The prestigious National Car Club Awards were presented for the first time on the live stage during Saturday afternoon at the Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show. The event, held over the weekend of 18th–20th March 2022, saw over 23,000 enthusiasts congregate at the NEC in Birmingham to celebrate a hands-on approach to classic car ownership.

The National Car Club Awards, held at the Show, recognise the hardworking volunteers, bold new initiatives and greatest restorations from the nation’s classic car clubs. The headline award, the accolade designed to single out a club for its outstanding contribution to the movement – National Car Club of the Year – was decided upon by a panel of judges including David Whale – Chairman of the FBHVC, David Simister – Editor of Classic Car Weekly, Danny Hopkins – Editor of Practical Classics magazine and Show Director Lee Masters.

For the first time in the history of the awards, National Car Club of the Year was awarded jointly, because the judges felt that the clubs had earned it for their collaboration in making the inaugural Triumph & MG Weeken

d a success. The TR Register, MG Car Club and TSSC were named as joint award winners in recognition of our ground-breaking collaboration.

The judges said, ‘The event highlighted what can be achieved by working together; these three clubs have set the example for others to follow.’ All three clubs were presented with a certificate and a glass shield with a photoshoot for Classic Car Weekly.

Elsewhere during the Show, the TR Register team created a new atmosphere on the stand, by presenting a live mechanic demo for the first time. Made possible by the support of Polybush and led by YouTube star Steve Denton, ably assisted by Phil Pope (Nene Valley Group Leader) the team set about fitting Polybushes to a TR6 suspension front and rear in front of a live audience.

Furthermore, the demos explained some of the common upgrades, including telescopic damper conversion from lever arms, CV-jointed drive shafts and adjustable trailing arm brackets. Also, thanks to a speedy delivery of an uprated stud kit by Alasdair at Classic Driving Developments in time for the show, we were also able to demonstrate their fitment using the Classic Driving Developments kit that comes with its own jig and depth gauge.

A massive thanks to Steve Denton for working flat out all weekend with Phil Pope, the pair of them were utter heroes and will be presented with a Polybush kit of their choice as a thanks for their efforts. 

Do be sure to check out Steve Denton’s YouTube channel, like and subscribe for handy hints and tips for all things TR6. 

Also, a thank you to the team at Rimmer Bros who arranged parts to be driven to the show from Lincoln on Saturday morning to resolve an issue and to TR Shop, Chiswick, for going out of their way to deliver the telescopic conversion brackets in time for the Show, likewise to Alasdair at Classic Driving Developments for bending over backwards to supply us in time.

You can read the full blog on the Polybush website here

Overall, live spanner action on the Club stand, though exhausting, was a success and drew a crowd to the Club at various points throughout the day. Also on the display was TS2 ahead of it starting its Round Britain Relay and the TR7 donated to the TR Register for use in the Classic Car Loan Project – for more on that, be sure to read TR Action Magazine, issue 336 out soon. 

A video tour of the stand on build-up evening before the public arrived: