Member Windrush was honoured with a special award for services to the club
Christopher presented the award for best car in show to Devilish
for his amazing Firefrost Rover 75 Tourer
The Gryphon award winning Firefrost tourer with “OVP” to the right making a welcome appearence
It had been a rather pleasant day in the company of like minded people with some amazing vehicles on show, but unfortunately like all good things it had to come to a close and by 5:00pm most had started their journey home.
The Pride Of Longbridge - Cofton Park: 14th April 2012
2012's first National Club Meet was incorporated into a two day event. The MGR enthusiasts’ weekend commenced with the 7th annual Pride of Longbridge rally held on Saturday April 14th at Cofton Park which is just across Lowhill Lane from the factory now operated by MG Motors.
This event, organised by the Austin Longbridge Federation, featured 1100 cars over 100 of which belonged to our members, so the club was well represented. In total over 3000 people were at the event which is rapidly becoming the largest gathering of its type in the world.
The club gazebo at the event
Flying the flags
The factory
Austin 10's
Austin A40 Pick Up
Mellow yellow
A spectre in its own right!
A brace of shot silk
Rovers galore
A final look across Cofton Park
The Classic Motor Show : 11th - 13th November 2011
November 11th 12th & 13th saw the club attending the Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham for the second year running.
We were inundated by visitors many of whom didn't know of the club's existence, which was exactly why we were there.
As a result we acquired 31 new members at the show, with the promise of many more going to register when they got home.
Duotone, Tony Bubble, Trophy Yellow Mark, and Jezzer 1 all supplied their gleeming cars for display on our stand,
and you couldn't hope to find a wider choice of vehicles to show off the marque.
Welcome to our stand, and hello Duotone
Rovers to the left, and MGs here to the right
Why not take a seat?
There's plenty to see
The Dorchester Duchess
The car that's double the fun
A view from the rear
Over to the yellow one that deserves a trophy
and Tony's 08 with the rather unique under bonnet extras
We're behind you
Finally back to HQ
and some rather choice items available in the club shop
The 11th Club Meet - Aviation Museum, Flixton : 18th Sept 2011
The second National Meet of 2011 was held on Sunday September 18th at the Norfolk and Suffolk Aviation Museum in Flixton, Suffolk. This was the club's 11th National Gathering.
Members started arriving from 10am and the last few left at 5pm.
61 cars attended and were parked in between the varied array of aircraft on display there, making this a rather unique setting for a National.
The weather was kind, which helped make the day a tremendous success.
Many thanks go to member Woolleysox for donating a brand new flag depicting the club's logo which we flew with pride all day.
There were certainly some magnificent machines on view.
With a wide selection of saloons, tourers, MGs and Rovers in many different guises.
The Club Team were on hand as usual to present the raffle,
and member Starbug2 managed to scoop up several of the prizes including an LCD Digital TV.
Some very shiny cars nestled between some stunning exhibits.
The 10th Club Meet - Atwell-Wilson Museum, Calne : 6th March 2011
The Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum established in 1962 played host to the club's first national get together of 2011.
This was a lovely venue in which to meet and offered a wide selection of classic exhibits from yester-year.
The day began with the arrival of the Club team at 9:15am to get things set for the official opening time of 10:30am.
To say it was a bit nippy would have been the understatement of the year, but the sun was out, and we could ask for no more.
After parking the team's cars up and assembling the brand new gazebo
(as the last one fell foal to 'Typhoon Gaydon')
work began on erecting the various flags and signs to tell of our presence.
No sooner had this begun than some of the early bird members started to arrive
and put Actros, Dragrad, and Jake amongst others through their paces.
The place soon filled up and we had a total of 59 cars,
and 88 people in attendance.
Plenty of tourers were there too
There were cars in a variety of colours including Trophy Blue and Solar Red
as well as a 'Flying Banana' no less...well actually a Sunspot Monogram ZT
No it's not a karaoke, but Reebs conducting the raffle, much to the bemusement of Christopher and Parker
Then came the award for best car in show and it went this year to Teflon
With his pristine example of a very well maintained 75 Connoisseur in Monogram Lagoon
Many thanks to member CMWI for the use of some of his images in this report
The Classic Motor Show : 12th - 14th November 2010
November 2010 marked the Owners Club's first appearance at the annual NEC Classic Motor Show. After two years of trying, we finally secured a stand and over the three day event were able to promote some fine examples of the marque, as well as introduce to many, the experience of sitting behind the wheel of a Rover 75 and MG ZT.
The Club's stand was manned over the course of the event by Christopher, Reebs, Dragrad, Phil, JakeW89, djw40 and Jezzer 1, both of whom surrendered the use of their vehicles for the entirety of the display.
