Here in deepest Derbyshire there is much excitement and anticipation at the re-opening of visitor attractions. Those with an interest in transport can already choose from the National Tramway Museum and a number of heritage railways, but the county is now also home to the UK’s newest motor museum; the grandly named Great British Car Journey. As it prepares to open on 22nd May, ViaRETRO have been granted a preview.
The new attraction has been created by a team headed by Richard Usher, former owner of Auto Windscreens and latterly former owner-operator of Blyton Park circuit. Having sold Blyton to Ginetta in 2017, Usher embarked on acquiring a collection that would eventually become the Great British Car Journey and if there was ever a museum that complemented our ViaRETRO policy of “any classic is better than no classic”, this is the place. You won’t find halls of exotica here; the emphasis is squarely on accessible nostalgia. As it happens, many of the cars in the collection are now considerably more scarce than the poster cars of their generation. You wouldn’t have found Austin Allegro artwork on many bedroom walls in the 1980s but a good Allegro is now much harder to find than the Lamborghini Countach favoured by poster-magnates Athena.
“I wanted to build a collection of the kind of cars that were once everywhere, but you never see any more” explains Richard. “It really started when I was running Blyton Park, and there was this old chap from the village who used to turn up every other day just to see what we were doing. He had an immaculate regency blue Austin Maestro which he had owned since new, and it was so unusual to find one in such good condition that I bought it.” From the acquisition of the Maestro, the idea of opening a visitor attraction grew. “Most car museums bore me though, who wants to see rooms full of clutter, a wall given over to the history of spark plugs? We tell the story of the British motor industry using the cars themselves, a hundred years of history starting with the Austin 7 and leading right up to the present day”. Making extensive use of large banners reproducing period advertising, the GBCJ feels more like a motor show than a traditional museum, and it’s an eclectic mix. “Many of our cars came from what was formerly the James Hull Collection. Jaguar Land Rover had bought the lot from James but they were only really interested in keeping the Jaguars. I don’t think they really thought about what to do with the rest, but after some negotiations we were able to pick what we wanted. Of course, we still had to buy in numerous other models. You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to find a basic Chevette. It’s easy to buy a HS or HSR but you try finding a 1.3L. We bought ours from Vauxhall in the end.”
The former wire works building had been vacant for some time before the GBCJ moved in. It was receiving its finishing touches when I visited but will be fully operational by the time you read this. Cars were being polished, hoovers led round by their cables and the last pots of paint were being cleared from the cafeteria; a patriotic palette of red, white and blue of course. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the information boards beside each car were still blank, but the printed sheets will remain sparsely populated. Instead, visitors will be guided by an interactive tablet that will bring to life the stories of the individual cars. Even the less eagle eyed will also notice where I should have shifted said boards before taking photographs, but you should consider that to be an added incentive to visit personally to gain those uninterrupted views.
We start with those Austin 7s, the car that saved Austin from bankruptcy and kick-started affordable motoring for the masses. The reason the 7 was and remains so enduring stems from its sheer adaptability and number of variants produced over a long production run. As well as making complete cars, Austin would also sell a rolling chassis and a significant coachbuilding industry developed alongside. One of the most striking designs was produced by Swallow of Blackpool and a gleaming black example greets visitors right by the main entrance. It’s a purposeful looking thing with a low roofline and split windscreen but it remains rather snug inside, even by the standards of its brethren. Notably of course, Swallow was founded by William Lyons and William Walmsley. Production moved to Coventry in 1928 and from 1931 they rebranded their cars as SS, eventually becoming Jaguar Cars Ltd. in 1945 when the SS name ceased to be so marketable.
Stepping forward in time we encounter a lovely shooting brake from the immediate post war period. This Austin 16 was inspired by the American trend for “woody” estate cars and is essentially the late 1940s equivalent of a modern SUV but far more stylish. Rolling off the Austin line as a bare chassis with frontal bodywork only, the cars were completed at Papworth Industries in Cambridgeshire, the manufacturing arm of Papworth Village Settlement. The community was founded in 1916 as a self-supporting colony for sufferers of tuberculosis, where patients could learn to live with their condition and develop skills from which to earn a wage. One of the focus areas was carpentry and cabinet making, which during World War Two became a key source of components for aircraft frames. Following the war, Frank Jordon, formerly head coachbuilder for the London General Omnibus Company, became head of carpentry at Papworth Industries. He secured an order to build 500 shooting brake bodies for Austin which paved the way for the founding of the Papworth coachbuilding division that created the bodies for Green Goddess fire tenders amongst other things. The craftsmanship evident in the Austin 16 Shooting Brake is a testament to the skills of that workforce, and the unusual lack of headlining gives us an opportunity to appreciate the construction. It also happens to be an immensely cool car and I apologize for my hopeless photograph (but like I said, get there yourself if want to see more).
Onward through the 50s and 60s and all major brands are represented. There is a line up of Minis if that’s your thing, including an unregistered Mini 30 which is technically out of sync but sits with its older relatives. I’m more taken by the lowlight Morris Minor however, which is kept company by a lilac Million, and the stunning Sunbeam Talbot 90.
