On the shores of Canberra’s Lake Burley Griffin, hundreds of highly polished classic British cars glinted in the sunshine, as far as the eye could see. Rolls Royce, Jaguar, Aston Martin, MG, Triumph and some marques I only dimly remembered. It was the annual gathering of classic car clubs from the ACT and New South Wales, known as the “Terribly British Day”.
I had been invited to judge the display and nominate the “car I’d most like to take home”. It was no contest: I selected a fabulous 1910 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, that proud owner Ian Irwin had been working on for 32 years. A real labour of love. Sadly I wasn’t actually allowed to take it home. I awarded the “best club” prize to the Canberra Jaguar club.
In my speech I pointed out that Britain’s great motoring days are not just a thing of the past. Automotives remain our number one manufacturing export, 11% of the total. We exported some 1.2 million cars last year. They are also our top individual export item to Australia – up 206% since 2009, reflecting strong demand for British marques in Australia’s healthy economy.
And eight out of the eleven F1 Grand Prix teams are based in the UK. Motorsports engineering is a £6 billion industry in its own right.
The Canberra Times ran a nice piece about the event. They couldn’t resist a James Bond reference, describing my EA Carly as Moneypenny.