Royal Reliant added to museum
‘Princess Anne had one those’ has been the bane of Reliant Scimitar owners for decades – well, The Great British Car Journey museum can now answer: ‘Yes, and this is it.’ The custom-built Middlebridge Scimitar No 5, previously owned by HRH Princess Anne for 35 years, has gone on display at the interactive classic car museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire, and the dark green car is said to be exactly as it was the day it left the Nottingham factory in December 1988.
It is one of eight Scimitars owned by the Princess Royal and features some unique details, including an equestrian bonnet mascot presented to the Princess after she competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games on Queen Elizabeth II’s horse ‘Goodwill’.
With 114,000 miles on the clock, the car remained on the Princess’s Gatcombe Park estate until it was recently sold to Mick Gaughran, chairman of the Middlebridge Enthusiasts Scimitar Set (MESS), who subsequently loaned it to the 150-car Great British Car Journey.
RIP Peter Baldwin
Octane was saddened to hear of the passing of brilliant and prolific Mini racer Pete Baldwin. Having started in an 850 in 1967, Baldwin was a master of tuning and prep, first at Marshall of Cambridge and then independently. He amassed hundreds of wins, including scooping the National Mini Miglia Championship seven times from 2000 to 2013, the last title coming when he was 72.
Coniston calling
A donated Bristol Siddeley Orpheus Mk101 has arrived at the Bluebird wing of the Ruskin Museum and will be installed in Donald Campbell’s Bluebird K7 if it is returned to Coniston. The museum is now crowdfunding a legal battle to secure the record-breaking vessel’s return to the facility opened for it in 2010. See gofundme.com/f/bring-bluebird-k7-home-to-coniston.
Lotus’s London shop
Lotus has opened a ‘flagship European global brand centre’ at 73 Piccadilly in Mayfair, London, offering a VIP lounge, merch, configurators plus regular displays of everything from F1 cars to road greats. Lotus has also announced Ben Payne – who led the team behind the Eletre hyper-SUV – as Vice-President of Design, succeeding the late Peter Horbury.
Apprentice award
Adam Cameron, an apprentice with the Heritage Skills Academy and employee at The Splined Hub, has won the 2023 Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award. Named after the late racer, the award was set up by Sarah Jane Adams-Diffey and judged by Andy Dee-Crowne, CEO of the HSCC, and Rober
