Last month I was about to head off to Castle Combe for a meeting and I will be going there for another to meet the id-pr team who will be operating a new and improved key handling system for the Group at our PR Driving Day on 25 June.
It’s not the first time that we have tried something that we hope will make key handling on the day easier, but we think this could be the best system yet. We will tell you more closer to the date.
We have a few automotive anniversaries this year. One of our “local” manufacturers, Mitsubishi Motors, is celebrating 40 years in the UK. Maserati is celebrating 100 years since the Maserati brothers established the company, Renault is celebrating 50 years of the Renault 8 Gordini and it’s 100 years since Philips produced its first car headlamp bulb. Across the Pond, the Dodge Brothers started up on their own 100 years ago and Ford finally standardised on black as the only colour for the Model T.
Mitsubishi will be bringing along a few cars from the past 40 years and we know there will be a few other older cars there too, apart from those from our own Kim Henson’s collection.
Kim is again co-ordinating the historical cars for the day so if any of our guests would like to bring a classic, please get in touch with Kim. It’s up to you whether you would like to make them available for driving, chauffeured rides or static display. Kim can be contacted at mailto:Ki*****@ao*.com" data-original-string="kkM+tGHYuKS7g+ndnGQPtw==" title="This contact has been encoded by Anti-Spam by CleanTalk. Click to decode. To finish the decoding make sure that JavaScript is enabled in your browser.
While we’re on the subject of older cars, the Western Group is privileged to have two sizeable car museums on our patch. The National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in the New Forest and further west, the Haynes Museum at Sparkford in Somerset.
In the last month, the Haynes Museum has completed the redevelopment of the site, giving more much needed space. It’s just 29 years since John Haynes first displayed 33 cars there and the redevelopment opens up a new chapter for the museum.
Our congratulations to the Haynes team on the re-development – I can’t wait to see it.
John Kendall | Chairman WGMW
