Club events to date

[Ken]

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 ...

Well, we counted them all and the total was outstanding. 100 Rover 75 and MG ZT models blew in to Gaydon for the first ever meeting of the club. That says a huge amount of the people who own these cars, their dedication to a club in its infancy and their enjoyment of meeting fellow owners. Brilliant.

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 walked 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.

Time to have a wander. If you've never been to the museum then it's well worth a visit. Some superb displays of cars of our past, with a MG B GT cut in half for you to walk between the two pieces, or the turbine Rovers of over 40 years ago, or perhaps the concept cars like the mouth watering MG EX-E. But of course the two stars were the first and last 75 models built, positioned side by side especially for us by the Trust staff. With everyone crowded round them photos were taken to mark the event.

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 competion, 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.

So, with the day coming towards a close, members wandered around and looked at the cars grouped outside, got another hot drink and walked around to say farewell to everyone else who had come along. Farewells exchanged and more ideas given to the club on future events and web stuff. A long day, but what huge fun, and roll on summer for the next meeting!



Say hi to the Club!


Our thanks to the British Motor Heritage Museum for their help and facilities. Images supplied by club members who retain individual copyright.

[Ken]

The 2nd Club Meet - Bealieu : 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 welcomed 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

[Ken]

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

[Ken]

The 4th Club Meet - Haynes International Motor Museum : 18th Match 2007

The Club's fourth National Meet was held on 18th March 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 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 50's and 60's, glorious Bentleys and Rolls Royces to exciting supercars 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 V8's. 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.

[Kandyman]

The 5th Club Meet - Holker Hall & Gardens : 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.

[Kandyman]

The 6th Club Meet - Beaulieu : 3rd/4th of 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.

[Reebs]

The 10th National Meet Sunday 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 when 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 me conducting the raffle, much to the bemusement of Christopher and Parker



Actros took on the role of 'official bucket holder'



Then came the award for best car in show and it went this year to Cliff (Teflon)





With his pristine example of a very well maintained 75 Connoisseur in Monogram Lagoon



The day continued until it was time to pack away, and by 5pm the last men standing finally went their separate ways,
my thanks to Neil Coupland for staying to the bitter end.




Many thanks also to all those who made this event the great day it was, and to CMWI and others for the use of these images.

[Reebs]

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 clean up with most of the prizes including an LCD Digital TV



Some very shiny cars nestled between some stunning exhibits

[Reebs]

November 11th 12th & 13th saw the club attending the NEC Classic Motor Show at the NEC in Birmingham for the second year running.

We were inundated with 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?



Or watch a bit of tele



There's plenty to see



The Dorchester Duchess



and what's inside


The car that's double the fun



Quite cosy inside this one too



and some info on its siblings



A view from the rear



We are the owners club



Over to the yellow one that deserves a trophy



and Tony's 08 with the rather unique under bonnet extras



We're behind you



This cars had a good grilling



Finally back to HQ



and some rather choice items available in the club shop

[Reebs]

Pride of Longbridge 2012



This year's first National Meet was centred around 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 belonging 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




With thanks to J1MBO for compiling this review

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