As is now the Southern Group tradition, the month of August sees the group join forces with automotive PRs for its annual Heritage Day – and this year’s event was a memorable one.
An excellent turnout of 20 members made the trip to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu in Hampshire. On the day, a total of 29 PR friends from fourteen brands were in attendance, all helping to support what was an excellent event for the group.
Southern Group Happenings: July 2024
A total of 31 cars were available to test drive, with a varied mix of the latest EVs, rugged off-roaders and pickup trucks, and a stunning array of classic heritage models:
Abarth – 500e Convertible
BYD – Dolphin, Atto 3 and Seal
Fiat – 600 Hybrid and 600e
Ford – Capri L, Puma Racing
Genesis – GV60, Electrified GV70, Electrified G80
Honda – Civic Hybrid, Civic Type R (FK2), S2000
Ineos – Grenadier 3.0 petrol and 3.0 diesel
Isuzu – D-Max AT35 Arctic Trucks, D-Max AT35 Mudmaster
Jeep – Avenger MHEV
Kia – Stinger GT-S, Picanto Strike (Mk1), Picanto GT-Line
Lexus – LBX
Mazda – MX-5 Heritage and MX-30 R-EV Edition R
Toyota – Prius Gen1 and Corolla Excel 1.8 Hybrid
Volvo – P1800, 262C, 850 T-5R and XC90 V8
As always, SGMW members brought along their own cars to display on the day. The classics were better than ever this year with a vintage Volkswagen Beetle ‘Herbie’ tribute (the Douglas Special), a stunning Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Ti, and an immaculate Mazda Eunos. The modern era was also equally well represented, with a varied mix of cars including an Alpine A110, a Volkswagen Polo Blue GT, a Jaguar XF Sportbrake, a Saab 9-3 convertible, and an Abarth 595.
SGMW Heritage Day: best car winners
As is now tradition, attendees vote for their favourite member’s car and manufacturer’s car of the day.
This year, Stu Bird’s Volkswagen Beetle ‘Douglas’ took the members best car prize – with Stu’s authentic Herbie tribute build dubbed the Douglas Special, wowed everyone thanks to the way it looked, sounded, and the huge amount of intricate details it contains that match the original movie hero car.
This year’s marks the third time in a row that Stu has won the best member car award, which have all been won with different vehicles. Stu said that for 2025 Heritage Day, he’ll give the rest of the group a chance: “[After] winning three in a row, I promise, as my constitution to the group, that next year I’ll come in one of the lesser of the Birdy Fleet of Broken Dreams vehicles.”
For the best manufacturer car, the stunning Volvo P1800 took first place, a worthy winner that had members lining up to drive it all day long – even if it did lose a hubcap on the day (sorry about that Volvo!). The SGMW quiz went down to a tiebreaker question, with long-standing group member David Wilkins named as the winner, although in his absence, Peter Nunn took the prize of a box of chocolates.
While the SGMW Heritage Day is a day for members to test an array of cars, it is also a popular social event for PRs to catch up with group members.
Simon Branney, Genesis Motor UK head of PR and communications, said: “Definitely one of the highlights of the summer, if not the whole year, is the SGMW heritage driving day. Even though there are no Genesis heritage products, as we have only been going for three years, the group has been very welcoming and supportive of the Genesis brand, product and team.”
“It’s a super-relaxed day with super-friendly journalists and even super-friendly PR colleagues – it’s an easy win for both the group and the PRs that get to come to it.”
“I’m looking forward to Genesis continuing to attend this event for many years to come.”
Will Rees, Kia UK press officer, said: “It is a nice, chilled-out event and a great day out of the office”.
“It is about getting to chat with other PRs and a lot of SGMW members we don’t see regularly on driving days. It is nice to catch up with everyone.”
Rachel Goodwin, head of PR for BYD in the UK, said: “It was a great day. It is really useful for PRs to drive competitors’ products and useful for us to keep in touch and see all you guys and making sure everybody is driving our cars”.
“We are trying to build a brand so we need to be in as many places as possible.”
As always, the Heritage Day wouldn’t be possible without those who came along to support the event. Everyone at the SGMW would like to offer a massive thank you to all the PRs for their amazing support, who all went above and beyond to ensure group members had a wonderful array of cars to test on the day. Ian Robertson, SGMW Chairman, said: “Though the New Forest rain tried to dampen spirits, I reckon this year’s driving day at Beaulieu was the best yet. It was so lovely to welcome some new brands to the day, like BYD, Ineos and Isuzu, as well as welcome the marques that have been supporting the event year after year.”
“The joy and excitement on the faces of many of the younger PR people as they climbed behind the wheel really was a sight to behold.”
“As Chairman of the group for another two years, I’m looking forward to welcoming everyone back again next year. Same time, same place.”
