The final of the nationally renowned BSH Custom Championships has a new home! The long-standing motorcycling competition, hosted by the original custom bike magazine, Back Street Heroes, will now take centre stage at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show, held at Stafford Showground over the weekend of October 14-15, 2023. 

Categories include: Best Chopper, Best Custom, Best Engineering, Best Paint and Best New Skool Custom. The final will showcase the best of the best custom bikes, chosen from thousands entered at heats countrywide. What better place is there to admire them than at the world’s largest classic bike show! 

Mortons Media Group’s Exhibitions manager Nick Mowbray said: “Stafford is about one thing and always has been – it’s about enjoying motorcycles! The team and I are delighted to host the finals of the BSH Custom Championships – it’s a perfect fit while also bringing a completely new element to the show which is sure to please visitors both old and new to the event.”

Alongside the BSH display there will be the usual fantastic show highlights, more than 900 traders, live stunt displays, the world-famous Bonhams Auction, and of course, the hundreds of bikes on display!

Special guest this year will be none other than TV personality and motorcycle enthusiast Henry Cole – and along for the ride will be his close friends Guy Willison (Skid) and Allen Millyard. The trio are sure to provide a great mix of motorcycle knowledge and tales to wow the crowds over the weekend.

Automotive industry charity, Ben, is inviting the automotive community to ‘Rev up 4 Ben’ and create an ultimate driving playlist, with songs handpicked by industry people, influencers and enthusiasts.

The purpose of the campaign is to curate an epic Spotify playlist of driving songs for summer while encouraging engagement for the charity on social media using #RevUp4Ben, as well as increasing sign ups to its email list. This will help get as many people in the industry as possible to know that Ben is there to support them.

As it’s summer and peak time for travelling to new destinations, it’s the perfect opportunity for a new playlist - Ben can save you the time and provide one, recommended by your colleagues in the industry!

Get involved
Find out more about #RevUp4Ben and get your favourite driving song on the playlist: www.ben.org.uk/drivingplaylist  

Sign up to receive the playlist
To get the ultimate driving playlist sent straight to your inbox when it’s ready, sign up to hear from Ben: www.ben.org.uk/signup.

Ellen Plumer, Head of Marketing, Outreach, Communications & Awareness, said: “To celebrate a love of music, driving and our industry, we’re creating the ultimate driving playlist, chosen by the automotive community – by the community, for the community! We’re really excited to launch this just in time for summer so those travelling to new holiday destinations can have a great new set of tunes to listen to on their journeys.

“The purpose of the campaign is also to boost awareness and increase Ben’s reach so that everyone in our industry knows about the services we provide. We need your help to spread the word about Ben and our services so no-one in our industry has to struggle alone. Help us do this by getting ready to #RevUp4Ben!”

For every motorsport fan, of all eras, the Goodwood Festival of Speed represents a unique and unmissable opportunity to see the legends of two and four-wheel racing come together. 

This year Aprilia will have the honour of taking part in this sort of Woodstock of engines, held at the Goodwood Circuit near the south coast of England, bringing the latest evolution of the Italian MotoGP project to the attention of the ever knowledgeable public.

The Aprilia RS-GP 2023, the highest and most advanced expression of research and technology applied to a racing bike, will be the protagonist along the legendary asphalt of the Goodwood Hillclimb, ridden by riders Lorenzo Savadori, Miguel Oliveira and Raùl Fernandez.

From Thursday 13th to Sunday 16th July, the roar of the Italian V4 will echo through the English countryside during an event that will see, in addition to the MotoGP riders, many other motorsport icons riding (or at the wheel) of equally exceptional vehicles.

For those who do not have the opportunity to attend this extraordinary event in person, the weekend's activities can be followed through the official Goodwood FOS channels and on Aprilia's social media profiles.

The British Motor Museum is to open another exciting and thought-provoking exhibition on 15 July entitled “Transitions: The Impact of Innovation”, which will run until summer 2024. The exhibition will explore the technologies that are bringing cars into the future and consider their effects. The car has shaped our world for the better, but also for the worse. As the motor industry strives to find cleaner, safer, and more efficient ways to get us around, the exhibition will look at what its developments mean for our cars.

In the past, the British Motor Museum has inspired curiosity about the future of the car, and this exhibition will revisit concepts explored in the 2019 exhibition ‘The Car. The Future. Me’. However, this brand-new exhibition will bring a fresh perspective, delving into the practical thoughts and ideas surrounding these new technologies. Visitors will leave the exhibition with a greater insight into the direction car engineering will take in the years to come and how this will affect our day-to-day lives.

The exhibition will use a combination of cars and interactive stations to illustrate areas of future development, such as how cars will be powered, their impact, the materials they use and alternative methods of control. Several vehicles will be on display, including a hydrogen-powered Riversimple Rasa and a sectioned Nissan Leaf electric car, alongside interactive elements which allow comparisons between different technologies.

Stephen Laing, Head of Collections at the British Motor Museum, added: "We're delighted to open this fascinating new exhibition. We are in a period of radical change and can see how quickly cars are shifting. Fobs, keypads, push buttons, and smartphones have been steadily replacing the familiar key turn. Electric motors are slowly supplanting internal combustion engines, while drivers are being supplemented with autonomous controls. Transitions will look at what the car will become in the future and how the industry will take us there”.

Access to the exhibition is included with standard Museum admission tickets. The Museum has held its visitor prices for 2023 for even greater value! Museum entry costs just £40 for a family in advance or £44 on the day, £14.50 for adults in advance or £16 on the day, £12.50 for concessions in advance or £14 on the day, £9 for children (5-16 years) in advance or £10 on the day and under 5s go FREE. There is also the option to Gift Aid or donate your entry fee at the time of booking and upgrade your ticket to an Annual Pass in return, at no extra cost.

To find out more information about the Museum, please visit the website at https://www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk.