The online classic car series, Great British Car Share produced for Derbyshire attraction The Great British Car Journey has been shortlisted in the ‘Best use of Social Media’ category of Octane Magazine’s Historic Motoring Awards.
The series, which features motoring presenters Sarah Crabtree and Paul Woodford embarking on themed adventures in a variety of British classics, is broadcast on the Great British Car Journey’s YouTube channel, with bonus content included across the attraction’s social media channels.
The pilot series aired in December 2022 and featured pre-war Austins, in the centenary year of the Austin 7. The positive reaction to the films – which some viewers joked was like a combination of Top Gear and Peter Kay’s Car Share led to Sarah and Paul being announced as brand ambassadors, with four Great British Car Share series planned in 2023.
The first of those series is out now and features the cars from the presenters’ childhoods – with some good, bad and hilarious memories rekindled behind the wheel of a Ford Sierra, Mini Cooper, Mini Clubman, MG B and Rover 216. Great British Car Journey Chairman, Richard Usher even joins the pair to tell his own childhood motoring stories.
The Octane Historic Motoring Awards is a prestigious event in the classic car world, taking place in November at the Dorchester Hotel in London. As well as the nomination for ‘Best use of Social Media’, the Great British Car Journey’s young engineering star, Luke lines up alongside Paul and Crabbers for ‘Apprentice of the Year’.
Watch the Great British Car Share by subscribing to The Great British Car Journey on YouTube, HERE.
For more information about the partnership between Sarah Crabtree, Paul Woodford and the Great British Car Journey, CLICK HERE.
No more excuses for not knowing your Clans from your elbows, the story of the Clan Motor Company and the car’s various ‘reboots’ is here in a handy, light-hearted video guide.
The Clan Crusader is growing in profile and popularity, asserting itself firmly in the centre of the classic mini GT market. But for many, the Clan and its fascinating story remain locked in a relatively unknown chapter of British motoring history.
From the original Clan in 1971, through the various evolutions of the car, to the 1980s mini-engined kit car reboot, the McCoy, this classic British wedge is becoming a sought after car show staple.
So scrub on your Clan knowledge, and join Paul Woodford for a fun look at the story of the Clan Crusader…
No more excuses for not knowing your Clans from your elbows, with this new handy guide to the Clan
The two presenters will become brand ambassadors for the Derbyshire classic car attraction, as well as filming ‘The Great British Car Share’.
The partnership follows a successful pilot series, in which Sarah and Paul drove a variety of pre-war vintage Austins.
Sarah Crabtree and Paul Woodford
The Great British Car Journey, in Ambergate Derbyshire, tells the important stories of the country’s motoring history in a uniquely immersive way. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you absolutely must.
After nearly two years since the last classic car film I produced for the channel, I’m delighted to sharemy latest feature, telling the fascinating story of the eighties Toyota Corolla AE86.
This car rose to global cult status after starring in a Japanese Manga comic, Initial-D which was turned into a TV and film series and subtitled across the world, as the Japanese street racing culture became ever more popular during the nineties.
The AE86 has since become popular as a legendary rally car, particularly in Ireland, and is credited with inventing the sport of Drifting, driven by the affectionately known ‘Drift King’, Keiichi Tsuchiya in the Japanese mountains.
As a tribute to the cult series in which the AE86 found fame, I’ve produced a comic strip video as a preview to the main feature. I hope you enjoy this adventure into the world of one of the most sought after Japanese performance cars of the eighties, as much as I’ve enjoyed producing it!
18th February 2022 marks 50 years since my brown Clan Crusader was first registered, according to the original paperwork I have obtained, including invoices from the Clan Motor Company.
Thanks to artist, Tin Foil Spider and a mysterious friend, this was a birthday to remember. A few weeks ago, some teaser photos emerged, appearing to show a brown Clan Crusader ‘in build’ as one of the famous ‘Yarn Finds’ felt sculptures.
It quickly became clear that this was, in fact my brown Clan. Intrigue, however turned to excitement when a surprise package arrived by special delivery, emblazoned with the distinctive spider logo of Bekah’s Tin Foil Spider brand.
Inside the box was one of the most incredible pieces of art I’ve ever seen. Incredible in various ways; detail, character, and because it came with a note to say that the sculpture had been commissioned as a gift from an ‘appreciative member of the car community’.
