Over 5,600 visitors and participants made Beaulieu their Father’s Day destination for the Custom and American Show, enjoying the colourful line-up of 406 customised and American cars and bikes, alongside live music, trade stands, and all the features of the Beaulieu attraction.

Held in association with the Solent Renegades club, the top display on Sunday 18th June gathered together American cars and bikes as diverse as a pre-war Ford Model A and a modern-day Humvee, not to mention 1970s muscle cars, 1950s sedans, and even a trio of trucks which towered over the other vehicles. While jaw-dropping custom trikes, powerful hot rods and all manner of impressive custom cars also turned heads as they parked up in the grounds of the National Motor Museum.

See the show highlights by watching the video, youtu.be/Vuenn6NVRCM

While showgoers admired the display, talked cars, browsed trade stands and enjoyed delicious street food, and youngsters had their faces painted, the Honky Tonk Angels and Rooster Live took to the stage, performing great rock and roll numbers throughout the day.

A highlight for many custom car fans was the chance to meet show ambassador and custom car builder Andy Saunders, who had brought along his latest creation, Deja. Four years since he first exhibited his Riley at the show, the once-derelict car has been totally transformed into a stunning open-top show car. Andy chatted with other enthusiasts about their projects and signed copies of his book, while artist Maxime Xavier had brought along her stunningly airbrushed custom car Sundancer.

Just as eye-catching was a quartet of replica TV and film vehicles, with full-size recreations of the much-loved Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater characters from Pixar’s Cars movies, and replicas of the iconic A-Team van and Del Boy’s van from Only Fools and Horses, proving to be a big hit with families. While fitting with the silver-screen theme, Hollywood-style stars with the names of famous movie vehicles were laid on the main footpath to create Beaulieu’s own ‘walk of fame’.

Awards were presented to a selection of impressive vehicles. The People’s Best in Show, voted for by showgoers, was presented to Debbie and Pete Whiffin from Guildford for their 1955 Buick Century. As Beaulieu’s Head of Visitor Experience and Operations Manager Jon Tee presented them with their trophy and Autoglym prize, Debbie said: “We bought the car two years ago and imported it from the States, before doing lots of mechanical work to it. This is the first time we’ve been out in it!”

Presented by the show ambassador, The Andy Saunders Award went to Teri Smith from Christchurch for his 1935 Ford Cabriolet. As he handed Teri his trophy, Andy said: “The reason this car is so important in the custom scene, is that these wide-bodied Fords, brought out in 1935, were modified to become the first custom cars, whereas everything built up to 1934 became hot rods.” Teri said: “I’m amazed to have won this award. I’ve had it five years, and it has had a complete rebuild. It’s something different, our own creation.”

The Solent Renegades’ Choice was presented by club representatives Dan and Malcolm to Alan Fee from Cadnam for his 1970 Dodge Challenger. Malcolm said: “It was a nightmare choosing a winner. But when we saw this car, we just stopped in our tracks, and couldn’t stop looking at it.” Alan said: “I’m surprised to have won! I’ve done a lot to the car in the time I’ve had it.” Dan and Malcolm presented Alan with a trophy and an Autoglym prize.

Classic American magazine held one of the heats for its Car of the Year competition at the show, selecting Andrew and Lynda Collier’s 1955 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible as the heat winner. Presented with their trophy by Classic American editor Ben Klemenzson and Hollie Cowley from Kingstown Shipping, Andrew said “I had a photo of one of these Cadillacs on my wall when I was growing up. Now that we have one in the garage, I can just pull up a chair, put on some music and look at the car.”

Entered by his family, Daniel Adams won the special Father’s Day show prize draw out of almost 120 contestants, being presented by a special hamper of Beaulieu gifts by Beaulieu’s Head of Visitor Experience and Operations Manager Jon Tee.

The Custom and American Show is just one of Beaulieu’s exciting 2023 motoring events. For Beaulieu’s full event calendar, visit www.beaulieu.co.uk/events.

Automotive industry charity, Ben, is inviting the automotive community to take on Benathlon in September and host a Ben’s Big Breakfast in October to raise vital funds and support those who are struggling or in crisis.

To take part in the second Benathlon, participants will exercise in their own way for 30 minutes each day for the 30 days of September and raise £30 for Ben. Participants can choose how they complete the challenge, for example, by walking, cycling, running, swimming, or even by horse riding or skipping!

Benathlon runs twice a year and aims to improve participants’ mental and physical health while also fundraising to support automotive colleagues to get back on track. A total of 130 people took part in March and September's event is already shaping up to be bigger and better than the last with many people already having signed up.

Ben’s Big Breakfast is in its third year, running from 9th-15th October, and invites automotive industry companies to host a breakfast to fundraise for Ben.

Breakfast brings together employees, customers and families to share the most important meal of the day, aiming to connect with each other and check in, supporting each other’s mental health. A total of 158 companies took part in last year’s Ben’s Big Breakfast and the charity hopes for this year to be even bigger and better.

