 Figure 1: The OUMF stand at Bicester Heritage with the Sebring Sprite on display. Last time I wrote a report, it was about the Riley Kestrel 1300, a restoration of a road-going classic car. This time was slightly different. Instead of talking about a car being brought back to life in the workshop, I, and a few others, were lucky enough to spend the day at Bicester Heritage with OUMF, the Healey Drivers Club, and the Sebring Sprite being used exactly as intended.
We arrived at Bicester Motion and set up in front of a row of glorious Healeys, which made a pretty special setting for the Sebring. The sun was out, the airfield test track looked fantastic, and everywhere you looked, there were Healeys lined up with owners who were more than happy to talk about them. Before anything had even turned a wheel, it already felt like a proper event. We had the OUMF stand set up, the Sebring on display, and plenty of members coming over to ask about the car, the team, and what we do.
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 The Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation has a habit of putting its members in situations they never quite expected. Standing in a professional aluminium fabrication workshop, TIG torch in hand, desperately trying not to embarrass myself in front of a man who makes it look effortless — that is a feeling I won't forget in a hurry.
A small selection of OUMF members were recently invited by MD Andrew Graham to make a trip to his company AlliSport, near Ledbury, which specialises in aluminium welding and fabrication, with two ambitious goals: to learn as much as possible through building a bespoke alloy fuel tank for our MG Midget rally car, and by fabricating an oil catch tank for our Elva Courier racer.  “To bring it, or not to bring it, that is the question". This was the Shakespearean situation facing the Oxford Universites Motorsport Foundation on Saturday, May 2nd 2026. With the clock ticking on when we had to leave the HQ for the Donington Historic Festival, much deliberation was occurring. The weather forecast of potential rain had thrown a spanner in the works. Do we bring the closed top, race-proven and winner, Sebring Sprite? Or maybe stick to the original plan, bring the open top, development car, which has pretty much entirely new systems, an Elva Courier? While I’m making this out to be a very difficult and strenuous decision, it is not lost on me how lucky we are to be in this situation! We have the opportunity to protect our driver from the elements (which were forecasted to be biblical at the start of the week) with the Sprite or, with the help of all of OUMF’s supporters over the last 2 years, take and study the dynamics of an original Goodwood racer.
 The Oxford Universities Motorsport Foundation has been a large source of strange situations in my life. Seeing a GT40 overtake a BMW 3.0 CSL into Copse on the Silverstone GP circuit is certainly another strange situation to add to my tally. To add to this madness, a small cohort of OUMF members and I were helping to run a Morris Minor Traveller! There is really only one event that could put me in this situation, and that is the famous and eclectic ‘Pomeroy Trophy’. Workshop Editor at Practical Classics magazine, Matt Tomkins, is the owner of the previously mentioned Morris Minor, and it is thanks to him that we got to experience the wackiness of the ‘Pom’. Having continually run since 1952, the ‘Pom’ aims to find the best touring car possible based on a series of tests, including braking, acceleration, agility, storage, and, of course, speed. Matt had the task of writing a full 7-page article on his experience competing in the event and wished for us to ‘prepare’ and look after the Morris Minor throughout the day.
 On a wet Wednesday afternoon, the OUMF team departed for the Goodwood Motor Circuit, with the Riley 1.5 trailered securely behind Ollie’s dad’s Land Rover Defender. The journey was made in persistent rain, which seemed to be following us down south. Upon arrival, the team established their base at the campsite, marking out the OUMF area before erecting the Le Mans tent. This task was made more difficult by frequent heavy downpours, leaving most of the team drenched by the time camp was fully set up. The paddocks were then organised into a functional workshop space, with tools, equipment, and spares arranged for use over the coming days. With the essentials in place, the team headed to a nearby country pub for a well-earned dinner, which provided a chance to dry off, warm up, and discuss the plans for the weekend ahead.
 After the exciting ‘high’ of getting the V8 engine rebuilt, reinstalled and hearing it fire up for the first time in years, everyone thought we had earned a breather. But in true project car fashion, that moment of triumph was just the beginning of the next wave of work. The first start revealed an engine that was running rough, something that was expected on a freshly rebuilt engine with a new increased airflow intake manifold and a fully stripped down and rebuilt carburettor. The first tweaks involved getting the timing right, so the team cracked on, timing light in one hand and workshop manuals in the other, chasing the sweet spot where the idle would hold steady and the throttle response would come alive. This combined with the fine-tuning of the mixture and idle screws on the carburettor provided a healthy sounding engine ready for its first full heat cycle. As the team found out, getting a newly built engine to behave is not just a technical job. It is part science, part instinct and experience, and in our case, a shared determination not to settle for “good enough”.
Saturday January 4th had been a long and cold day of engine prep, and the OUMF team that had gathered for the start of our annual Action Week decided that to lift our spirits and give a boost to the start of the year, this was the moment that we should attempt to start the engine of the TVR 350i project. Its mighty Rover V8 motor had been meticulously rebuilt by our engine team, spearheaded by Tom Reid and James Biley, over many months - and we all really wanted to hear it rumble! So the last coolant lines were connected, the oil sump pan was sealed, and the distributor was connected. The engine was turned over to get oil pressure, the spark plugs were refitted, and the key was finally turned… and as it fired up on all 8 cylinders, a great roar of triumph and jubilation also rang from within the barn in celebration as the V8 lived once more for the first time in over 20 years! Alongside progress on the V8, Luke Crutchley had been hard at work removing, cleaning and preparing parts from various projects like our Elva and Toyo Golf for our upcoming visit to Mr Aston Martin and his Procoat business later in Action Week. However, as our hopes and spirits rose within the barn, the weather and temperature outside deteriorated. It grew colder and colder and then snow started to fall. The forecast promised much more, including freezing rain overnight, and so the team made the decision to cancel the upcoming visit to the Bicester Scramble the following morning with our Riley 1.5 rally car. As work was finished in the barn for the night, the OUMF team celebrated by making the most of the weather with an epic snowball fight and some last minute snow drifting as we headed home in preparation for the following day, before we set off for Devon.
 The Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC, hosted annually by Practical Classics magazine, has become a favorite of OUMF members in the past few years. OUMF is a club that prides itself on its can-do attitude as can be seen throughout countless event and race emergencies throughout the club’s history! The Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show gives the opportunity for OUMF members to showcase not only the products of their labors but also the techniques and skills built and refined through teamwork and collaboration.
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