Important: Knebworth

[Jonathan]

For the benefit of those on here who usually come, or were planning to come to the show at Knebworth on the Bank Holiday weekend we will not now be attending as a club this year.

This is because we've been advised by the commercial outfit that organise this particular show that vehicles manufactured after 1981 are no longer welcome at any of their events. Company policy and all that. Obviously this is disappointing given that we've put on a display at Knebworth for the last five years that has generally been very well received, but our reasoning with them seems to have fallen on largely on deaf ears so far. As a result, I can't see why we should continue to support their events.

On the plus side most of the larger shows tend to be a lot less discriminating nowadays and the growing trend seems to be that 1980s cars are usually very welcome, so we'll be looking for a suitable alternative late season event for next year onwards. In the meantime, I think Zoe (who books events for us) is looking at something else for the bank holiday weekend if any of us still want to get a few cars together.

[Jeff Turbo]

Thats a bummer. I was going again this year.

[matthewsemple]

I think the pre-1980 policy (or any other date related restriction) is unhelpful and inappropriate and shows a lack of understanding of the classic car movement by the organisers.

Some cars were instant classics the day they rolled off the production line whilst other will never be classics, they will just be old cars. As a club that was formed whilst the Metro, Maestro and Montego were still in production (if not the MG versions) the MG 'M' Group has never attempted to show at such events and never will.

There are plenty of other shows where our cars can be displayed so if our cars aren't good enough, neither is our money :)

We are going to the MG Rover event at Wicksteed Park (10th September) and the MG Festival at Castle Combe on Saturday 16th September. Both these shows will have a full range of classics of all ages.

[Jonathan]

Actually, the “Modern British Classics” slogan isn’t coincidence. By taking the Maestro and Montego to just these sorts of shows and putting them alongside Allegros, Maxis, Marinas, Mk1-3 Escorts etc. they’ve established themselves quite nicely, which is exactly what we want and need them to do.

I think this is just a case of one company misjudging their market, and I guess they’ll pay the price for that.

[matthewsemple]

Yes, agreed - I didn't mean that we do not go to Classic Car Shows - we just avoid the ones with daft age policies. There are loads of others to choose from. So much so that on two weekends this year the MG 'M' Group has had stands at two shows in different parts of the country.