March 2025

by Robin Astle.

From HISTORIC, the FBHVC magazine 2024 Issue 4

National Historic Vehicle Enthusiast Survey 2025.

It is important that as many as possible of our members take part in this survey.

The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs will have to argue even more strongly for historic vehicles to retain their current access and freedoms on our roads in the coming years as we navigate the most challenging period in our history. To defend our freedom to use yesterday's vehicles on tomorrow's roads, we need your help completing this crucial survey.

The Federation represents more than 500 clubs, museums, and individual members passionate about historic vehicles older than 30 years, such as cars, motorcycles, buses, coaches, lorries, agricultural, military, or steam vehicles.

Due to changing political and environmental influences, the historic vehicle community, events, the freedom to use the roads, and even the fuel we use are under increasing threats and pressures.

The FBHVC aims to lobby the Government against detrimental legislation and restrictions that could impact the future of historic vehicles. However, to secure a successful outcome, the organisation needs dependable data on the significance and scope of the historic vehicle movement. The responses you provide will help shape the future of historic vehicles in Great Britain over the next five years by providing crucial data.

The Federation first conducted research in 1997 and has repeated the process at least every five years since then. HM Government values this research for providing a consistent approach that demonstrates accurate traceability and the development of the historic vehicle movement over time. Such transparency fosters trust in the government and ensures that the 1.9 million historic vehicles recorded on the DVLA database are treated fairly and appropriately.

The survey encompasses all historic road vehicles, including cars, bikes, lorries, vans/motorhomes, military vehicles, buses/coaches, tractors/agricultural vehicles, and steam vehicles.

Over 15,000 enthusiasts participated last time around. We want to make this survey the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world, so please take part, have your say, and help keep the historic vehicles that we love on the road for the benefit of everyone in the future.

The survey should take approximately 15 to 20 minutes depending on your responses. Kindly ensure that you finish it in one sitting.

The survey can be found at and will run until 30th May. There is also a link on our website.

Skills by Karl Carter

We are pleased to welcome a new club who are supporting the Heritage Engineering

Apprenticeship that is being offered by The Heritage Skills Academy.

Alan Abbey of the Midget and Sprite Club contacted us earlier in the year with a proposal for an apprentice award that he wanted to present to the board for approval. Together we chose the theme of ‘best improved’ apprentice which is a new category, and we agreed that The Heritage Skills Academy would propose a candidate for the award.

The award was made at the Classic Car Show at the NEC and the first recipient of this award was James Keer who is an apprentice at RW Racing Services at Evenly near Brackley, Northants. The Heritage Skills Academy Development Coaches recommended

James and James and Sarah Welbyoff who own RW Racing were in full agreement.

The Midget and Sprite Club very kindly gave James a cheque for £300 and a shield to keep

for a year and a further award that he can keep. James also gets free membership of the Midget and Sprite Club and they have agreed to keep in contact over the next year so that they can tell their members how James’s apprenticeship is progressing.

That should keep James on his toes and continue his improvement.

Sir Greg Knight’s closing address to the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs’ AGM and Conference

A former colleague of mine, Sir Ivan Lawrence MP, felt very passionate about a particular issue, and in one debate, he spoke non-stop for four hours 15 minutes. I’m passionate about historic vehicles, but you’ll be pleased to know I’m not going to seek to break his record today.

The great thing about our hobby, in my view, is that we encompass all tastes and all vehicles beyond a certain age.

My first car was a Ford 105E Anglia, the car with a reverse-rake rear window. Being 6ft 4in tall, I had to have the driver’s seat moved back a little bit more. It was the only car I’ve ever owned, where I could wipe the rear screen from the driver’s seat.

Then I qualified as a solicitor and I bought a Ford Capri Mk I, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and then moved on to an E-Type.

But one particular day during my E-Type ownership, a raucous neighbour had bought a new car, and unadvisedly, he ran it up a very high kerb at speed, knocking off both of the silencers. He did this at 6am and it woke me up with this almighty clatter, but the most impressive exhaust note I’ve ever heard.

I thought, “I wonder what that car is? I’ve got to go and see it.” He had a Jensen Interceptor. So, in 1983, the first year I was elected to Parliament, I bought an Interceptor Mk3, and drove it to Westminster. Some 40 odd years later, I’ve still got that car, and I’m still enjoying it as much as on the first day when I had it.

The strength of our hobby, is that we cover all makes and all marks and all strata of society.

Some toffs and rich people may be among us in this movement, maybe indeed in this room. But this is not a hobby that is their preserve. It belongs to all, from the student with the old Austin Seven to the grandfather who still has his old Standard Vanguard.

And we also encompass, of course, the businessman with the Bugatti and the pop star with an old Bentley. But they are part of our very broad mix of supporters right across the general public.

This is important, because our support is as wide as it is deep, and we need to ensure that all politicians appreciate this.

Before I formed the All-Party Group for Historic Vehicles in the early ‘90s, I thought I was the only MP interested in classic vehicles. I hadn’t come across any other MP who owned a classic car or spoke about them.

But in 1994, I took part in the Norwich Union run. About 1,000 cars from eight different start points converged on Silverstone and you parked as you arrived; whoever came in after you parked next to them.