Less familiar is the imposing Humber Hawk estate that is displayed next to a large image of its former owner. Sir Fenton Atkinson was the High Court Judge who presided over the 1966 Moors Murders case which saw Ian Brady and Myra Hindley rightly put away for a very long time. Following the trial he retreated for a time to Scotland where he bought the Humber and was chauffeured around the area by his personal driver. The presence of a dashboard operated dip switch rather than the standard floor operated control is apparently explained by his driver not being in possession of the usual allocation of fully functional legs. While we’re here it’s worth also mentioning the attention given to Rootes brands and the rarely seen Husky variant of the Imp.
Onto the 70s and 80s and the cars become players in my own frame of reference. The pair of Vauxhall Astras show how car design suddenly took a leap into the aero age, and two old fleet rivals are reunited in the Vauxhall Cavalier and Ford Sierra. The Austin Princess should have been a winner but ex-Auto Windscreens man Usher points out a new detail, the gently delaminating Triplex 10/20 front screen. Comprised of both laminated and toughened glass it was cutting edge technology and goes to prove that whilst British Leyland may have often snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, they didn’t lack ambition.
We find more glass nerdery at the Mk3 Ford Escort. “I used to love these”, continues Richard, “they’d all get broken into via the rear quarterlight. We could buy in the replacement glass for about £2 and we sell them for a lot more than that. It was good business!” We pause to consider the uninspired Triumph Acclaim and marvel at the lash up that passes for its electric window switches, and linger by the last ever MG Metro, a car that was forever saddled with a four-speed gearbox whilst the French hot hatches sped away.
As the 1990s dawned and Rover’s 200 series morphed from boxy to almost sleek, I’m taken aback to find an early Ford Mondeo. This car seems to sum up the ethos of Great British Car Journey really quite well. Ubiquitous and current when I first started working in the motor industry, I covered many miles in Mondeo pool cars and they were a huge success in the sales charts. Now though, the nameplate will cease production next year, the example on display is 25 years old, and early Mondeos are a rare sight. Still contemporary looking on the outside, its plush blue interior shows it to be from a different age, but have we really reached a point when a Mondeo is a museum piece? I suppose we have. It’s a brighter place to leave the journey than the City Rover, that’s for sure. I feel very little nostalgia for one of those, the final insult of an industry in decline. However, don’t be glum, because this is a museum where you can actually try some of the exhibits for yourself and there’s driving to be done. Contrary to what my photograph may suggest, we’re not talking about the McLaren though; it’s far more exciting than that.
We walk over to the storage building which houses a few spare museum cars but mainly contains the fleet used for the Drive Dad’s Car experience. This building is usually off limits so I hope you enjoy this sneak peek behind the curtain, and there’s something very alluring about the atmosphere. Back to the experience cars though; grouped into Classic, Premium or Luxury groups, visitors can choose from around 30 cars ranging from an Austin Seven Ruby Saloon through to a Reliant Robin, or a 7-litre Bentley Eight. If the 60s were your era you could bag a Morris Minor or Hillman Imp, sample a Vauxhall Viva from the 70s, while children of the 80s could take a Vauxhall Cavalier or a Ford Sierra for a spin. All of the cars can be sampled on a private loop of road within the museum’s grounds and while speed is not of the essence it’s plenty enough to get the feel of your chosen chariot. Not wishing to fail in my journalistic duty to select something slightly left field, I had my eye on a very smart Avenger. However, being the type of person who is always the last in a group to order in a restaurant, I found myself almost subconsciously blurting out “TR7 please!” as we walked back to the main building to fetch the keys.
Anyone who ran a TR7 40 years ago would have been a bit of a stylish groover, much like I am today, so really it was the natural choice. Triumph’s much-maligned wedge has long held my curiosity and the example owned by the GBCJ is as close as you will get to driving a new one, being in immaculate condition and still only showing 18,500 miles. First registered in Coventry in 1980, the 2.0 Coupé looks as good as the day it was built. I negotiate the high sill and lower myself into the driving seat, the Triumph starts on the first turn of the key and we’re away. The car is a delight, the clutch positive, the gearbox tight and the steering precise. To be frank it’s far better than I expected and instead of being a worn-out relic, it’s a time machine, a full-on nostalgia hit that you’d struggle to match elsewhere. I know we’re not supposed to like the TR7 but I like lots of things I’m not supposed to and for the next few minutes I thoroughly enjoy myself. As the price of each drive includes one adult admission to the museum, it hardly an expensive way to satisfy your curiosity and Drive Dad’s Car is expected to be a big hit. Surely the best way to keep our hobby alive is to give as many people as possible the chance to take part. It’s a joy to discover a place where classic cars aren’t just destined to be static exhibits, and the Great British Car Journey deserves every success.
The Great British Car Journey opens on 22nd May and can be found on the A6 main road at Ambergate, Derbyshire, DE56 2HE. See Great British Car Journey to plan your visit.
