Classic Car Buyer Magazine No.225 Coventry Celebration Vorige editie

I’ve spent the past week
engaging in a strange sort of
time travel, flitting between
British Leyland’s past and its
future. On Friday I was given
a lift by managing director Phil
over to Longbridge in his 13-reg
MINI Clubman to pick up a 13-reg
MG3. We then drove in convoy
to the MINI factory in Oxford (the
surviving remnant of the Morris
works at Cowley) and then I had
the MG for a weekend of testing;
851 miles of testing to be precise.
Those miles included attending
Pride of Longbridge. In the two
years I have owned a Longbridgebuilt
Austin-badged (sort of) car
I have never taken it to Pride of
Longbridge and this year was no
exception as I was in the MG3,
which took its place between an
MG TD Midget and a Rover SD1.
The presence of a ’Fifties MG
and a ’Seventies Rover shows how
Pride of Longbridge has changed
in the nine years it’s been running.
While I missed the event in its
early years even the one four
years ago had a slightly funereallike
atmosphere, with a locked and
seemingly abandoned Longbridge
across the road and a few lines
of cars huddled on the edge of
Cofton Park.
These days Pride of Longbridge
itself has a much happier
atmosphere to it. Partly this is
down to the fact that Longbridge’s
future is now much more secure
than it has been for many, many
years, meaning that the event
can be more celebratory than
commemorative. But I think
it’s mainly down to the way the
event has broadened its scope,
now welcoming cars with any
connection to British Leyland and
hosting ‘sideshow’ events like the
Cowley Convoy. The impressive
size of the gathering (around 2300
cars) and the fact that there is a
growing international contingent
shows that it’s well on its way
to becoming one of the leading
BL-themed events in existence.
As for the MG3, an editorial
isn’t the place to do it justice but it
is an excellent little car. It has no
engineering, stylistic or design link
with any previous MG, which may
be a problem for some but I think
it’s what the marque needs.