Over the three days we gave away 114 complementary Tax Disc Holders, sold grille badges, key rings, lapel pin badges, and window stickers. In addition many new members joined up on the spot, and many more registered later from the comfort of their own homes.
As the newbie’s in town, we were made to feel very welcome by the more established stand holders adjacent to us including the SD1 Club & Rover P6 Club to name but two.
From Left to right: Christopher (and daughter), djw40, Reebs, and Dragrad
2004 MG ZT 180 SE Sports Auto in Monogram Lagoon
2002 Rover 75 Club SE CDT Diesel Tourer in Dover White
2004 Rover 75 Connoisseur SE Long Wheel Base Limousine in Platinum Gold
On-Line registration, and club information desk
......and we even got a mention in the press (Classic Car Weekly)
The 9th Club Meet - Gaydon Motor Centre : 25th April 2010
For the nineth club national meet, we returned to where it all began for us, Gaydon Motor Centre, Warwickshire. Taking place on 25th April 2010, over four years since the inaugural meet, this time there were 107 cars in attendance.
Gaydon is of course significant in that the motor museum contains the very first and the very last Rover 75 to roll off the production lines, so we were in good company.
Once again, many fine examples were present, including a long wheel base limousine, Rover 75 V8, and a couple of very shiny Monogram ZTs finished in Shot Silk and Bittersweet 'flip' paint.
The weather, although rainy in the morning soon cleared, but did unfortunately leave a rather gusty breeze, which at one point caused one of our gazebos to take a turn for the worse.
Several trade stands were also introduced on this occasion manned by a selection of our trader members, all offering goods and services to those present. Once more the Gryphon award was given as well as the raffle which we have all come to know and love.
The 8th Club Meet - Nene Park : 18th October 2009
The eighth National Meet took place on 18th October 2009 at Ferry Meadows, Nene Park in Peterborough between 10:30 - 5:30pm, and was the second national get together of 2009.
On this occasion we had a turn out of 70 vehicles all of which were suitably polished and were a credit to their owners.
Our meeting point was in the main car park of the site, however Ferry Meadows had much more to offer especially for those members with families, including a water sports area as well as a railway which ringed the perimeter of the park.
As always, there was an excited huddle around our registration area as the raffle was drawn and prizes were given.
A good time was had by all, with another opportunity for club members who speak to each other regularly via cyberspace to say hello face to face.
The 7th Club Meet - RAF Cosford : 19th April 2009
The seventh National Meet took place on 19th April 2009 at RAF Cosford in Shropshire between 10:30 - 4:30pm.
With over 117 cars present this proved to be quite a spectacle. The venue was running The National Cold War Exhibition as an additional attraction, and along with having aircraft as a natural backdrop, made for a wonderful location at which to meet.
Once again, the Gryphon Award was presented for the best car of show, as well as the customary raffle. With over 100 people gathering round our registration area, it really illustrated the support the members gave to this event.
We were graced with an unusual photo opportunity as 10 monogram finished cars lined up side by side.
Colours included Bittersweet, Shot Silk, Chatsworth, Typhoon, Spectre and Mirage to name but a few.
The 6th Club Meet - Beaulieu : 3rd & 4th May 2008
The sixth national meet was the first to be spread over a two day period, with an informal social get together on the Saturday at Bucklers Hard in the New Forest, a picturesque 18th century village on the banks of the Beaulieu River.
Followed in the evening by a meal at the Royal Oak at Hilltop just outside Beaulieu village.
The next day, the meet itself held at the National Motor Museum attracted 61 cars of all variants arriving from 10:15 am, and these were expertly grouped into the customary 75, ZT and V8 collections by our very own club marshal actros.
With the passing that year of long standing member 'Gryphon' it was decided to introduce the Gryphon Award for best car in show, as voted for by members themselves, and this we did in honour of him.
Xpart again joined us at Beaulieu and gave a very informative presentation in the lecture theatre, outlining the history of the company and how they saw the future, the latest position on spares and the current position with reference to the Chinese and how Xpart would be fitting in with them.
That was followed by the customary raffle draw and free tea and coffee.
The 5th Club Meet - Holker Hall : 23rd September 2007
The fifth Club Meet was held in the grounds of Holker Hall in Cumbria on Sunday 23rd September 2007 between 10:30 - 5pm, and 73 cars were in attendance.
This meet marked the introduction of our own booking-in table so that members would not be held up at the gate as they entered.
Name badges were also issued to the registered members who were attending, and we had our own marshals to park you up as you arrived.
There was the normal 'Car of the show' award, the prize being a saloon warning triangle kit kindly donated by Les at SMC and £25 from the club. As well as that we held a raffle with prizes which included chrome capped wing mirror covers, four more warning triangles, and an MG Rover golf bag.
We were also lucky enough to secure the services of Mr John Easson, Xpart & M.G.Rover Business Manager. John was able to answer any and all questions relating to spare parts availability on behalf of Xpart.
