The BMC & Leyland Show has been held at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon since 2013, I have attended quite a number of them. The 2025 event was particularly special because the Abingdon Works Motorsport Celebration, supported by Mini Cooper Register and the Historic Marathon Rally Group decided to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the British Motor Corporation Competitions Department at Abingdon on Thames at this event. I was privileged to attend the show and I can vouch for the fact that members of the aforementioned groups had organised a spectacular display of truly historic BMC and British Leyland competition cars. I would go so far as to say that I cannot imagine that there has ever been such a gathering of historically successful British cars anywhere in the World before.
In his play, King Henry V, William Shakespeare, another Warwickshire lad, gave Henry these words to say before the battle of Agincourt – “And gentlemen in England, now abed, shall think themselves accursed they were not here“. Those words could be justifiably used for this event, that’s how important I think it was! If you were not there, fear not, I hope that I have captured the flavour in the photos below.
It wasn’t just the quantity and quality of cars on display, it was also the attention to detail – display notices on the cars explaining, to the uninitiated, what the cars had achieved together with the timelines. I found such information to be most useful and I photographed many of the notes to accompany photos of the relevant cars. Without more ado I will let the photos tell their own story –
GROUP PHOTOS
MINIS
BIG HEALEYS
AUSTIN HEALEY SPRITE/ MG MIDGET
MG
CREW AND SUPPORT VEHICLES
OTHER RALLY CARS
Nick
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