Archives for October 2019

If your interested in vehicles and how they are made i cannot recommend getting yourself on a factory tour enough!

We opted to attend the “range rover/discovery” three hour tour and had to arrive at the solihull factory by 0900, in the event we arrived just after 0830 but the tour organisers let us in and provided us with fresh hot drinks and we had time to relax a little before the tour started.

We were organised into groups and taken to various locations around the factory in special extended defenders, our first impressions of the site were of the sheer size of it all, there is a school for children who’s parents are working there, an purpose built A+E department, sports grounds, social clubs and a dedicated fishing lake, not to mention a full off road course in the woods!.

Our tour started in the press shop and we were able to follow the flat sheets of aluminium as they went through the press and emerged as various sections and panels to be assembled later on. this particular building is sunk into the ground and the press is mounted on rubber foundations in order to stop the surrounding towns and houses from experiencing earthquakes!

We then went to the body assembly plant where the multitude of robots bonded and riveted the panels into a body, the numbers are staggering, for example one rivet gun costs around £300,000, one die set for a panel [and there are dozens] £800,000!

From there we watched the front and rear sub frames being fitted then the engine/gearbox assembly’s, this along with seats and interiors, until finally they emerge to be started up, one every 130 seconds or so 6 days a week and 24 hours a day, more impressive is that each car is already ordered and sold to a customer, 90% of which are for export

We came away full of facts and figures and genuinely impressed that 5 billion had been invested in the plant by owners Tata, if you get a chance try and get on the tour, its a well spent £49!

some of last nights production!

 

This event was a little different to our usual ones

Firstly it was a joint venture between ATUK and our local classic car club banger town classics so we had a great selection of “car people” attending.

P+A woods is a world renowned rolls royce and bentley dealer and repairer family owned and nestled right in the centre of the essex village of  great easton, they carry out virtually all of their restoration processes on site and have a wealth of knowledge and experts in every field of restoring and repairing vehicles of any age.

18 attendees arrived just before 10 am and once signed in were given complimentary tea/coffee and biscuits, once everyone was gathered together our tour leader keith [who had worked there for 41 years!] proceed to take us around the various buildings that make up p+a woods. So starting in the general service and repairs area we then went on to the main garage which housed untold beautiful cars, some in absolute perfect condition and some in mid restoration. work was being carried out and we had opportunity to chat with the guys who were working on them, for example there was three guys detailing a chassis by painting the bolts with an artists brush!

Cars are brought into a bespoke building where they are valeted, a process with over 24 operations, suffice to say the finish is fabulous!

Once we left the main building we were shown the paint shop and the seat repair shop, alongside chassis repairs and vehicles that had been stripped of all of their paint by hand in preparation for repairs and paint, no stone is left unturned and its not unusual for restorations to take 3 years plus, the attention to detail is staggering!

The tour also includes the showroom areas that house cars that are brand new to the oldest, all for sale and as far as i could see perfect, the staff who work there are super friendly and really happy to chat, very informal and clearly love their jobs and the people they work for.

Anyone can ask for a tour which is free of charge and lasts over 2 hours, they are however booked  for over a year so please bear that in mind if your planning on going.

Around 12 of us after having said our thank you’s to p+woods went for lunch at a local pub which finished the day off brilliantly.

i would like to say a personal thanks to everyone who attended and to everyone at p+a woods who made our visit so enjoyable.