Sunshine for Drive-it-Day

Drive-it-Day is organised by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs to encourage owners in the UK to use their historic vehicles and celebrate the UK’s transport heritage. Local groups run their individual events under the federations banner. The day is held as close as possible to the anniversary of the Royal Automobile Club One Thousand Mile Trial which started on 23 April 1900, when 65 vehicles left Hyde Park Corner in London for an epic trip around Great Britain.

James goes to a car club MPH2 and had been asked by the club Chairman Tony, to come up with an event for the group on Drive-it-day. So on Sunday 22 April which was a lovely sunny day, we met up with the group at the Lythe Hill Hotel. After a coffee on the terrace, James sent the cars off at two minute intervals, each team was given a copy map on which a route was marked with arrows and a sheet with photos of landmarks such as signs, post boxes etc. Navigators had to guide the driver round the route through some lovely country lanes and villages, while keeping a keen eye out for the landmarks which they had to take their own photo of. The route was around 40 miles, mainly in the South Downs National Park and in the MPH2 (Midhurst, Petworth, Haslemere) area.

Once we’d set everybody on their way, we slipped off to collect Mario so he didn’t miss out on Drive-it-Day. We obviously couldn’t take part as we knew the route but had a lovely sunny ‘bobble’ along the country lanes at meet up with everyone at the halfway point.

We had a lovely lunchstop at one of our regular pubs The Stag at Balls Cross, Jane and Mark the new landlords did us proud with a reserved car park, delicious buffet lunch and glorious sunshine so we could all sit outside while James checked off the mornings photographic efforts.It was soon time for the 14 teams to leave for part two. The cars a mixture of classic and modern included several Jaguar E-types and a Mark 2, a Triumph Stag, Rolls Royce, MG, and a Sunbeam Talbot. By now everybody had got the hang of it and set off with enthusiasm.

Mario had a gentle meander back to The Lythe Hill, stopping off for a woodland photo shoot on route and to look at some cute lambs.

 Once all the cars had finished, everyone gathered for a drink on the hotel terrace and the final round up of results. All seemed to have had an enjoyable day, some with better observation than others! All of the photo’s had been spotted by at least one of the competitors so it would seem that the difficulty level was about right. One team, new members Peter and Jan won, dropping just 5 points over the whole day.

So all in all a lovely Spring outing, on route we spotted loads of other classics on the road,  some taking part in other organised events. Our classics are there to be driven and Drive-it-Day just encourages this and lets people see just how many historic vehicles are out there still and what an important part they still play in the economy.

Mario certainly enjoyed being out in the sunshine – a total contrast to his last trip out in March at the Goodwood Members Meeting. We will post about this very soon but it’s taken a while to sort the all the photos…