Simply Japanese: Beaulieu Motor Museum, Sunday, 20 July

[Casey]

Simply Japanese will return to Beaulieu (Hampshire) on Sunday 20th July 2025 for an excellent day out for owners and enthusiasts.

Set in the parkland of the National Motor Museum, the event is open to all ages and models of Japanese cars and motorcycles and is always a highlight of the events calendar.

All participants have the opportunity to be chosen as the winner of the People's Choice Awards, selected by public vote. Prizes are awarded to the winner and runners-up.

If you have not been before, this venue has a lot to offer, beyond the the cars on display and the Museum. The venue is especially good for families.

Palace House - the Montagu historic family home since 1538
Little Beaulieu play area for kids
Secret Army Exhibition - Beaulieu was a training school for SOE agents during WWII
Beaulieu Abbey  & Exhibition
Extensive grounds and a riverside walk
and more .... there are often activities, such as Falconry flying displays, plus Veteran bus and car rides

See here for more details

An interactive map of the venue is available here

ADDRESS
National Motor Museum,
Beaulieu,
New Forest,
Hampshire,
SO42 7ZN

CLUB STAND AND TICKETS
The RX-8 Owners Club have booked a Club stand and have invited other rotary clubs to join them.

Tickets now available here
No booking code is required - BUT please state "RX-8 Owners Club" in the "Club Name" box

NOTE: Early Bird tickets are available until 2pm, 28 February. After which the prices will be as in brackets

Adult
£15    (£16.80)

Child (5-16 years old)
£8    (£8.50)

Under 5's are free

The venue opens from 8:30am and we all need to be parked up on the stand by 10:30am

REFRESHMENTS
The RX-8 OC will, hopefully (weather permitting) have the club gazebo available to members. In which case they will then supply breakfast bacon rolls, plus hot and cold drinks and few other snacks for later in the day  . Non-Members can partake of any of the refreshments for a flat donation of just £5 (cards are accepted, or PayPal).

Bring your mug for hot drinks (there will be a limited supply available) and a camping chair to sit, chat and enjoy the late July sunshine 

RENDEZVOUS
Nearer the event date, I will post up details of a rendezvous meeting point, with the opportunity to drive into the venue in convoy for a few miles, which is fun, and makes it easier to find our stand location on arrival.

I'm Going:

• casey (PAID)
• David and Sally (PAID)
• Clive & Lisa (PAID)
• .
• .

Please DO NOT quote the first post :thumleft:
Please post up your interest including how many you intend to bring with you, and we will add your name(s) to the list. If you have any questions, just post in this thread and I will do my best to help :thumleft:
[/quote]

[DaveCollins]

Malcolm,
Tickets purchased for Sally and myself.

All the best

Dave

[Casey]

Excellent Dave. It will be great to see you and Sally there (and your refreshed FB too!) 

[Casey]

A quick bump for this event, which is now just over 3 weeks away!

This is a great event for car enthusiasts, and for families too, with plenty to see and do at the venue at a discounted entry price.

We plan to have the usual, legendary, RX-8 OC breakfast bacon roll service available, including tea, coffee, soft drinks and water too 

[Casey]

LAST CALL!!

I've been requested by the organisers at Beaulieu to send final stand numbers by 7th July, so please post up here any additions/changes by noon on Sunday, 6th July.

There are about a dozen cars booked on  the RX-8 Stand to date.

Thank you 

[Casey]

MEETING UP AND CONVOY ARRANGEMENTS

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR TICKET AND STAND PASS!

You will have received an E-ticket when you booked your place, ensure you bring it with you. The stand pass is attached to this post below and needs to be printed out and placed in your windscreen on arrival at the entrance gate.

From the Beaulieu organisers:

Clubs are requested to arrive at the same time in order to allow our stewards to park your members faster. Please note that club areas will only be reserved until 10.30am, after this time the area will be released to other participants. Individual club members arriving after 10.30am are not guaranteed to be able to join their booked club area.

Entrance gates open at 8.30am.

Therefore, please meet at a Tescos Dibden Superstore just off the A326 (Just after Applemore Hill) from 7.45am ready to leave 8.15am sharp and convoy in together to get to the car park holding area at Beaulieu by 08:30. Fuel is available as this Tesco store.

Address:
Tesco
Sizer Way
Dibden
Southampton
Hampshire
SO45 5JA

If you are running late, or cannot make the rendezvous point, then go directly to the main entrance gate (off B3056) or the event entrance gate (off B3054).

Address:
National Motor Museum, Beaulieu,
New Forest,
Hampshire,
United Kingdom
SO42 7ZN

If you have any questions about this eveny, then post up here or drop me a PM.

[clive]

Tickets booked see you all on Sunday.

[Casey]

Tickets booked see you all on Sunday.

      

[Casey]

Don't forget to print your stand pass - as in post #5 above 

Clive/Lisa - will you be going straight there, or meeting at the rendezvous point?

[Lisa]

Hi Malcolm, we are going to be driving down on Sunday morning so see you at Beaulieu

[Casey]

Thanks Lisa, see you on the club stand on Sunday 

One thing I hate to point out. The weather forecast is constantly changing. Last weekend the forecast was for a dry, sunny day. Today, the BBC forecast is for thunderstorms, but the Met Office are showing sunny intervals with ~50% chance of rain.

I hope the forecasts will improve!

[Casey]

Beaulieu was a MOST enjoyable event, with only some short showers in the morning and lovely sunshine in the afternoon. During the showers, a group of us wandered around the musuem for some car nostalgia, inspiring us to share some of our personal stories and history. There were several highlights in the museum, but I will mention just two:

The first highlight was a part-completed restoration of an ENORMOUS 1,000hp Sunbeam 22,450 cc V12 land speed record monster (nicknamed "The Slug" due to it's shape) from 1927. The aim is to have it doing demo runs on it's 100th  anniversary. One of the two engines powering this car - one in front of the driver, one behind, has been mounted and tested. The guide at the museum said the engine had been run statically and makes quite a sound and throws awesome coloured flames from the vertival exhausts. It couldn't be run for long as it used huge amounts of cooling water with no airflow through the rads. The history of this car and engines (only 2 of 18 made have survived) is fascinating.






The second museum highlight was a fantastic timeline of F1 cars from the 1950's to the 2020's. Being of a certain age, it brough back many memories of seeing these race on TV in the 1960's,  and live from when I started to attend a few F1 races in the 1970's onwards.





and Nigel Mansell's iconic "red 5" Williams, in which I saw him win the Silverstone GP in dramatic style in 1987. This is a quote on that race:

For Mansell, the highlight of 1987 was his scintillating late race charge to beat his least favourite Brazilian, Nelson Piquet, at Silverstone. Mansell was simply unstoppable, setting lap records 11 times in the final moments as he reeled in the other Williams. On his victory lap, as thousands of patriotic fans in the feverish grip of 'Mansellmania' flooded onto the track, their hero stopped to kiss the tarmac at the spot where he'd overtaken Piquet at 180mph.

Another highlight of the day was sharing it with THREE other FB's (plus mine, making 4).

Dave and Sally again brought their immaculate Opal Green S3 along to join me on the mixed rotary stand. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of my car or Dave's, so credit to Tom Hopkins for this shot of RX-8's on the adjacent Familia stand with my FB and Dave's just visible in the background 



I also met and had a long chat with Russell and Eliose about their gold FB S2, which was a family project for them both;



Finally, I met and chatted  with Pete Fielder, who owned an SA many years ago, but has acquired this S3 a year ago. I have sent details to Pete of the MRC and several other forums, so hope he might pop up with his story and we will hopefully see him and his car at a future event.