Sign up today!
Click here to take on Benathlon
Click here and get eggcited for Ben’s Big Breakfast

Matt Wigginton, Director of Partnerships, Engagement & Income at Ben, said: “We can’t wait to get cracking with our next fundraising events later this year and hope to see many of our automotive family take part in both!

“Demand for Ben’s support services has reached new highs due to the cost-of-living crisis, so without your support we can’t continue to support the increasing demand. Thank you - more people than ever need our support, yours will mean we can reach them all.”

Whenever any member of our automotive family is struggling, or in crisis, we all rally to support.

It wasn’t the best of Sundays for Aprilia on the Sachsenring. After the difficulties encountered yesterday, Aleix and Maverick were unable to straighten out the German race weekend today.

Aleix and his team gambled on the soft rear tyre, partially in light of the data collected during the Sprint. It was, unfortunately, a gamble that did not pay off. Although he battled in the early stages of the race, the Spaniard had to reckon with a drastic drop in grip towards the end, finishing outside the points zone.

Maverick, on the other hand, had a technical problem that forced him to a DNF during the ninth lap.
     
Aleix
"I think that with the medium tyre, I would have been able to finish easily in the top 10. However, the data from the Sprint race yesterday seemed to indicate wear that was not too excessive for the soft and that’s why we decided to use it. The decision did not pay off. In the finale I basically had no grip. We were lacking in performance this weekend, as the results from the other Aprilias also shows, on a track where we did not expect to encounter these difficulties."

Maverick
"The weekend had started off well straight away but then we were unable to express our potential. If we work well, we know that we can be fast, but evidently there were some problems which conditioned our performance. We still don’t know if this stems from a problem with the engine that forced me to retire. We’ll analyse the data in-depth now and try to figure it out. It’s a shame but complaining won’t help anything. We still believe in the project and we’ll keep our heads down and continue to work hard. The positive note is that I recovered positions in both starts – yesterday in the Sprint race and today in the GP – so from this point of view there was improvement."

Award-winning leading Midlands conference and events venue, The British Motor Museum has extended its South Wing following continued expansion in line with client demand. Within only six months after an initial £70k investment, the conference centre has been developed further to offer South Wing 5. This spacious room seating up to 110 delegates boasts natural daylight and direct vehicular access making it an ideal space for conferences, product launches and exhibitions. South wing 5 is complemented by South Wing 1-4 which are excellent breakout spaces to create a self-contained event experience.

Direct vehicular access offers exceptional ease of loading right up to the event space itself minimising the time and effort in arranging the logistics and delivery of large-scale display product and associated equipment. The South Wing offers five conference spaces totalling 477sqm of flexible conference and exhibition space. Each room in the South Wing is fully air-conditioned and equipped with the latest data projectors and benefit from the Museum’s free 1Gbps Wi-Fi.

The South Wing offers a range of flexible spaces comprising South Wing 1, 3 and 4 each offering space for up to 50 delegates. South Wing 4 offers additional scalable event space and can be divided into 2 smaller rooms, via a partition wall, each with its own entrance. South Wing 2 offers a smaller more intimate space taking up to 16 delegates theatre style.

Toby Batchelor, Head of Commerce at the British Motor Museum commented, “We are delighted to announce South Wing 5 which further demonstrates our commitment and investment and even greater choice for our clients. This large modern event space further extends the South Wing and offers several scalable break-out options for delegates. We pride ourselves in supporting a unique delegate experience and to this end we provide all British Motor Museum conference delegates with free access to the adjoining British Motor Museum collection which is easily accessed directly from the South Wing”.

For more information about the event and meeting spaces available please visit britishmotormuseum.co.uk/conferences/spaces

A positive top-nine was achieved by Team Gresini Racing MotoGP which places both riders in the points with Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio sixth and ninth, respectively, at the chequered flag.
 
This was a sort of confirmation for both the Spaniard and the Italian, who had a positive and solid showing throughout the weekend and were able to finally capitalise on a good result also in light of the upcoming last of three back-to-back events at Assen. 
 
Diggia, in particular, put together a great comeback after being all the way down to 14^th at some stage. He recovered five positions before sealing his fourth top-ten finish of the season after Argentina, Texas and Le Mans.

7^th - ALEX MARQUEZ (11^th in the championship standings – 52 points)
“We surely bagged some more important points. Too bad for losing so much time behind Aleix (Espargaró) who started the race with soft tyres and in the first laps he tried – rightfully so – to defend his position. When I got past him it was unfortunately too late to bridge the gap with the leaders, even though my pace was top-five worthy. We’re happy and if we managed to solve some set-up issue earlier, we would be talking about a different type of result.”
 
9^th - FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (15^th in the championship standings – 34 points)
“We had a great race, maybe my best so far. We completed several overtaking manoeuvres on a track where it’s almost impossible to pass. I’m really happy, even though it’s a shame that we started so far back because the pace was really good. We’re charged up for Assen.”