Happy New Year – 2014 – January a time to reflect – a time to move forward

From everyone at Bill Rawles Classic Cars we hope you had a Merry Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year in 2014. After a long festive break, Bill Rawles and his team returned to work on Monday 06^th January 2014. However much you enjoy your work it is never easy to resume the working routine after so much time to relax, self-indulge, the luxury of getting up late, not to mention the excesses of food, drink, going to parties and socialising. Luckily it does not take too long to get back into the swing of things and when you look back over 2013 there were a great deal of good memories which serve as an inspiration to work hard and make 2014 even better.

2013 was a busy year for us, seeing many interesting and new projects pass through the workshop and seeing some long term projects coming to completion.

2013 was a very busy year; the satisfaction of working hard is knowing that we have helped our customers to enjoy their cars

The nature of our work means that there is never a dull moment at Bill Rawles Classic Cars as we are always meeting other car enthusiasts, sharing their passion, witnessing their appreciation and helping them to enjoy their cars and keeping them on the road. As a team we are friendly, approachable, dedicated, skilled, extremely knowledgeable and not afraid to work long hours so that we have the pride that our customers are satisfied. I think we can all say that the summer weather of 2013 was amazing, the blue skies and the warm temperatures made perfect conditions for driving a classic car.

Reflecting on 2013 it is fair to say that the rewards of hard work are numerous. It is often said if you work hard you can play hard and living by this ethos 2013 has provided us with so many good memories, hours of enjoyment, fulfilment, a sense of pride and a wealth of satisfaction, knowing that we gave 100% to everything that we took on.

Jack Rawles – 2013 Junior Ginetta Spirit of the Championship Award

The fruits of our labour in 2013 saw us preparing and looking after Jack Rawles in his first year of motorsport competing in The Junior Ginetta Championship, achieving two rookie cups, obtaining a podium position in the Winter Series and culminating in winning the coveted end of season prize ‘The Spirit of The Championship Award 2013’. Jack Rawles has inherited the love of motorsport from his Dad, Bill Rawles, and in order to move forward and build on the achievements of 2013 a huge amount of hard work is going to have to take place, in preparing the car, maintaining personal fitness and mental state of mind and obtaining funding by delivering a successful sponsorship campaign. The  race series is televised on ITV4 with an estimated reach of 800,000 TV viewers and an average of 34,000 spectators at each event. The benefits of advertising through sponsorship are huge. If you or your company would like to run an advertising campaign on Jacks Ginetta please take a look at Jack Rawles Racing on Facebook or to request a proposal please email rawles46@hotmail.co.uk

Just some of the events of 2013 included  a week-long trip to Scotland during the 4th Austin Healey European meet based at Crieff, in order to reunite a customer’s Austin Healey 100S with a previous racing driver, Ted Evans.

A highlight of 2013 must have been when 91 year old Ted Evans was reunited with Austin Healey 100S RLF at the 4th European Austin Healey Event, Crieff, Scotland

It was a huge pleasure to meet Ted and his family and to share their stories. Ted learnt to drive while serving as a pilot in the RAF in Burma during the war and after being demobbed he began working for Carlaw Cars in Glasgow, the main Austin Healey dealership in Scotland and it was in this role that Ted piloted round race courses as publicity for the car dealership.

in October Bill Rawles raced at Castle Combe in an Austin Healey 3000, in an international event organised by The Healey Driver International (A racing division of the Austin Healey Club UK) in The Tim Rogers Memorial Trophy Invitation Race for Big Healeys and The Dave Hardy Memorial Trophy Race for 100 AH Cars. The winner of the Tim Rogers Memorial Trophy for Big Healeys was David Grace and Anders Schildt and Bill Rawles Classic Cars can proudly say that we built the winning engine and can take some credit for the result.

Bill Rawles Classic Cars also sponsored the Big Healey Class of the 2013 Healey Sport Sprint and Hill Climb Challenge.

As sponsors of the Big Healey Class presentation duties are always called upon

The series is open to any Healey Driver, with little or no motorsport experience and a car that can either be road standard or modified. Last year about 30 drivers competed and the end of the season was celebrated with a very pleasant presentation and Prize giving Dinner Dance held at The De Vere Village Hotel Swindon. We are pleased to announce that we have been invited to sponsor and support this event again in 2014. Please take a look at the Healey Sport Web page for more information on past and present Austin Healey motorsport events.

In 2013, for the third year running we were asked to sponsor The White Dove Collector’s Transport Show, a local Classic Car event run solely to raise funds for our local hospice The Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice. The event raised a staggering amount of £13,500.00 and  looking forward into 2014 we are pleased to confirm that we have been asked to sponsor the show again.

Sponsors of The White Dove Collector’s Transport Show raising £13,500.00 for the local Hospi

We are also members of a number of Classic Car Clubs and when time permitted we attended a number of classic car shows, pub meets, planned drives and organised events. We regularly supported the social activities and committee meetings of our local Austin Healey Club, The New Forest Centre.  2013 also saw the second year of Bill Rawles Classic Cars hosting our successful monthly Saturday Natters and Nibbles mornings. The aim of these mornings are to provide somewhere for Classic Car enthusiasts to drive to, socialise, share stories and tips, maybe ask for some advice over a coffee, a bacon sandwich and some homemade cake. Our Saturday Natters and Nibbles are free but we do have a collection box for the local Multiple Sclerosis Society. With the popularity and proven success we will also be running these coffee mornings in 2014 – look out for our dates to be published.

As we start 2014 Bill Rawles Classic Cars would like to introduce our newest team member, Greg Rogers. Greg has joined us from a previous retail, sales and managerial role, with a huge interest in classic cars and engineering. With Greg’s skill set and a desire to learn, we hope that he fits into our team and becomes another valuable member.

 Traditionally most of us dream up a list of New Year’s resolutions in which we usually make a promise to fulfil an act of self-improvement, but how successful we are is another matter. The secret to success is not to make the resolution too hard…..I’m sure everyone in the workshop has their own personal hopes and dreams but my New Year’s resolution is to try and Blog regularly and report on all our activities in 2014 – happy reading everyone. This blog is just a few of the things we have accomplished in 2013 but all of our activities are documented and can be followed on our Bill Rawles Classic Cars  and Jack Rawles Racing Facebook pages. Thank you to everyone who has past comment and have been very complimentary and positive about our pages – we enjoy posting and it makes it all worthwhile if we know that you enjoy our efforts.

Well that leaves us to say we hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year and as we start 2014 we wonder with excitement and a tinge of anticipation what will the year bring………..