by Rick Feibusch
The
British Motor Industry
Heritage Trust
division of Rover Cars
opened it's new museum
at Gaydon
on May 1, with the most interesting drive-in ceremonies on record.
The museum is located just south of the West Midlands area, the UK's
"Detroit", and features all of the cars
that became part of BMC, then British Leyland
and ARG (Austin-Rover
Group), and finally Rover
Cars. All of the featured marque clubs set up tours that started at their original
factory sites and ended in a big display at the museum car park. Austins came
down from Longbridge, Morrises motored from Cowley, Triumphs
drove from Coventry and MGs buzzed in from Abingdon. Quite a sight!
While many of Britain's historic motorcar displays seem
to get lost in the era of gaslights, brass trimmings and elaborate Edwardian
coachwork, The Gaydon Centre is heavy on post-war iron and the pre-war models
that led to the onslaught of British automotive imports that made their way to
American shores in the late forties and fifties. The
Nuffield Group; Morris, Wolesley, Riley, and MG merged with Austin in
1952. Rover and Standard-Triumph were added later as the fortunes of the British
motor industry contracted.
These are the cars that brought Britain the millions of
US dollars needed
to rebuild it's war shattered economy. "Export or Die" was the slogan
and with steel allotments tied to export volume,
export they did. Automotive exports brought the largest amount of dollars
to the UK than any other manufactured product and British cars were the first
imported cars that Americans came to know well.
Where other collections contain custom crafted one-off automotive statements of the landed gentry, The Heritage Motor Centre presents the cars that were mass-produced for export and the emerging British middle class. All of the vehicles on display were built by the various manufacturers that eventually merged together to form British Leyland in the sixties. Many of these wonderful, clever and quirky little cars were imported into the US, making them part of American automotive history as well.
The Gaydon site is the company's original test facility and the surrounding territory still contains the test track, now obscured from view by a raised grade, landscaped and secured by a wire-topped fence. While the test track is off limits, the Land-Rover Jungle Track is in full view next to the visitors car park. Once you've entered the facility and parked, you are transported down to the main complex in a custom built, surrey-topped, Land-Rover motor-tram.
This ride gives you a good wide perspective view of the new building, that resembles a circular, earth tone starship, complete with a glass-domed cockpit on top. In reality, the glass covers a massive, three story deep lightwell-lobby and a top floor area that will, someday, be the restaurant. Presently, the restaurant resides off of the reception area on ground level. When the landscaping grows in I'm sure the structure will look less like something that burns mysterious rings in the fields around Bath.
The ground floor features an art gallery, a Computer Aided Design exhibit, and a research library along with an engineering area featuring cut-away engines, gearboxes and complete chassis's. A ride in the glass-sided elevator lowers you to the main museum floor, where most of the cars are on display. This approach is overwhelming!
Rather than list all of the collection, let's just say that there's something for everyone. Sports cars, racers, military vehicles, motorcycles, toys, taxis, police cars and off-road machines. Is that a Morris Minor fire engine!? Sure is! Built by the factory to use around the plant - it's narrow enough to fit between the production lines! It's that sort of thing . . . . . . . .
Gaydon is heavy in Morris Material. Starting with
a 1913 "Bullnose"
roadster and
going up through the twenties and thirties with the first baby Minors, Eights
and big, almost American sized, six-cylinder Twelves (12 h.p. at the rear wheels),
then following WWII with an "E" Series, Eight, the first production
1948 Minor (I got to sit in it!), and one of each 1000 body type. Besides the
fire wagon, there were front-drive Minis and 1100s as well as some Morris Itals
(the UK version of what we got as the Austin Marina), and a special Ital-based
safety car from the mid-'80s.
Are you an MG
aficionado? You'll find everything from Cecil Kimber's "Old Number One"
to the latest MGB RV8 as well as TB, Magnette and 1100 saloons (sedans to us
Yanks), and a number
of land speed record and racing cars. On the ground floor you'll find the MGA
Twin-Cam "cutaway" chassis that toured the show circuit during the
introduction. Tucked away in the
Mini section there's a lovely Pinin Farina styled MG Midget replacement prototype
built on a front-drive Mini floor pan. Pity it never went into production. Next
to the never-never Midget
sits a Mini-based,
Targa-topped fastback from the early '70s, that looks suspiciously like the
Honda Del Sol of
two decades later.
Healeys your thing? You can see everything from the Riley
based cars of the late '40s to the Austin based "Big Healeys" of the
fifties and sixties. You'll also find Sprites and historic racers
with quite a past. Austin's passenger
cars are well represented and include a rare three-headlighted A-90 Atlantic
Hardtop. This ill-fated attempt into the American medium-price market featured
a Healey 100-4 dual-carb engine, and enough chrome
trim to make a Pontiac
shudder. Other Austins from a tiny 1923 Seven, "Chummy" tourer to
a 1971, 1800 stretch hearse can be found on the floor. A few Seven based, thirties,
track racers and a J40 pedal car from the fifties are to be see in the entry
hall.
Are you getting the idea?
If you are planning a trip anywhere over there don't miss this one. You
may contact the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust at Banbury Road, Gaydon,
Warwick CV35 OBJ or call at:
011-44-926-641188. If Triumph is your marque of preference, this collection has
examples of all of the popular models as well as historic Standards and
Vanguards, race versions, the last TR7 produced, and a handsome Triumph Lynx
prototype. The Lynx is a stretched, four place, fastback TR8 that was deemed too
expensive to build and practically compete with similar spec Japanese and
American sport coupes.
I've just visited, what has to be, the most interesting
automotive museum in the world. No,
I haven't seen them all, but I can't imagine a collection of British built cars
that could mean so much to an enthusiast. Why is the British Motor
Industry Heritage Trust's facility at Gaydon so enjoyable?
Not because it's new - which it is - just opened on May 1.
And not because everything is so well presented - which it also is.
It's because to me, a lifelong automotive Anglophile, born and raised in
California, this museum is filled to overflowing with all of the cars I know and
love, as well as prototypes of cars that could have been.
