Arriving around 10am we had been allocated a parking spot opposite what turned out to be the building housing the collection. Once swiped in, we were treated to a guided tour around the exhibits with a brief outline of the history and significance of each exhibit. Once that was concluded we were allowed to take closer looks at any of the vehicles which particularly interested us.
This included being allowed to sit in an original GT40 which had never gone out of Ford ownership and had a current market value of around £8 million.
It was interesting to hear that the collection curators struggle to get much funding. I guess this ties in with the attitude most of the car clubs are met with from Ford UK, which is they are not interested in what they’ve sold in the past but only interested in what they are selling now and in the future. Whilst I’m sure there is some merit in that, from a hard nosed business perspective, I do wonder what they lose out on by not recognising the potential brand loyalty of customers past.
It was clear that those involved with the heritage collection are enthusiastic about their jobs and had even found a somewhat novel way of getting their cars restored “on the cheap”. We were all surprised to hear that they send cars out to one of His Majesty’s Prisons to get restoration and even paint jobs done. Apparently one of the rehabilitation projects, giving inmates the opportunity to learn a trade, is bodywork repair and painting and the prison welcomes vehicles to test the newly learned skills on. Judging by the cars we saw which had undergone the prisoners’ repair work, they were clearly taking the opportunity seriously.

On 14/07/2025   /   Latest News