Gordon Bennett! Sights, Sounds, and Sensations

To celebrate our ‘Summer of Senses’ and our new exhibition ‘Beep-Beep, Yeah!’, this month we are exploring the Museum with our senses.

The various sounds of a motor car are often some of the earliest noises recreated by babies and these evocative noises tempt drivers back to specific brands or engine sizes again and again. F1 drivers have such a keen familiarity with the sounds of their cars, many can recognise a circuit simply by listening to the engine revs and gear shifts alone! One of the most distinctive sounding cars at the British Motor Museum has to be the Rover gas turbine.

When two time F1 World Champion Graham Hill first tested a Rover gas turbine car at MIRA in 1963 he described the experience: ‘You’re sitting in this thing that you might call a motor car and the next minute it sounds as if you’ve got a [Boeing] 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster.’ Four Rover Gas turbine prototypes are on display at the Museum, including the T3 Gas Turbine Base Unit from 1955, which was capable of 100mph and 4 wheel drive!

Another vehicle with a highly distinctive sound is the Morgan Super Sports 3 wheeler from 1935 which growls like a motorcycle due to its externally mounted V-twin bike engine. The lowered frame, lack of roof or side windows means full exposure to the wind and sun as you drive, whilst you’re so close to the road, you could almost reach out and touch it - not recommended at the top speed of 80mph! Similarly not recommended for touch are the side mounted exhaust covers complete with the warning ‘HOT’ on either side! 

The Morgan is finished in traditional British racing green - a colour which has its origins in the 1903 Gordon Bennett Cup which was scheduled to be held in the United Kingdom. However, as road racing was illegal on the island of Great Britain, the event was held in Ireland, still then part of the UK. As a mark of respect, the British cars were painted shamrock green and the tradition stuck. British teams and manufacturers would blend various shades of green, many of which you can see around the Museum, including many Jaguars, and the curiously dark metallic green on the Lotus Vauxhall Carlton. 

On the subject of paint, according to a 2025 survey from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, pink is Britain’s least popular car colour, comprising just 0.007% of all new registrations. Whilst it’s also not a common colour in our Museum, we do have pink cars, and with very different shades. Firstly, the Land Rover Series IIa 109 ‘Pink Panther’ - so called due to the distinctive matte pink paintwork, even added to sidewalls of the tyres. Modified by Marshall’s of Cambridge for desert use by the Special Air Service, pink was the best colour for desert camouflage (from above, it was masked by the reflection of sun off the sand) and the vehicles became known as 'Pink Panthers'. In all, 72 vehicles were converted for use by the SAS. 

Rather than blending into the background, the fabulous FAB 1 stands out from the crowd with its metallic pink paintwork, the signature colour of Lady Penelope. Built for the 2004 live action ‘Thunderbirds’ motion picture, this 21st Century FAB 1 was built by Ford, rather than Rolls Royce as it had been in the original TV series. Heavily kitted out with special features, including tinted glass canopy, throne-like seat, surrounded by wood, leather, sheepskin and chrome and now signed by Penelope herself, when Sophia Myles visited the Museum in 2024!

Challenge:  Harvest gold? Safari beige? Tuscan blue? Do you have a favourite (or least favourite) shade of paint for a car? Let us know by leaving a comment and maybe a photo of the car as well.

Thanks for reading and share your memories and photos on our social media pages - don’t forget to use the hashtag #ExploringBMM!