two 5s joined the convoy at Daventry before we arrived at Gaydon about 11.15am. Club members from the local West Mids group, and the not so local NEM group also met us at Gaydon with a total turn out in the end of 31 MX-5s. The car park at Gaydon is arranged around the circular profile of the museum building which gave us the chance to all park up together in an arc of 1st, 2nd and three 3rd generation cars.
The Gaydon centre is focused on the history of the British Car Industry, (remember that!) and features many of the familiar favourites with Minis, MGs, Rovers, as well as some of the more exotic such as Aston Martin, Rolls Royce and a whole row of very early Lotus 7’s. One car that we took a particular liking to was a concept MG from the 1980’s which whilst bearing a resemblance to later TVRs could have made a big difference to the MG marque had it actually been put into production. The presence of several Astons gave us the opportunity to play “spot the bits from the Mazda parts bin”. An early prototype of my personal favourite car from my “youth” the Ford RS200 was also on display. Will I ever own one of those now ? seems unlikely, shame.
The day ended with a convoy drive back home, on some nice, but speed camera infested roads, roofs down but still very chilly. As the first of our own official weekend runs this year it was a good day out and particularly nice to be able to meet up with members from a few other areas.
Thanks to all who came along and especially to Jon Elsey for organising the day.
MJC ©