OUMF’s adventure at the 2025 Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show

​The Classic Car and Restoration Show, annually hosted at the National Exhibition Centre by the Practical Classics magazine, has become one of the most looked forward to events for OUMF members over the past few years. It’s an opportunity for members to demonstrate their level of technical and practical experience and know-how that is gained during the countless hours spent working on the club’s projects in the OUMF shed. This show is an excellent way for teamwork to develop and thrive under public scrutiny, which is especially beneficial for our newer members with our race season beginning in just a few weeks.

Friday had a rocky start, as the stand had no power! However, upon overhearing this, Mike Brennan of MDS Bulldog BDX was more than happy to bridge the gap in funds while things were sorted with the TVR Car Club which saw us back on back on track. We had the pleasure of meeting John Box, the designer of the TVR 350i. Members were excited to meet him, and Ding persuaded him to sign some books on TVRs! It was a huge privilege for us to meet him, and John Bailie, who put an unfathomable number of hours into the creation of the car that we have grown to love! Throughout the day there was a constant stream of public interest, old friends of OUMF and sponsors, such as: Aston Martin of Procoat, Nigel Atkinson from ARP, Roger and Penny Fountain, and Julian Crossley of Thermex. It was excellent to see the enthusiasm of the public for the TVR 350i, with many current and ex-owners sharing their knowledge of the car with the OUMF students. However, the day wasn’t all about talking to people, as there was work to be done! The first order of business was to remove the front shock absorbers from the TVR 350i. This was unforeseen, and not one of the jobs we had planned to be completed at the show. But the nature of the show meant that sometimes things don’t go to plan, and we found there to be no rebound from the front right hand side. The plan of action was to take the shock absorbers off the car and evaluate what the problem could be. Whilst we had the shock absorbers out, we also learned how they are able to be adjusted, knowledge that would come in handy once we start taking it on hill-climbs! The dampers came out without any issues. Everyone involved was relieved to find that there was nothing wrong with the shock absorbers, except they had been set to the hardest settings! Many who attended on Friday had never seen how to adjust the KONI shocks before, but with the help of Ding’s demonstration, all those involved are now able to share the knowledge with the rest of the team. With the shocks adjusted, we were able to refit them, but we wouldn’t be able to see the finished result until later in the show. Another job on the list for the ‘Wedge’ was to properly fit the Davies Craig electric water pump, which was removed reinstalled, and the process repeated on each day of the show. The inclusion of an electric water pump in our TVR has been a massive contribution to the efficiency of the cooling system, enabling the incredible Rover V8 to roar again without any overheating issues – a common occurrence for ‘Wedge’ owners. There was also a lot being done on the MK2 Golf GTi. The floor and roof panels had been prepped and painted with the finest two-part Epoxy Mastic paint from RustBuster Ltd by Zak Godding – so it is now protected from corrosion for a long, long time! Luke Crutchley had also been finessing his welding skills, and saw to small repairs over the weeks prior to the show. This preparation work meant that the whole of Friday could be dedicated to fitting Dynamat soundproofing to every inch of the interior, kindly supplied by Car Builder Solutions. This was a timely effort by the students, but those involved tackled it methodically, making it a smooth process and in the meantime, showing off our vast array of skills in not just mechanical repair, but thorough restoration.

Saturday would turn out to be an even more chaotic but unexpectedly successful day than we would have anticipated. It began with Draper Tools helping out by supplying us with a soldering iron, something we hadn’t anticipated we would need to bring with us; hindsight is key! The TVR’s rear dampers were also removed, which turned out to be a real pain; not just because we didn’t have spring compressors but because the rear right lower shock mount wasn’t coming out without a fight! We managed to borrow a set of spring compressors from another club stand, which was a massive help. We wouldn’t want springs flying about now would we! Like the front, we had to adjust the stiffness of the rear shocks to the softest setting recommended, which was easy with newly gained knowledge from the day before. Now this is where the fun began, as the re-installation turned out to be even more of a faff than the removal! No matter how much lubrication and force we applied, we were unsuccessful. How many OUMF members does it take to install a rear lower shock mount? Well, we found out and it's more than would be expected! Five of us were hanging off it in all directions, trying to get as much leverage as possible. Fortunately, after a lot of persuasion and frustration the shock was back on the car. The other side however was a different story, with it slipping in without a problem. The plumbing for the Davies Craig electric water pump needed careful planning and installation to avoid the hoses and pipework coming into contact with the alternator belt. In the meantime, Ethan Wakeman and Amy Foster saw to the fitting of the wiring harness and very clever cooling Control Module, and with some struggle to get these perfect, they were installed and working, with an additional override switch too, making it ideal for both racing and road use. Another team checked in the MGB GTi for a date with the tracking apparatus. Everything was flowing smoothly in the Golf’s camp, with the last of the Dynamat being put down by Raven Hayes, Roman Eastwood and Sam Cox, ready for the new underlay and moulded carpets generously provided by Newton Commercial. Alongside this work on the interior, the engine had been a little unhappy, so Sean and Luke saw to working their magic on its K-jet fuel injection system, correcting the mixture so it would stop running quite so rich. The pair also changed the timing belt, which was a sensible precaution. By the end of the day, the Golf was purring once again! Matt Tomkins, workshop editor of Practical Classics magazine also came by the stand, and being an OUMF alumni, it was beneficial for the freshers to meet him as it really shows how varied a career someone can have in the motorsport industry! He expressed his appreciation for our social media team (James Biley, Sophie Rugg and Luke) for spreading the word about OUMF on social media, showing off our work for the whole internet to see, and in his words, doing it better than some of the large corporate businesses! The weekend’s highlight came when our MK2 Golf GTi won official recognition by being nominated the “LIVE RESTORATION OF THE SHOW” - for the second year in succession! The Golf project had run in tandem with the TVR 350i over the last few months, and this award properly recognised the achievement the team has made and the recognition OUMF is getting for the work we are doing. It was a shock for the whole team to learn that we were given this award over all the other clubs is incredible - all the hard work has paid off, and would have been impossible without the generous support from sponsors!