The 4th Club Meet - Haynes Museum : 18th March 2007
The Club's fourth National Meet was held on March 18th 2007 at the Haynes International Motor Museum Sparkford, Somerset.
The Club was given it's own parking area outside the main entrance to the museum which was exclusive to us, and the car park adjacent to ours had Ferrari's and Lamborghini's from the museum parked up.
It also just so happened to be the 'Haynes Dream Car Day' which was held on their own test track and consisted of a range of cars being brought out of the museum for the day and being driven around the circuit.
The prestigious Haynes International Motor Museum, at Sparkford in Somerset is the UK's largest exhibition of the greatest cars from around the world. A living and working museum, with over 340 amazing cars and bikes from nostalgic classics of the 50s and 60s, glorious Bentleys and Rolls Royces to exciting super cars of today, like the Jaguar XJ220.
Our meet started at 10.30am and continued until 4.30pm, there were over 100 cars in attendance which was a record for the time and included 13 V8s. There was a raffle, and access to the museum and coffee shop was also available. Despite the rather changeable weather on the day, we had a very good turn out and a fine selection of cars on display.
The 3rd Club Meet - Eden Camp : 17th September 2006
The third meeting of the 75 & ZT owners club has now taken place at Eden Camp Yorkshire and what
a meet it was. We had 58 gleaming 75s and ZTs plus four other makes in the car park joining ours.
We have had so much more good feedback on this meet that it even puts Beaulieu in the shade. Well done
to all that attended our third meet in the last year.
Eden camp came up to our expectations and proved to be the ideal place to hold the event, not only was
it interesting but extremely well laid out with excellent facilities for people of all age groups. Thanks
to Nick at Eden Camp for helping us in organising this event.
Thanks to many members we had a good draw with prizes given freely by the members for others to enjoy.
Below is the full list of draw donations and winners
- Locking wheel bolts donated by Nitrousgear and won By Actros
- Chrome mirror backs donated by actros Won By 0-60
- Touring kit donated by actros Won By Holmol
- Travel rug donated by Malcolm Brown Won by Den Sills
- Pair of Rover towing mirrors donated by Windrush Won By Brian Simonds
- Book entitled Rover The first Ninety Years (not new but in good condition). donated by 7T5 Won By JS75
- Set of four Rover centre caps for the pre facelift models donated by kandyman. Won By Dunks
- Bottle of Whiskey This particular bottle is a 12 year old Lagavulin single malt natural cask strength, 57.8% donated by Salop75 Won By Keast
- MG Rover promotional carrier bag donated by taichiman with a copy of the DVD MG The Legend. Won By Neil Coupland
- The DVD MG The legend. We have two of these for two winning tickets. Won By Salop75 and Johnboy
- Bottle of Three Barrels brandy donated by Christopher and Ken. Won By Rovernut
The
car of the show award was won by
Livermpj with his immaculate copperleaf 75 the car is a
real credit to him. His prize was £50 worth of vouchers from the meet sponsor
Rimmer Bros.
We have tried to keep all of the meets different and up to now we think we have achieved our aim so lets hope
the next meet will be as different as this one was. There will be no news about the next meet until a little
later this year but we are aiming for the meet to be in the early part of next year.
The 75 & ZT Owners Club
The 2nd Club Meet - Beaulieu : 28th May 2006
Wow-didn’t we do well!
84 lovingly polished cars and some of the best sunshine we’d seen in weeks, made
the Rimmer Bros sponsored second Club meet at the
National Motor Museum, Beaulieu,
a great day out for members and the public on the late May Bank Holiday weekend.
Serried ranks-Members cars lined up in the Beaulieu Arena,
pictured from the Museum monorail.
More than 160 members and their families travelled from all over the UK and Europe to
the beautiful New Forest setting. Cars from Italy, Luxembourg, Germany, Belgium, and
even Glasgow, showed that Beaulieu was the only place to be on the day for all
serious 75 or ZT drivers.
The visiting cars represented nearly every model and type from the earliest Cowley built
75’s all the way up to the final ZT260 V8 models.
The National Motor Museum really is a superb venue, set as it is in the heart of the New
Forest, yet with easy access from the motorway network. Beaulieu staff provided every help
and assistance with pre-planning and on the day support. A special mention must go to Brian
from the Museum staff who worked tirelessly throughout the day to make sure everything went
smoothly. Brian also helped us to choose the winners of the best 75 and best ZT awards,
the prizes were £25 worth of Rimmer Bros. vouchers to each owner which had been kindly donated by Rimmer Bros.
themselves.
Club members also voted for their own Members Award, and the winner, Alex, will receive one
of the first copies of the new 75 Haynes Manual when it is launched in August.