I got there mid-afternoon, and the very next car to come in was driven by Labour left-wing firebrand Bob Crier, and it was an Armstrong Sidley. And we both gaped at each other, not knowing of our common interest and a result of that meeting, the idea of an All-Party group resulted.

So I, a Conservative MP, together with the then Labour MP, Bob Crier, decided to ensure that historic vehicle owners had an effective voice in Parliament.

We thought our influence would be stronger if it brought together politicians of different parties, so that whichever party was in power, we would have some support on the government side of the House, and we soon became an effective campaigning group.

New rules and regulations affecting the use of historic vehicles are not always introduced by design. Sometimes it’s by accident.

I think this is the most dangerous risk where you find there’s a new restriction coming that is a by-product of some other deficiency or defect in the previous law.

Because civil servants, in dealing with a particular difficulty often only focus on the narrow issue they’ve been briefed upon, and they don’t always take into account the wider consequences of what is being proposed.

So, changes in the law which affect historic vehicles can come about through ignorance and not malevolence.

Over the years, the All-Party Group, which I had the honour of chairing since its inception, has had a number of successes. We campaigned with the Federation for vehicle excise duty (VED) payment exemption. We obtained, and then had to fight and re-obtain the VED rollover, and we secured the Low Emission Zone exemptions.

Working with the Federation, we rebuffed a proposed new ‘Weddings Law’. Eight years ago, the Law Commission decided that they’d introduce a new rule which would have effectively banned the use of any historic vehicle for use in weddings.

The All-Party Group, backed by the Federation, objected and argued successfully that this went far wide of their original proposals, and the plans were dropped.

I know some people don’t agree with it, but we fought for an MOT exemption, which I think is right and proper. Classic and historic vehicles make up 0.6% of the total number of licensed vehicles in Britain, but they’re involved in a mere 0.03% of all road accidents, and this indicates they’re being driven safely and carefully.

The figures also show that 97% of road collisions, the cause of the incident is human error, not the condition of the vehicle. All classic car owners should have a vested interest in cherishing and maintaining their vehicles anyway.

And, if you’re not mechanically proficient, you can always get – and should get – a voluntary inspection of your car, because it’s worth remembering the existing law does not let you off the hook. Your historic vehicle, MOT tested or not, still has to be roadworthy, and the prosecution can follow if it is not.

Whatever we do in this hobby, we know that we always have to face people who are anti-car or anti-motorist.

A little while ago I came across an interesting report in a London paper from an educated journalist in 1900, who argued that we should be keeping horse-drawn vehicles on the roads, and we should scrap the motor car.

And he wrote: “We should not overlook the fact that the driving of a horseless carriage calls for a larger amount of attention, if not skill, on the part of the driver, than is necessary in regard to horse-drawn conveyances, for he does not have the advantage of the intelligence of the horse in shaping his path.

On national motoring issues, I have to say it is significantly easier to stop new laws and restrictions from being implemented, when they are yet to be debated or still under consideration, rather than arguing to get them removed once they are implemented.

So, the Federation performs an invaluable role in keeping a watching brief on your behalf, and that is something that will need to continue. Until now, UK Governments have recognised the special position of historic vehicles, but no parliament can bind its successor, so constant lobbying is required, both now and in the future.

This is where the Federation continues to have an extremely important role to play on behalf of you all, and it’s a task now as President in which I will gladly continue to play my part.

Now, the new government we have is something of an unknown quantity, although during the election, the Labour leader did make a play for drivers’ votes and said ‘Labour would bring down costs for drivers’. I don’t quite know what that means. We’ll have to wait and see.

But, Sir Keir Starmer has also said he really, really, likes cars. “I love driving. It’s in my blood” he said.

His first pride and joy, he has revealed, was apparently a black Morris Minor, and his second car was a dark green half-timbered Morris Oxford traveller, which he said he had to start with a crank handle.

So, when he wanted our votes, he was keen to stress he’s on the side of motorists.

Now the jury is out, and the Federation, I know, will seek to hold him to account should the need arise. You can help in this process too.

Most people only contact their MP with a moan, or when they want something.

If you’re organising a large classic car show in 2025, invite your local MP or your local council leader as a guest of honour, and perhaps ask them to present any prizes being awarded before you need to bend his or her ear on matters of concern.

It’s important to let your local politician see the support for our hobby that exists in the local community. It’s far better to engage with a politician before his or her help is needed and establish a friendly contact, rather than your first encounter being a plethora of moaning and complaints. More so if your local MP, happens to be a minister.

Finally, I want to thank you all for what you already do and have done.

Sharing knowledge is vital to keeping our motoring heritage where it should be, on the road, and up and down the country. Car Clubs play an invaluable role in doing this. So, keep up the good work.

Without you, there’d be far, far fewer historic vehicles on our roads.

Your first president, the late Lord Montague, once told me that his father, who was also an MP, was the first MP ever to take a motorcar to the House of Commons in 1899.

The police refused to let him in, saying that this new-fangled contraption might blow up parliament.

But his father didn’t take this for an answer and appealed to the Speaker, who overrode the police. So, one of the first parliamentary spats between officialdom and the motorist, was won by the motorist.

Long may that continue and with your help, I know it will.