After a frenetically busy Saturday, Sunday was bound to be a long day too. The highs of Saturday were still in everyone’s mind, and posters were placed around the stand to broadcast our achievement for all visitors to see. The Headliner World headlining and moulded Newton Commercial carpets were again laid out beside the Golf to be admired, waiting and ready to be installed. But we ran into an issue when we discovered we needed more trims and fixings than we thought nin order to fully install them, but this did not detract from the overall effect of the amazing transformation. The Golf’s K-Jet system also saw some further tweaks. Then we met the Angelwax car-care products team and they offered us OUMF students a private, practical demonstration and seminar into the use of their products which spanned over 2 hours. We became well-versed in the properties of the Golf’s 40-year-old paint, and how to address its imperfections with dual-action polishers and their finest polishing compounds. The team at Angelwax were hugely generous and instructive, and, recognising our collective enthusiasm for keeping our cars in pristine condition, Matt from Angelwax, donated one of their top of the range dual-action polishers, alongside all the products we’d need for the race season to come. The excellent Monti 'MBX Bristle Blaster' tool and its extensive capabilities, kindly donated by Cactus, was demonstrated by Finley Littlechild and Tom Reid who frequently deployed it on a rusty Riley front wing. Its effectiveness in clearing the corrosion and perfectly preparing the steel for paint was the source of much interest to visitors. Another OUMF crew set about correcting the tracking on the TVR, which, being as wide as it is, really tested our apparatus. Using their ingenuity, Ollie Raja Brown and Amy Foster came up with the idea to make more notches in the bars just for the TVR, and ensured the spacing was exactly the same on every corner. The clearance between the tracking string and the centre of the wheel hub also had to be the same on both sides of each axle. Every reading would require the kit to be moved a minute amount, sometimes as little as 0.5mm! Once set up, we measured the toe in of each wheel and compared it to the specified numbers. It turns out the offside front and rear were way out of specification, so a good thing it was checked! With what could have been a perfect photo opportunity, the rear tracking bar was accidentally moved ever-so slightly during all the measurement, resulting in a harsh lesson about human error in engineering as everything had to be repeated - and so we started over. We thought we were nearing perfection in our tracking, however one lock-nut decided to remain stubborn. Drenching it in Bulldog BDX and heating it with a blowtorch was to no avail. But since when have the OUMF students ever been defeated by such a minor setback? A pipe wrench made short work of the issue, breaking the nut free and allowing us to continue correcting the TVR’s alignment. Despite of the team’s exhaustive efforts, the breakdown of the stand at the end, and the packing of the van couldn’t have been more efficient. It was rewarded James Biley’s bargaining with a food stand and getting the whole team the most delicious pies for just £3 each - haggled down from £8! Unpacking once back at HQ was achieved in a blur, with some more senior students reckoning it was a new OUMF record!

Overall, the show was a huge success. We made the most of the 3 days to show off our skills and demonstrate our sponsors’ industry-leading products, all of which - just like last year - we executed almost perfectly! Our stand was very well-equipped, the projects drew great interest, and the public enthusiasm kept our spirits up throughout the weekend. We would like to thank all of our sponsors for helping us see our projects through, and especially so to the show’s organisers for giving us the platform to do it on!

Evan Dunbabin-Wray. 1st Year Engineer, Oxford Brookes