I have always said that motoring; particularly of the classic variety, is more about people than it is about cars. This is perhaps the most astounding example of that notion yet, and whoever you are – mystery Clan benefactor – thank you for raising the broadest of smiles, on the murkiest of winter days.
The fact that this ‘Yarn Finds’ brown Clan arrived on the very day that marked 50 years since the real thing rolled off the production line is a happy coincidence, but somehow feels fittingly poetic.
Thank you to Bekah from Tin Foil Spider, and to whoever commissioned this wonderful piece of artwork.
Watch the moment I unboxed the Clan, along with a thank you to the artist and mystery commissioner, here…
New Stan Share t-shirt design added to the ‘Team Clan’ series, celebrating the larger-than-life Scottish Clan racer.
Motor racing fans love a character, and they don’t come much bigger than Stan Share, affectionately nicknamed ‘Stan the Clan’, as he became the custodian of the works Mod Sports Clan Crusader previously campaigned by Johnny Blades.
Stan the Clan features in the documentary, ‘Blades of Glory’
Stan the Clan features in the final scene of the recent documentary ‘Blades of Glory’, which tells the story of the works race and rally Clans. Since then, a number of people have suggested adding a t-shirt design featuring the Clan in its Stan Share guise.
This new design answers those requests, featuring the distinctive phrase as it appears on the rear panel of the car – “Against All Odds”.
Get race season ready and show your ‘Team Clan’ colours with this original design, available to order now, HERE.
The behind-the-scenes story of Johnny Blades, the Works Clan Crusader and the Cadwell Park crow.
It was early February 2020, the UK was in lockdown for the second time and I was trudging around a deserted Cadwell Park, armed with a tape measure and clutching a handful of racing car photos.
Location, location, location: The Lincolnshire Wolds
I was about to bring Johnny Blades’ works Mod Sports Clan back to life for the first time since 1973 when it won the Northern Mod Sports Championship. In a manner of speaking.
Having produced a short documentary about Andy Dawson and Alan Conley and their rally successes in the works rally Clan Crusaders a few weeks earlier, I’d had a long discussion with Paul Haussauer, Clan Motor Company MD who had told me the story of the works racing programme he embarked on with Whitley Bay tailor, Johnny Blades.
I was inspired to follow up my rally film by telling the story of Blades’ last plight in the world of motor racing, in 1973. I had access to an unused race circuit, Cadwell Park where I worked as Circuit Manager, and I was in need of a project to boost my spirits after a tough year.
This time, I wanted to bring the story – and the car – truly to life. Cadwell, which nestles in the Lincolnshire Wolds happened to feature in the Blades story as the scene of one particularly visceral battle for glory with a Lotus Elan.
The scene was set. The only thing missing was the car.
Challenge: Shoot a feature-length documentary on an iPhone
I spent a few hours that day measuring various parts of the race track, pit lane and paddock buildings; cross referencing the measurements with video frames and layering over images of my own Clan Crusader in the same locations from a recent photo shoot. This meant I could get the perspective of the car and the framing of the shots right.
I’d driven my brown Clan Crusader to the track to use for positional shots, and in the end I shot some ‘hot laps’ which ended up making the final film edit, linking parts of the story and race track together.
My next challenge was the distinct lack of clear images of Blades’ Heron Furniture-sponsored Clan race car. Coupled with this, I wanted to put the Clan in shot with some of its contemporary Mod Sports racing rivals.
As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge to get my head around, I wanted to bring Blades’ Lotus 69 F2 car back to life for a shot where I’d demonstrate the origins for the Clan’s suspension set-up, and I also wanted to include a later reincarnation of the Clan when it was raced by Stan Share – “Stan the Clan”.
Against all odds: Bringing back RC002 Clan required the right perspective
I found the best photos of the cars that I could, and set about painstakingly reconstructing them as transparent layers; redrawing sponsor logos, adding detail to suit particular parts of the documentary, and adjusting perspective to match up the cars with the shots.
Having got static images to work, I decided that in order for the cars to be believable I had to be able to interact with them on screen. Another filming set-up day ensued, this time I took my 13 year old son, Mason with me to help with the filming. I’d never done anything this technical before!
I’d put together a shooting list so we knew exactly which parts of the film needed building. Walking round the Blades Clan and Lotus 69 on the track to talk through technical details on both cars was relatively easy. But walking through the middle of a Clan, Ginetta G15 and Lotus Elan, and gesturing towards each car in the right perspective and at the right depth on screen took a lot of getting right.
My final challenge was to create a closing scene where I’d walk past the works Clan in its Stan Share livery, before walking out of shot behind the car. Again perspective was key here, and we must have shot the scene over twenty times.
Two full days of filming at Cadwell Park followed weeks of research
As luck would have it, a crow landed behind where the car would virtually be parked in the scrutineering bay and that helped me position the car in relation to where I’d walk out of shot. The crow even made it into the final film edit!
With the ‘star cars’ built and rendered in video format, I continued my research of the Blades story. The core plotline came from Paul Haussauer, with a variety of Facebook groups, forums and other sources providing useful links and missing pieces of the jigsaw.
Only on pulling the storyboard together did I realise how thin on the ground detailed information about 1970s racing is. I almost had to build the season as I’d built the cars; piece by piece, cross referencing various accounts, magazine articles and first-hand accounts.
The storyboard and script were written as effectively a walk round a lap of Cadwell Park. The first shot is on the start/finish straight, the script then takes me round an entire lap, and back to the paddock where the story concludes with the help of the afore-mentioned crow.
Mason and I returned to Cadwell Park to film the story in sections, spending two full days filming in the cold, atmospheric February sunshine. The temperature was dropping to 3-4 degrees during the late afternoon as the sun started to go down, so numb fingers, toes and noses fill my memories of those two long days.
A new take on the story of the Clan Motor Company’s motorsport heritage
Each piece had to be cross referenced with the pre-built shots of the recreated cars, to ensure the perspective and lighting were aligned. If this had been done in isolation, the edit would have shown up the ‘built’ scenes. Some shots were filmed on both days to give me different lighting options in the edit.
This whole process was produced – from start to finish – on my iPhone, including creating and layering the images of the cars and editing the film.
The biggest challenge though, was still to come.
Having spent the best part of a week editing the documentary together, I realised the file was too big to export to my phone from the video editor app, leaving me with no choice but to re-edit the film in two pieces, before stitching the two together and exporting to an iPad. In order to do this I had to wipe the memory on both devices…completely.
Filming “Blades of Glory”: A journey round Cadwell Park, and one of the most fascinating underdog stories in British motor racing history
I’d scheduled the film to be premiered on Facebook and YouTube at 7pm on 8th March, after which I’d planned a live chat with someone who knew Johnny Blades and had helped with my research.
I spent a stressful couple of hours before trying to get the film to upload in time, and with twenty minutes to spare I finally sat down and wrote out the description for the film post.
My journey was done, I’d managed to tell the story of one of the most fascinating underdog stories in British motor racing, and I’d recognised a lifetime ambition of producing a feature-length racing documentary. I’m really not sure I’ll ever have the time in my life to embark on such an all-consuming project ever again, but deep down I really hope I do.
To my humble amazement and delight, people in the Clan world really got behind the film, and various images emerged, from people watching with their families, to setting up home cinemas with big screens to join in the premiere.
Releasing ‘Blades of Glory’ remains one of the proudest moments of my life, and what happened next completed the picture. I was contacted, first by Julian Blades – Johnny’s son, thanking me on behalf of the family for the work that had gone into telling their father’s story.
Then John Burn, Blades’ mechanic who features so heavily in the story contacted me to let me know that not only did he enjoy the film, but it was almost entirely accurate. Given how many lines I’d had to read between, and blanks I’d had to fill, that was the biggest result of all.
Three men stand in a dimly-lit room at the Clan Motor Company factory unit on the Crowther Industrial Estate, Washington. Two of them in business suits with flared trouser legs.
The third man is dressed in corduroy slacks and a Parka jacket. He considers the question, scanning around the room. Through the door, the Clan Crusader assembly line is visible still, silent.
“I’ll do it Blades, but you both need to let me play. It’s not right as it is, like” says John Burn, race mechanic for Formula 2 racing driver, the flamboyant tailor Johnny Blades.
