Duke Makes Welcome Return To Award Winning Museum
On a recent visit to Warwickshire HRH the Duke of Kent was pleased to be reacquainted with the Heritage Motor Centre's cars and interested to see the more recent additions to the collection since his last visit in 2002.
Accompanied by Stephen Laing, the museum's curator, highlights included the collection of veteran motor cars where His Royal Highness was shown an early picture of his great grandfather Edward VII -a pioneer British motorist- and also the Rover BRM. His Royal Highness was keen to hear about the restoration of this unique gas turbine Le Mans racer which has only just returned to the museum.
Like many of the Centre's visitors His Royal Highness had his own Mini Story. The display of Monte Carlo Rally winning Minis provoked a memory of his own 1961 Mini which he used to commute between Buckinghamshire and London and had been specially tuned by a hill climb expert to give extra performance.
Finally he visited the newly opened Reading Room where he was shown a small taste of the vast range of materials that is kept in the Centre's archive including original production records, design sketches and motoring journals.
The museum's curator, Stephen Laing commented "It was a great pleasure to take His Royal Highness, who is obviously an enthusiast of the British motor car, on another tour of the museum".