What colour would you choose?

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders' annual Motor Industry Facts always makes useful reading for those of us who are interested in the fortunes of the motor industry in Britain.

This year, for instance, one can see how UK car production fell by one third in 2009, to its lowest figure since 1984, as the manufacturing industry fell foul of the economic climate. It had remained fairly constant, around 1.5 million, for the past decade. One also learns that the top selling car in the UK is the Ford Fiesta and that two million engines were produced in Britain in 2009.

Amongst the data about production and sales, one can glean some other facts that give an insight into the social changes in the car buying public. One that caught my eye was the change in choice of car colour between 1999 and 2009. Ten years ago, the British public patriotically chose red, blue then white as the top three colours. Today, silver is the first choice (5th place in 1999) followed by blue and black. Perhaps our tastes have become a little more sophisticated?

For more facts go to www.smmt.co.uk/downloads/MotorIndustryFacts.pdf

Energy conservation 1980s style

Tomorrow (August 21st) a band of enthusiasts will be making their way to the Heritage Motor Centre to celebrate the work of the late Spen King. As I noted in my last post, Spen King's influence is evident in many of the cars that grace the museum.

To coincide with their arrival, we thought we'd dust off one of the cars from the reserve collection, ECV3 (energy conservation vehicle) and add it to the museum display. For a somewhat innocuous looking, bug shaped car, it was extremely innovative for 1982, with performance that manufacturers work hard to achieve now, some thirty years later.

Coming at a time when Michael Edwardes had pared down British Leyland, the newly formed BL Technology, headed up by King, straightaway produced ground breaking concepts. ECV3, with its aluminium frame, plastic body panels and aerodynamic, if slightly ugly, shape, was an innovative little car. Its three cylinder, one litre engine and lightweight design gave an impressive 115mph and a startling average fuel economy figure of 100mpg.

It's a shame BL didn't turn this into a reality more quickly but much of the work contained in this small car would feature in car technology in decades to come.

Spen King: the engineer's engineer

With all the interest in the Range Rover to mark its 40th anniversary, it’s one of life’s ironies that the sad news of the death of Charles Spencer ‘Spen’ King was announced recently. Spen will always be remembered as the creator of the Range Rover yet his career was far more influential than just that, albeit iconic, design.

One only has to look at the collection here at Gaydon to see his hand in the motor industry over more than four decades of work. From the gas turbine prototypes in the early part of his time with the Rover Company, to the ECV3 energy efficient concept in his last years with BL, Spen’s great engineering skills were put to use in many British post-war models. Take a a walk around the museum and you will pass many of the designs which he influenced: the Stag, TR7, the P6, the SD1 and, of course, the clean lines of the first Range Rover. And there are others that didn’t quite make it into production, such as the pretty Rover/Alvis P6BS mid-engined sports car.

Spen visited Gaydon every so often and was always willing to give us some tips about the cars he had worked on; always insightful yet gracious too. With his death, Britain and the international motor industry has lost someone who can be rightfully called an engineer’s engineer.

Duke of Kent's Mini story

Like many of the Centre's visitors His Royal Highness had his own Mini Story. The display of Monte Carlo Rally winning Minis provoked a memory of his own 1961 Mini which he used to commute between Buckinghamshire and London and had been specially tuned by a hill climb expert to give extra performance.

My Mini Story

2009 is the 50th anniversary of the great British icon -the Mini. This fun little car has been loved by many since its launch in 1959 and everyone has their very own Mini Story. We'd like to hear yours...