Events organiser, Dave Puzey called to offer me the opportunity to take my car to a photo-shoot planned by “Classic Cars” Magazine to mark the demise of Rover as the last British mass production car maker. I had one week notice. “Classic Cars” wanted to feature four of the landmark Rovers from the post war era. Their shopping list was the Matron Aunt 1950’s P4 75 Cyclops, a Legendary 1960’s P5B Coupe, a Sporty 1970’s 2000 P6 and (of course) the Iconic 1980’s SD1 Vitesse, preferably a Twin Plenum in Targa Red.

My car fitted the bill and was already in stand-out condition so very little work was needed. Some routine painting and cleaning under the bonnet, scrub the wheels and a good interior valet and external polish was the top and bottom of my preparation. Never-the-less it rained every other day in the week prior so I was dodging showers to get the job done.

Thus it transpired that four owners of the mentioned cars fetched up at 9.30 a.m. on Friday June 17 2005 at the picturesque Buckinghamshire village of Olney, famous for it’s pancake race, on what was to be a gruelling hot day, to do their best to please the “Classic Cars” features Editor – Glen Waddington and his Staff Photographer Lyndon (he with no surname – a sort of Litchfield of classic car shoots – I guess). The other three owners were Mike Wade (P4) from Cranfield, Colin Watts (P5B) from the West Midlands and Brian Stevens with wife Judy (P6) from Redditch. My trip from Bedford was only a short hop into the next county.






Glen treated everyone to a stand-up breakfast from the local sandwich emporium whilst we all got to know each other. He then explained the plan for the day which was destined to take in the three counties of Bucks, Beds and Northants. We started a short distance outside Olney in an off-road lay-by with leafy trees all around to generate the soft lighting needed for the interior and static shots of each car. I took advantage of the ambient conditions to take my own photos of the participating cars and of Lyndon at work on my own car

He has a fixed routine for each set of photos. First, short and long shots of each front interior, next, elevated and close-up views of the under-bonnet areas and lastly, featured details of the badges and other front views. No shots of rear interiors or back-ends were required. All this took about an hour whilst us four owners and Glen relaxed and chatted in our shaded haven. >>>>>>>>>>>>> 1 2 3 4