Click Below for You Tube movie of the Pride of Longbridge Rally

Short Hop from Hopwood

Early on a a spring April morning and there is still a chill in the air as the myriad of Austins, Rovers and MGs begin to gather at Hopwood Services on junction 2 of the M42 just south of Birmingham. It is the morning of the third show of support for the MG Rover community who were made redundant from their work at the Longbridge factory in April 2005. The Pride of Longbridge is now establishing itself as a showpiece of all that came out of Longbridge from Herbert Austin's heyday to the last throes of MGR. By far , however, the largest contingent was not Austin as you may expect but a huge array of Rover and MG product from the 90's. These were supported by various examples of other Longbridge vehicles from Austin 7's through Wolesey's, Mini's, 1100's and more. Support was also shown by cars with more tenuous links to the Longbridge factory with a selection of older MGs, Maestros, Montegos and older Rover's including an interesting Rover SD1 estate conversion.

The cars left the services in  a long convoy for the short hop from Hopwood to Longbridge itself, taking in the vast dust filled spaces that were once the bustling factory premises now cleared and awaiting imminent redevelopment. Finally there is hope of re employment as offices, housing and retail parks are due to spring up from the ashes of the old Longbridge facility.

Pulling in to Cofton Park you couldn't help but glance at the famous "Q Gate" still manned by security officers and flying the NAC MG flags but with little sign of any new MG vehicles evident in the sprawling car parks. No visit to Longbridge is complete with out a pose by the entrance and a succession of cars could be seen doing just this for the clicking cameras throughout the day.

In Cofton Park the cars were parked more or less in order but as more vehicles arrived this soon dissipated and we had a mixture of cars ranged over the hillside at the Longbridge edge of the park having been squeezed out by a park full of early morning junior footballers. Bouncy castles and circus skills provided the entertainment along with the MGF Register stand and a sprinkling of others frm the AA to the Rover Community Action Trust.

This event provides for an eclectic mix of vehicles and owners and this year included four new MG SV (or should that now be WR ?) cars brought along by William Riley who has recently brought this supercar back into exclusive production. Probably the most expensive and powerful car ever to emerge from Longbridge rubbed shoulders with more humble Metro's and Austin A30's without a blink of an eyelid.

The register stand featured two cars from our South Midlands group including Regional Rep, Rich Stone's, viper striped MGF and a gorgeous TF in the monogram Mirage colour , which managed to get out of the park this year with out hitting the gate post.

See you next year for the fourth Pride of Longbridge Rally !

Words and Pics Tim Morris

Additional Photos

Adrian Clifford (AC),

Keith Williams (KW),

John Amos (JA)

John Wheeler (JW)