Prize-winners with their prize-winning cars.
We were delighted to welcome The President of the European based Club-Seventyfive, Frank Rosenfeld,
to Beaulieu, and to present him with an engraved model of a Rover 75 as a thank you from the club
for the great support shown us by his club and European owners.
Many members commented during the day at how quickly our club has grown. They said that they now
felt that the club is going from strength to strength. Membership is growing rapidly as more and
more of the cars come onto the affordable second hand market. The newly launched club website provides
a host of technical support, club news and information, and the club forums are packed out with both chat
and sound advice, seemingly on a 24/7 basis!
On a final note, nearly all members left Beaulieu with an unexpected gift-sunburn! The late May Sun
caught us all out, but after the first and freezing cold January meet at Gaydon, nobody was complaining.
More lovely 75s in a row.
The next club meet will be held in Yorkshire in September, where we look forward to welcoming many more
members from Scotland and the North (as well as all parts of the UK and Europe) Watch out for full details
here and on the club forums.
A few thank you’s - The 75 and ZT Owners Club want to thank Rimmer Bros. who supply the full range of MG
and Rover spares, for their sponsorship. If you missed out on the Rimmer Bros leaflets handed out on the
day then please see their banner ad on our club forum based at www.mg-rover.org.
And finally a big thanks to Ken and Christopher who worked tirelessly to make this meet a superb success.
We are all very grateful for their efforts.
Mike
The Inaugural Club Meet - Gaydon : 8th January 2006
Now we know over a hundred people registered to attend, but how many cars did you think would actually be there?
An outdoor event, in the cold, the wind, the early Sunday morning, some people quite local, many from some distance,
and three from Europe. All to reunite their models with each other, Cowley and Longbridge alike. A few perhaps? Maybe even half?
As far as the eye can see ....
Even though the day was to start at 11:00am the cars were coming in two hours earlier, and there was a steady convoy
that appeared over the brow of the access road to park up in the area reserved for the club by the Motor Heritage Trust.
As people got and wandered round so pleasantries were exchanged, laughs punctured the air and doors, bonnets and boots
opened to show the trims and engines in the vast array of models that were arriving. Have you ever seen a V8? How about
fifteen, most in a group, all sitting menacingly? How about a Trophy yellow ZT-T? Rare, no? We had three there. And perhaps
the rarest of the bunch, a 75 V8 Tourer. For sale too if anyone was interested. There were a lot of people working out loan
rates on that car park ...........
A couple of noteworthy arrivals caused everyone to stop and stare. First perhaps was Luciano Luppi, confirmed
Anglophile and the proud owner of a beautiful black ZT-T, arrived after a 1,000 mile trip from his home in Genoa.
Not far behind was Jan Glazemakers from Gent in Belgium in his facelift 75, and a star turn for a rather wonderful
two-tone saloon as it gracefully joined the ranks.
As the gathering steadily grew large, Mike disappeared inside with Luciano for an important appointment; the club
had been invited onto the Les Ross morning radio show on BBC's Radio WM to talk about the meeting, the cars and of
course, Luciano's sprint across Europe to join us. As more people mingled around the various models now parked up
the interview boomed out across the cordoned-off area, Mike explaining about the club and encouraging listeners to
come along.
Whilst it was fun to hear a ZT 260 Tourer's throttle being blipped in the car park, soon it was time to head inside.
A hot drink and a sit down in the Conference Room to hear Mike McCabe welcome everyone and let us know about the rest
of the day. Only two really important points; a group photo of everyone round two very special cars, and the winners
of the best R75 and MG ZT present were to be announced straight after the pics had been taken. In good spirits and
humour everyone present listened, chuckled, and asked questions, before a couple of questions wrapped up the short
session. Well, not quite, as Juergen Schonfeld, representing the European club r75.info, came forward and presented
Mike with one of their club badges and a commemorative certificate congratulating the club on it's first event.
Remember, before the 75 & ZT club there was an active band of enthusiasts already touring around Northern Europe
and meeting up with their versions. A wonderful touch from you guys, and thanks.
Juergen Schonfeld congratulates Mike McCabe on the first event for the club.
The day was flying past by now, and the results of the competitions were announced. Keith Adams had gone round the cars,
ignored the bribes and made two excellent choices. First, the best 75. This went to a car that simply stood out on account
of its two-tone blue over silver coachwork. Next up, the hotly contested ZT competition, which eventually was awarded to one
of the three Yellow MG ZT-Ts. One final, special prize though; to Luciano for his intrepid 1,000 mile journey just to join in
the fun and say hello. Richly deserved and wonderful to meet a fellow enthusiast from Italy.
The winners of the first club competitions.
Say hi to the Club!
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Our thanks to the British Motor Heritage Museum for their help and facilities. Images supplied by club members who retain
individual copyright.