Burn kneels down beside the translucent lightweight Clan Crusader, the storeroom light glinting through the floor of the car. He anchors his hand on the top of the rear wing, swinging himself slowly under the car for a closer look.
“We need to do something about the suspension. Make the most of how light this shell is. I’ve been working up some designs based on the ’69 – see?”
Burns ducks back out from under the car, reaching into the pocket of his coat. He unfolds a piece of lined paper and hands it to Johnny Blades. The mechanic doesn’t make eye contact with his driver, his gaze still concentrated on the car in front of him. The Clan is sitting on its fat racing tyres, a loose-fitting covering sheet half pulled back to reveal the shape of the car with its striking black wheel arches.
Blades studies the scribbled drawings on the sheet in his hand, annotated to indicate that the numbers are that of the rear suspension geometry of a Lotus 69 Formula 2 car, the ex. Fittipaldi car the driver will race in 1973.
He glances at the third man and grins, running his hand over his head in a ‘whoosh’ movement to indicate to Clan boss, Paul Haussauer that he has no idea what the drawings mean.
Haussauer, who has been quiet until now takes the paper and considers the drawings thoughtfully.
“See it as a starting point, gentlemen,” he says. “We’ll prepare the shell, what you do from there is up to you. But I want Lotus.” He’s still looking at the paper, studying the numbers with an engineer’s eye. “I want us to send a message.”
Haussauer looks up from the unfolded paper in his hand and searches Blades’ eyes for an answer. The Whitley Bay man in turn raises an eyebrow questioningly in the direction of his mechanic. Burn chuckles and knocks his knuckles on the roof of the Clan flippantly. It was already a done deal, he knew that.
He’d realised it on the drive to the factory. Blades had been full of nervous energy, tapping his finger on the top of the ball-shaped gear knob in the Ferrari Dino and saying very little.
It was an energy Burn had felt before from his friend. Just like the year they’d decided to scrap the GTs and pile everything into the F2 programme. Now here they were returning to sports cars. In this – a one-off works entry for Clan. “If we do this John, we’re all in” says Blades, cutting through the mechanic’s thoughts. His tone sincere, voice echoing in the empty factory unit, Blades continues “One season, then that’s it. I’m out.”
John Burns stands, straightening up and dusting off his knees, eyeing the two charismatic men with their shoulder length hair and their sharp suits. Noting their questioning expressions, he nods slowly.
“Aye, we’ll do it. Blaze of glory, like.”
The mechanic takes one last look at the Clan, nods at Haussauer and pats Blades’ shoulder as he brushes past, leaving the room.
“We’ll announce it in morning, Johnny. Thanks for doing this,” says the Clan man, offering his hand to the racing driver.
The two men shake hands, Blades smiles warmly then walks away – his brogues clacking on the factory floor.
“John will be back to collect the car on Monday, Paul” the racing driver calls back over his shoulder.
Paul Haussauer watches the tailor walk past the production line and out of sight, the sharp lines of the half-assembled Clan Crusaders casting odd shadows across the dark unit.
The businessman runs his hand over the roof of the racing car, satisfied. He pulls the cover back over the Mod Sports Clan in a deliberate manner, tucking his prized machine back up, and turns off the light.
Watch the feature-length documentary Blades of Glory, telling the story of Johnny Blades and the works Mod Sports Clan Crusader, here…
John Burn (R) checks out the works racing Clan at the Washington factory.
Classic Rally Tours are one of the most accessible forms of motorsport, so I entered the brown Clan Crusader and filmed a mini documentary to take you along on the adventure.
Join me, along with my 13 year old Son Mason who navigated for me, on the Border Classic Rally – 85 miles of some of the Lincolnshire’s best driving roads lay in wait.
Here’s a glimpse at a very interesting prototype under development in the Circa Cars studio in Scotland.
“Evolution Clan”
The ‘Evolution Clan’ is a concept car, and its striking design appears to have the original Clan Crusader shape very much at its heart.
Terry Smith of Circa Cars said “I always liked the Clan Crusader but reckoned that the cockpit shape could be improved, and the doors modified to gull wing or dihedral to aid access.”
The mould has been made (see photo) and we can expect to hear more once the first monocoque has been completed.
Just one question remains – will it come in brown?! 👀🤎
Classics driven 
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