h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Rains for your help on my Oxfordshire entry. I have been asked more about cars in he area and wondered whether you could shed more light on this subject.

Best Wishes

pti

Hi Opti

What bits do you need to know - is it just the bits that have been asked about in the PR thread, or is there more you want to add?

I'm more than happy to help out . Let me know what you need and I'll try my best.

Could you please look over the car section of my Oxfordshire entry I have tried to deal with what has been raised in PR regards this but realise you'd make a better job than me.

I'll try - the rest of your entry is excellent, so I hope I can match it! I'm in the middle of trying to do a uni project on the history of British Leyland (and associated brands) so some of this is on my mind at the moment! Feel free to use as much or as little of this as you want, and to rephrase whatever of it if it fits into the entry better .

Several motoring names have been associated with Oxfordshire in the past. William Morris (1877 - 1963, later made Lord Nuffield) began building Morris cars at Cowley, near Oxford, in 1912, eventually producing the iconic 1948 Morris Minor, and the 1959 Mini.

Cecil Kimber, owner of a Morris garage in Oxford, began building sports cars off Morris bodies in his premises in Alfred Lane, Oxford (a plaque can be seen on the actual building), and the MG (short for Morris Garages) was born. Eventually demand was such that MG moved to a larger plant in Abingdon, until production stopped in 1980. From that point on, until the MGF came along in 1995, MGs were effectively rebadged Metros, Maestros and Montegos.

Morris became part of the British Motor Corporation, and then British Leyland, until the Morris badge disappeared in 1982 during British Leyland's reshuffle into Austin Rover (and latterly the Rover Group). Despite the turbulent industrial climate, the plant at Cowley remains in use; today the plant is operated by BMW and produces the new Mini, one of BMW's most successful vehicles. The MG name lived on in the name of MG Rover until that collapsed in 2005.

Motorsport wise, Oxfordshire is very much at the centre. Renault F1, formerly Benetton, are based in Enstone, and in 2006 won the constructor's championship as well as the driver's championship with Fernando Alonso.

Williams, based in Grove near Wantage had long and successful associations with Renault (winning the driver's title with Damon Hill in 1996) and BMW, and now is associated with Toyota. During the 1990s Renault used the Williams badge on the iconic Clio Williams series of hot hatches (which, ironically, Williams had little input into), and Williams also ran Renault's British Touring Car Championship team from 1995 - 1999.

Banbury firm Prodrive has successfully run Subaru's World Rally team for a number of years, working with such drivers as Carlos Sainz, Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg. Prodrive is also running Aston Martin's sportscar racing team and in the past ran Ford's British Touring Car team. Prodrive owner and founder Dave Richards has also expanded his automotive empire by buying a majority stake in Aston Martin from Ford.

Previously, motorsport firm TWR, based in Witney, had run a number of British Touring Car teams as well as Le Mans teams, until it was adversely affected by the collapse of the Arrows F1 team, which Tom Walkinshaw had heavily bought into.

Reynard, formerly based in Bicester, designed Formula Ford, Formula 3000, and Champ Car chassis and was one of the instrumental founder partners of British American Racing, now based in Brackley in Northamptonshire. However, a number of aborted business ventures led to Reynard going into administration in 2001.

Whew! I think that's most of it, I'll have another think and see if I remember anything else. Hopefully tomorrow I should have time to pull some links out for you for the entry, too.

thats a nice coincidence for your insigt

No problems - glad to be of help . One day I might get around to finishing the project - it's taking way longer than I ever thought it would!