Car Features

The Terribly British Day 2025

It could hardly have been better weather and we can’t think of a better site than Queanbeyan Park for the 50th Anniversary Terribly British Day car rally on 2nd November.

At nearly all historic vehicle show events the site is an exposed, open area, like a sporting oval, without shade or wind shelter. In contrast, Queanbeyan Park is a grassy site, with hundreds of mature shade trees that offer shelter and an attractive background for vehicle displays.

The event was organised by the Canberra Antique and Classic Motor Club, aided by Rotary’s legendary BBQ skills and the services of the Queanbeyan and Canberra Town Crier, one ‘Lord Joseph’.

‘Lord Jospeh’, complete with roving microphone and officially recognised Queanbeyan Tartan kilt.

Pride of place in front of the stage at the Terribly British Day was given to the 1925 Bean 14 that recreated the historic 1927 drive by Francis Birtles from England to Australia. We’ve covered the original epic journey in the Car Brands section of the HV website.

In late 2024, Daily Telegraph staffers, Warren Brown and Matthew Benns, drove this refurbished Bean 14 along a route similar to that in Birtles’ original itinerary, with allowances for ‘no-go’ danger zones in the Middle East and South East Asia – principally Myanmar.

Brown and Benns used a Bean 14 they’d located in Australia and had the engine, suspension, tyres, wheels and steering upgraded for the 26,000km trip.

CACMC Awards

The People’s Choice Award went to this restored Jensen

The official award winners were a Victorian-registered Jensen that picked up the People’s Choice prize; a 1950 Bristol 400 won the Most Desirable Car award; the Rolls Royce Club won the best club display and the Best Photo prize was submitted by Krystle Keller.

Best Photo prize – Krystle Keller

HV’s Allan Whiting trudged around the displays for three hours and loved every minute of it. HV took the liberty of highlighting our own favourites:

From the front it looked like a neat, standard Mini, but side-on and from the rear it was obviously not stock. The Broadspeed GT 2+2 bodywork was designed by Tony Bloor and was introduced to the UK market in 1966; continuing until 1968, when around 28 cars had been built.

The Australian equivalent was Bill Buckle’s Monaco conversion, from the late-1960s, of which around 40 were made.

This 1952 Jensen Interceptor is a rare beast, being one of only 10 surviving convertibles of the 32 that were made between 1948 and 1956.

The Interceptor bodywork is aluminium, sitting on an Austin A90 chassis and powered by an Austin Sheerline, OHV, in-line six that was good for 125bhp ex-factory.

In appearance it’s similar to the Austin A40 Sports that we’ve featured on the HV website, but is a larger car. Both models were produced by Jensen.

This Interceptor – Chassis No 22 – was sold initially to the Borneo Motor Company in Singapore and was ordered new with vinyl upholstery rather than the standard leather, because it was a more durable seat covering for cars in the tropics.

This car was sold into Darwin in the 1990s and then on to the ACT in 2012, after which it was fully restored, including the original factory paint colour.

The Ford Escort Mexico was a performance-oriented, special-edition model of the original Ford Escort, introduced to celebrate Ford’s victory in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally.

Out of the box the Mexico featured a strengthened body shell and the 1.6-litre Kent engine that was an engine tuner’s delight. It was a cheaper performance specification than the OHC RS1600 and RS2000 models.

This car was originally brought to Australia in 1976 by Bob Holden, who put its 1600cc engine in his race car and dropped in an Australian-market two-litre engine. In this form it was sold to Bill McKell in 1977. He sold it in 1986 and it passed through several hands before he bought it back in 2016. Since then the car has been progressively brought back to its 1986 specification.

This Jaguar D-Type Long Nose replica drew the crowds all day and reminded HV’s Allan Whiting of a blissful day back in the 1960s when he got to drive a D-Type around the back streets in Sydney’s Palm Beach area – on trade plates, would you believe?

Another stand-out machine was Malcolm Noad’s glorious J2 MG. There were plenty of great MGs on display, but this one had us salivating.

We’re planning a feature on this car and also a feature on the following rare Lanchester LD10, so sign up for our free newsletter, to make sure you don’t miss them.

This Lanchester LD10 was an unexpected highlight, because not many were sold in Australia, in the 1950s, owing to their high sticker price. That pricing was the result of being a Daimler ‘baby’ brand and the inclusion of standard equipment and build quality beyond mainstream small cars of the time.

Frederick Lanchester was one of the most influential engineers in the early days of the automobile, so we’ve listed his achievements in our Lanchester entry in the Car Brands section.