In my Humble Opinion
Mike Humble is literally ‘humbled’ to be in such great company.
► As with most things I often get roped into, it started with a phone call out of the blue just two days before the event itself. The now retired former communications director of General Motors UK and Rover Group before that, Denis Chick, dropped me a line to ask if I was attending one or both events he had a hand in organising a weekend recently just passed. Denis for the record is quite unique, he has more energy than a Duracell Bunny on speed, talks faster than a recording of J F Kennedy sped up and walks everywhere at Mach 1.5 – all this despite being well into his seventies. I have a great deal of time for the man, he showed confidence in me in my earliest days of automotive writing, and we share many extra-curricular interests, namely steam trains, old buses and spicy food – sometimes and often all at the same time. The man literally never stops, suffice to say he’s busier these days than his times in his corporate life at General Motors.
It transpired he was helping to arrange a meeting for the Rover 75 Owners Club at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon – straight away I was tempted to get involved. Having owned three such cars, one of them an incredible five times (don’t ask), the last one, as most of you will know, was a former CM Editor’s car – a Connoisseur SE 2.0 V6 in Copperleaf Red. Despite owning a Vauxhall Grandland X, I still have a great deal of affection for the Rover 75. In the right colour they look a million dollars and are as relaxing to drive as having a candlelit soak in a hot bath. A panel of guest speakers who were involved at director or management level were also to be in attendance – in fact, the very same people I arranged the interviews with on the DVD I co-produced with another good friend John Clancy.
As I have mentioned in the past, I often give some Owners Clubs a wide berth and don’t often either get involved or participate in events. It isn’t the clubs themselves, more the tugging and pulling of egos at top level that often destroys the goodwill of some members or some senior folk being only in it for self-promotion and seeing their names in the motoring press. Before you vent your anger in a reply, note the use of the words ‘often’ and ‘some’. Many older cars are still loved by their owners and deserve to be represented by level-headed and passionate clubs, some are superb while others are in my opinion a complete joke. Two of my personal good examples are the Rover 200 and 400 Owners Club run by former Rover engineer John Batchelor – a true enthusiast and the kind of bloke you would walk off a plank for. The other being the aforementioned Rover 75 Owners Club run by Paul Ribi – another one of life’s good eggs and a pleasure to know and be in his company.
