MGLive 2010 at Silverstone

The annual MG Car Club event at Silverstone took place on 4-6 June. I was there just for the Saturday, spending some of my time on the Register stand in the main marquee. Unusually for a British summer, the weather was warm and sunny most of the time, so the committee members on duty were actually feeling the heat. The theme for display cars in the marquee this year was ‘MGs in racing’, and we were very fortunate to have as our exhibit a ZB owned and raced by Bruce Chapman, grandson of the 1950s rally driver Nanci Mitchell. Bruce’s car was prepared in the style of one of the BMC Competitions Department Magnettes that Nanci drove, and in fact several people were convinced that it was the original article, as it sported a JRX 251 number plate.

As always there was a varied programme of events to suit most tastes. The recent innovation of arena stunt-driving displays continued, and I thought the idea of grouping the main tents around the ‘Abingdon Plaza’ area worked well, providing a good centre point. On the other hand our Register parking was somewhat less prominent than before, being tucked away between the club marquee and the race track. I managed to see a couple of races, not involving Magnettes, although I believe one or two were competing over the weekend. The trader city was the other attraction – apart from the usual stalls, Moto-Build of Surrey were promoting both their new Magnette parts business (including disc-brake conversion) and a couple of well-restored Z’s for sale.

There were about 14 Z Magnettes in the Register parking area on the Saturday, however no Farinas that I saw. Apparently the numbers on Friday and Sunday were about half that, but of course Magnette owners may well have been there in other MGs. Certainly there seemed to be a steady trickle of visitors through the day to the Register stand, where Mark Bunce’s new MG chocolate lollies were attracting interest – this could be the start of whole new range of edible regalia. We also had a selection of Oxford Diecast 1:43 Z models, with newly introduced variants including Island Green. Look out for Paul Batho’s Safety Fast article about the making of this collectable.