Mead Gardens All British Car Show 2017

Winter Park, Florida, April 1, 2017

For 33 years, the Central Florida British Car Club (link to club page) has organized an all British car show on the first weekend in April, held for many years at the Mead Gardens Park in Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando.  The park setting provides a great setting for the show, with beautiful grounds and shade.  It is a well-organized event that attracts a large number of classic British cars.

The above car is the most beautiful of the T-series cars in attendance.  This bright red MGTC just gleams with a deep shine paint job and chrome wheels.  It is not just a show car, as the owner takes it on many a drive, some quite long.

Best of Show was this Chrysler Allard J2.  The car was perfect in all aspects.  A good choice.  In the early 1950's, Allard imported cars to the US without engines, installing American V8 engines upon arriving in America.  Sydney Allard was putting V8s in British car chassis long before Carroll Shelby did so with the famous Cobras.  This car has its original, large displacement, hemi-head Chrysler V8 engine.

It is rare to see an Allard.  At Mead Gardens there were two Allard J2s.  The other one was a Cadillac Allard.  Cadillac was one of the first American manufactures to offer an overhead valve V8, which became a favorite of hot rodders, and for Allard.  The finish on this Allard was truly mirror-like.

The modified class winner was this MGTC, which was set up for racing in the 1950's and has been restored faithfully to that period.  Most TCs were quickly modified by their owners, spending little time in their stock, show-room condition.  The poster next to the car explains the racing history of the MGTC, which began racing careers for American racers Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Ken Miles.

These bloggers were happy with the choice of this class winner, since it is the car they entered in the show.

Our pick for the most interesting, best-constructed car among the modified class is an MGB with a 2-liter Ford engine, sporting 4 motorcycle carbs.  The car is a late model, rubber bumpered car that has been lowered and retrofitted with early MGB parts, including the much more attractive chrome bumpers.  The engineering has produced an MG lighter in weight, with better handling, multiple times more power, and greater roadability than the original.  Faithful to the original in many ways (when the hood is closed), the modifications made it into a better driving car. This car was created by Brian Collins, who in partnership with his father, Jack, have opened a very nice British Car Shop in Central Florida, Ceres Motorsports.

Link to description of the construction of this MGB.

Ceres Motorsports Homepage