As I steer the Triumph TR7 around the corner, its engine begins to splutter before conking out. Welcome to Drive Dad’s Car, the companion venture to the Great British Car Journey, a new visitor attraction for car lovers and nostalgia junkies in Ambergate, Derbyshire.
My TR7 drive isn’t an encouraging introduction, but for anyone who remembers British Leyland cars, it is authentic. Richard Usher, founder of the Great British Car Journey, laughs it off, promising that the attraction’s on-site garage will fix it. As the founder of Auto Windscreens and, more recently, the owner of Blyton Park racing circuit, which he sold to Ginetta in 2017, he’s no stranger to cars and their dramas.
The GBCJ, as we’ll call it, is Usher’s latest project and the one closest to his heart. It’s a homage to not just British cars but ordinary British cars in particular. “We’re interested in the Sierra 1.6 L, not the Sierra Cosworth,” he tells me. It’s based in an old wire factory on the banks of the River Derwent. When I visit, there are four weeks to go before the attraction opens. The carpet’s been laid, the doors hung and the reception counter is installed. At the far end, the garage, which visitors will be able to view, is in operation with a Hillman Minx on the ramp.
Elsewhere, electricians and painters are hard at work, but one person grabs my attention: the chap suspending wires from the ceiling. “They’ll hold the big story boards we’ve created,” explains Usher. “When it opens, this place will look like a motor show and not a car museum. Visitors will follow a meandering route populated with over 130 British cars. The story boards will set the scene and provide some context, while an audio tour will explain the significance of each of them.”
For Usher, the vehicle that holds this meandering trail together is the Austin Seven. He tells how, in 1921, Herbert Austin, faced with his fledgling car-making business being threatened with bankruptcy, heeded his wife’s advice to build a car people could afford and, together with his best draughtsman, set about designing it. The Austin Seven, as the new car was called, went on sale in 1923 costing £12,500 in today’s money. It would pioneer many features we now take for granted and influence future giants of British motoring, including William Lyons, who created a rebodied version of the Seven that he called the Austin Seven Swallow. Crucially, it set Britain on the path to providing the world with innovative and affordable cars.