Britain’s Favourite Classic Charity – Road tripping with Practical Classics
31 October 2022
Throughout this year, we have been supporting Practical Classics Magazine on their mission to champion the classic car industry’s 'Charity Heroes'. In September we asked you to help us with crowning your top 5 favourite classic charities – and after a public vote, the final 5 were confirmed as:
You can find out more about the five finalists here.
Over the course of a week at the end of September, we joined Danny Hopkins from Practical Classics magazine on a road trip around the UK, visiting the top five Classic Charities above. It was fantastic to see these great causes in action - and to be joined by so many classic enthusiasts along the way.
Practical Classics completed the road trip in their restored, NHS blue ‘Rebel with a Cause’ Reliant – which will be auctioned off to raise money for NHS charities. Here’s a round-up of this very special road trip…
Day 1
The road trip started from the Practical Classics Workshop before Danny met 20 cars from Sporting Bears Motor Club in Peterborough along with readers from Practical Classics and Lancaster insurance customers. The journey continued through Fotheringhay and Kings Cliffe to the viaduct at Haringworth, before finishing up at Rutland Water. Sporting Bears raise an astonishing figure of around £200k for charity every year, mostly through their Dream Rides initiative, which you can experience at classic car events up and down the country.
Day 2
On his way to Sheffield Park Station, on the fabulous preserved Bluebell Railway, to meet The Italian Job team, the second of your five favourite charities – Danny was joined by the team at Lancaster Insurance, who were spending the day driving classics as a team exercise. As Danny describes, “Kicking tyres and quaffing tea, I chat to the Lancaster team, genuine car people, including Steph Holloway, the new Club Relations manager, who has her own classic collection and is a well-known motoring Youtuber.”
Headed by Freddie St George, ‘The Italian Job’ began as an attempt to recreate in some form the famous film but taking a group of minis over the alps to Turin. They publicized the idea in a magazine, got 55 cars involved and ended up raising £70k in one hit! No wonder they decided to turn it into an annual event.
Day 3
On the way back from visiting The Italian Job team, Danny got into a little trouble with the little Rebel, so much so that she had to be returned to the workshop, swapped for a Hopkins MX-5, which he would use to travel to his next destination The Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance at the Redhill Aerodrome, one of their two operating headquarters. Just as he was about to say hello, the crew were called out to save another of the hundreds of lives the air ambulances save every year.
Deciding to leave them to it, Danny lead a small convoy including Philip Hill who has been raising fund for the KSS for 14 years off on a trip along the North Downs to Rochester Airport, their other operational base.
Day 4
On day 4 of the road trip, we hosted Danny and Prostate Cancer UK at the Lancaster Insurance Head office in St Ives. We were joined by Practical Classics readers and Lancaster Insurance customers, accompanied by our very own Senior Operations Manager Andrew Evanson in the MX5 we recently acquired as part of our Great Classic Trade-up Challenge.
We were also joined by Jack Bacon, community fundraising manager from PCUK who is absolutely committed to the cause. ‘One in eight men dies of prostate cancer, that’s one man every 45 minutes, it’s a huge killer,’ he says. ‘So, we go where men are, most of our supporters are men, which is unusual for charity but absolutely necessary. This means wherever there are popular male activities, football, golf and cars, we want to get involved. As we really need to get the message out there and we need to raise awareness… and education is key.’
We headed out on a drive around the roads of Cambridgeshire, ending the run at the headquarters of the MG Owners Club in Swavesey where the club and the spares service, without being asked, both donate a three figure some to the charity as well as providing teas and coffees.
If you have any concerns about Prostate Cancer – just as your GP for a check-up, it’s really easy and could save your life. PCUK are always interested in coming along to car events – so if you would like to organise one with them, just email motors@prostatecanceruk.org.
Day 5
Picking up his Alfa GTV, Danny set out on the final day of the trip, stopping off at the PC workshop to check-in on the Rebel, which had sadly undergone a whole heap of work since Danny had to abandon it earlier in the week – not a quick fix it seems! Luckily Matt from classic charity ‘Ben’ arrived to take Danny’s mind off the Reliant, a charity which has been supporting the industry for 117 years! Founded in 1905, Ben provides health and wellbeing support for the entire industry – they have three care homes and a retirement village for people who have worked in the automotive industry. The Bangers4Ben event run by Andy Entwistle is hugely popular and a fantastic way to enjoy an old car, while supporting a worthwhile cause.
What a trip! We’re truly honoured to have been able to support Practical Classics with their mission to celebrate such fantastic organisations.
You can read the full story of this remarkable trip in the latest issue of Practical Classics Magazine.