Pangbourne College Classic Car Show features nearly 300 unique vehicles on Platinum Jubilee weekend
Around 2,500 people attended the 2022 edition of the Pangbourne College Classic Car Show, which featured a selection of nearly 300 different cars and motorbikes.
Taking place on Saturday, June 4, on the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend, the event’s patriotic finale saw a Lancaster Bomber from the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight fly over the college grounds.
More than £5,000 was raised at the show for the two charities the college is currently supporting; the Footsteps Foundation, a Dorchester-based charity which supports children with neurological issues, and The Nabugabo Learning Community, a school in Uganda that Pangbourne College has links with.
The classic car show’s organiser and the college assistant head in charge of boarding, Tom Cheney, said: “From your high end supercars with the Ferrari sf90, to your everyday Ford Sierra Estate which a lot of people will remember growing up in and being transported around in, to Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Triumphs, Aston Martins, E-Types, Fords, Jensens; there really was something for everyone.”
Mr Cheney, who organised the first classic car show in 2016, remarked how nice it was to have the show back on after the two-year hiatus caused by the pandemic.
“It just has such a lovely community atmosphere,” he said. “Very relaxed with a lot of the owners letting kids get in the cars. They were also very happy to talk about their cars and were quite excited to see all the other cars there.”
Mr Cheney had also been trying to get the flypast organised since the first classic car show in 2016, and this year finally succeeded in securing it.
He said: “The icing on the cake this year was the Lancaster Bomber flyover, which was just out of this world. It was something else, just really, really special.”
College staff, parents and ex-parents at the school all gave up their time and helped with the show’s organisation and running, while classic car owners came from Bristol, Stroud, Chichester and other places around the country to display their vehicles.
Cars were parked in name and age order so that people could see how a make has evolved over the years. Mr Cheney said this takes a lot of effort and organisation but it was worth it for making it a bit different from other classic car shows.
The show also had a few Jubilee-themed vehicles as well, such as some Series 2 Land Rover Defenders that the Queen would have used, and a few Rolls Royces.
Mr Cheney said: “We’ve been really lucky with the show that we’ve got Kingdom Coffee. They’ve been with us since day one supporting us.”
Jane and Darren Rayner, directors at Kingdom Coffee, are ex-parents of the college, and they donated all the profits they made from selling drinks and refreshments on the day to charity.
Mr Cheney also thanked H. R. Owen, Aston Martin Reading, Bentley Pangbourne and Lamborghini Pangbourne, who have all been great supporters of the show since 2016.
He added: “The classic car side of things is really my passion, outside of rugby. I’ve got a fantastic opportunity to work at such an amazing place that will let me have the site and run such an event for charity.”
