I was in England a couple weeks ago, so wrote this up for our club's
newsletter. Thought I ought to share it with my friends on the list
too...
</karl>
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Karl F. Best
Sr. Online Doc Consultant God: Oh, don't grovel!
Novell Corporate Publishing Services Arthur: Sorry!
Orem, UT 801-222-7517
kbest@novell.com http://www.xmission.com/~kbest '57 MGA roadster
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Novell rep to ANSI X3V1.8, ISO/IEC-JTC1/SC18/WG8, Davenport, SGML Open
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I was recently in Britain on business, and made it a point to see a
few British car-related sites.
First on the agenda was the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu
(pronounced Byew-lee), just south of Southampton. The museum is
situated on an ancestral estate, which also includes a ruined
Cisterian abbey from the 14th century. The previous Lord of Beaulieu
had begun collecting cars, as does the current Lord, and these formed
the nucleus of the museum. About 250 cars are on display, as well as a
number of motorcycles, trucks, and old bicycles. Being an MG fan, I
was quite disappointed with seeing only two examples of the marque: a
1935 PA and a 1930 M-type with fabric body and boat tail. (For all
your Triumph fans that are begining to snicker, there wasn't much
better of a showing there: only a TR2 and a Herald were to be found.)
A few other highlights of the museum were a Austin-Healey 100M, a '62
Lotus Elite, a Jaguar XK150 drophead, and an XJ220, billed as the
world's most expensive car, at 403,000 pounds, about $600,000, though
I know for a fact that a MacLaren F1 is going for $850,000. My
favourite was, however, the 1930 Bentley blower appropriately attired
in BRG.
They also had a collection of speed record cars that had set records
at Bonneville, Daytona, and other places. Included here were the
Sunbeam, the first car over 200 mph, and the Bluebird, the first car
to attain speeds of 300 and 400 mph.
Also on display was the first Japanese car imported into Britain, a
1930(?) Datsun, brought over by Morris(?) to check for patent
infringements.
Most all of the cars were in driving condition, and many take part
yearly in the London to Brighton Run. One thing I was quick to note:
while many nationalities of cars were on display, only the British
cars leaked oil. (Seriously! There were catch pans under any of the
cars that had oil in the engines, and the British ones leaked far more
than those from France, Germany, or elsewhere.)
Another car-related stop was Abingdon, site of the MG car factory, the
Mecca for MG enthusiasts. Unfortunately it was Saturday, and the car
club offices (the only thing left to see anymore) were closed, so I
didn't stay long. I peered through the window of the club office in
the old comany administration building, saw Kimber's office window,
and a couple of the remaining factory buildings. I recognized the
street from old photos, including the famous shot of scores of pre-war
cars lined up for delivery. A gentleman in a rubber-bumper MGBGT-V8
stopped to drop off something at the office and we chatted for a few
moments. It looked like he was off for a drive with his wife; there
was picnic stuff in the back of the car.
Later in the day on a tour of the city of Oxford and the University
(just up the road ten miles from Abingdon) the bus tour guide said
that Lord Nuffield (previously Morris, the owner of the Morris
car company) had endowed Oxford with just under a million pounds, and
created Nuffield College; a bit of trivia I hadn't heard before.
While driving around London and the south of Britain I saw lots of
Jaguar sedans, one Morgan, a couple MGB's, a few old Morris Minors,
one MGF(!) and a few beautiful TVR Chimeras. The MGF was going past me
on a narrow curve, so I didn't have a chance to look at it more than
long enough to spot the grill badge, but I was able to drool over a
Chimera in a parking lot for several minutes; in looks it's sort of a
cross between a Mazda Miata and a Chevy Camaro, but much more
desirable (to me, anyway) than either.
The impression I got wandering and driving the streets of London and
the South was that about a quarter of the cars were British, a quarter
German, somewhat less than a quarter French, and the rest Japanese.
That compared to Munich, where I was the following week, where over
half the cars were domestic German, a quarter other European marques
(almost no British, though), and the rest Japanese. The German car
industry is certainly healthier than the British.
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