Britain has a new car show, guaranteed to be more colourful and diverse than any so far listed in the UK’s busy calendar.
The first-ever Petrol & Pride meeting, aimed at combining the car passions of members of the LBGTQ+ community with those of their allies in the British automotive industry and anywhere else, was held on Friday at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, the mammoth motoring complex that’s also home to JLR and Aston Martin.
The idea sprang up earlier this year when an annual list of LGBTQ+ ‘trailblazers’ was published by Attitude magazine. Publisher Darren Styles and editor Cliff Joannou noted a rising number of car companies in their list and wondered whether their input could make a car show.
Bentley comms director Wayne Bruce grabbed that idea and came up with a plan to stage the event at the BMM, an easily found venue with plenty of parking and its own obvious attractions. He obtained the necessary permissions, co-opted Bentley’s events team Goose (organisers the Silverstone Classic) into his gang and scheduled Petrol & Pride to be held for the first time on a sunny Friday afternoon in July.
Attitude and others publicised the event and word also spread widely via social media. Even so, no one really knew how this thing would play out. True, around 180 cars had been pre-registered, but how many would actually show?
The answer was that they all did. The sheer success of the thing took the organisers by surprise. Cars of all kinds, prices, ages and pedigrees – and especially of all colours – started streaming through the Gaydon gates shortly before mid-day, the appointed opening time.
By early afternoon, the allotted 200-car parking space was filled, with more needed on surrounding grass. The front row was reserved for a rainbow array of colourful 21 cars (three each of the spectrum’s constituent colours), with the last space reserved for a bronze-orange Bentley Continental GT (the official colour is Orange Flame) driven in by Bentley’s CEO, Frank-Steffen Walliser – one of various car company bigwigs lending support.
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I think you will find that EVERY other car show is MORE inclusive, as EVERYONE is welcome, rather than just a tiny percentage of the population. I have never been to a car show where anyone would not be welcome, but from the sound of it, i would not have been welcome here.
Other car shows only descriminates by the car you have any many dont even care about that.
Dare i say, this was therefore the least inclusive car show in the UK.
You do realise that you assume that you wouldn't have been welcome here? Only an assumption, one that is wrong. But you base your whole reaction on that one, wrong assumption. You would have been more than welcome!
I have logged in just to mention that this news marks my last time ever visiting the AutoCar. Terribly disappointed. Bye!
You probably won't read this, but let's try anyway: why are you disappointed in an article about a British car enthusiasts meeting? Could you explain?
Please could you explain how this is an Autocar story?
Well yes it's an Autocar story as it's a new classic car show bought to us by a part of society who are also car enthusiasts. it deserves an article just as much as the Festival Of The Unexceptional does
It's an article about British car enthusiasts meeting. Why shouldn't it be on the Autocar site?
please explain!
Because there were several hundred car meetings over the last week in the UK with the only thing that distinguishes this one seeming to be the fact is is themed around the so-called LBGTQ community. Which seems both an odd thing for Autocar to be shouting about, and an even odder thing for Steve Cropley himself to be writing about, but also intrinsically just not very newsworthy. Gay people have some interesting cars, shocker!
I suspect the smattering of large car company names gives a good indication of where the weight behind this particular push comes from, with the desperate urge to be seen as being "on message".
The headline itself is factually wrong. It is neither the UK's newest car show, several others were run for the first time over the weekend, nor I would venture the most "inclusive" given its entire purpose seems to be themed around people who love rainbow lanyards and performative displays of their identities. I would argue a far more inclusive car show would be one where people were just able to come and enjoy the cars without expecting to be somehow defined by their (presumably) immutable characteristics. You know, like pretty much all the rest of them.
So Autocar should ignore all car enthusiasts meetings then? I mean, they can't cover them all!
And how is Autocar "shouting" about this one? It's just an article. One you could have ignored. There are loads of articles on this site I don't read. Maybe it's the same for you?
And pease enlighten us about all the other new car shows! Name 10. There must be info online about those, so go and give us the links. And lastly, you seem to want one big car show that's all inclusive. Does that mean you're against all subgroups having car meetings? No Cornish car meets for people over 70? No more banger meetups? Would make it a bit boring maybe?