If you have a presence on social media and follow the BMW Car Club GB Facebook and Instagram accounts, you will no doubt have seen random posts over the last few months about Project Merlin, but what is Project Merlin? It is no secret that the National Committee were going to be looking at the continued presence of the office in Aberystwyth, and this was noted in the three-year plan. Project Merlin came into existence after a review of the current Club office location and the decision to move it. The Project Merlin team consists of Michelle Evans, Nick Thomas, Greg Lyons and Richard Rixham. The Project Merlin team reports back to Dave Evans the Club chairman, and the National Committee.
A couple of events brought the review of the office up the priority list, the first being the departure of Lisa from the Club back in January 2025, and the fact that the lease on the existing office would be up for renewal at the end of March 2026. The existing lease requires the Club to give six months’ notice on a lease renewal and since this lease was last agreed, a new landlord has taken over the property and property prices have increased in the area. After speaking with the new landlords, it was found that there would be a significant increase in the cost of a future lease.
As the Club had been unable to recruit a suitable replacement for the Club Coordinator part of Lisa’s job in the location of the current office, the National Committee started to think long-term about the location for the Club headquarters, and a list of requirements was produced. Any future office location would need to be centrally located in the country, with close links to major road networks to make it easily accessible, would need to have enough space for the Club office to grow into, along with having enough storage space to hold the Club archive, merchandise, and assets such as the Club trailer. The location should also have adequate security.
There was one location that met all the requirements set out by the National Committee along with being an up-and-coming automotive heritage location, Great Northern Classics in Derby.
Great Northern Classics was born out of a Rolls-Royce manufacturing plant. The building was originally owned and operated by the Derby Tram company and was the tram depot during the Second World War. Rolls-Royce carried out secret development work on the Merlin engines at this location, with their workshops hidden between the tram depot and the rail tracks running behind the buildings. Hence the name, Project Merlin. Rolls-Royce eventually took over the whole building and when they moved out, the company behind Great Northern Classics was given the opportunity to purchase the building from Rolls-Royce on the understanding that it would be developed as an Automotive Heritage centre.
Great Northern Classics has now been in operation for around 18 months and continues to grow. There are a number of automotive companies operating from the location, including trimmers, classic car restorers, air conditioning services, dry ice restoration, wheel restoration, detailing, a Rolls-Royce employee motor club, a luxury car dealer, Daimler Truck, Remit apprenticeship training, and more. A full list of the companies involved can be found on the Great Northern Classics website: https://www.greatnorthernclassics.co.uk/our-tenants/. This opens up fantastic opportunities to work with these companies, some of which are nationwide.
Great Northern Classics also hosts automotive meets most weekends and on some evenings. BMW Car Club GB will be in the forefront of all the people attending these events with external signage, along with displays within the building, on the website and the ability to host our own events and to collaborate on events with the Great Northern Classics team and other clubs. People come from all over the country to visit Great Northern Classics and their events.
Great Northern Classics contains a café serving breakfasts, burgers and lite bites and there are regularly-changing car displays where we hope we can sometimes display members’ cars. In addition to the trades that operate from Great Northern Classics, there are also retailers selling automotive memorabilia, and an automotive candle maker who will be offering a 10% discount to Club members on all purchases.
Keen-eyed members will have seen that the Club started to advertise for the Club Coordinator role back in May 2025, mentioning that this was an exciting role for someone to join the new Club Office in the Derby area. The aim is to have the new Club Coordinator working from the Great Northern Classics office in August 2025. The new Club Coordinator will be working closely with Michelle Evans, who will continue working for the Club from home. This increases the Club staff from being two to three, with Rose, the Club’s Content Coordinator, also sometimes working from the Derby office. Michelle will be working closely with the new Club Coordinator as the day-to-day operations move from the Aberystwyth office to Derby.
The Project Merlin team and the National Committee has been working together over the last few weeks to get the new lease in place and to get the new office up and running in readiness for the new Club Coordinator to start working from. Wherever possible, the Project Merlin team has been doing the work themselves to keep down the costs involved with any office move. The Club is very appreciative of the time and support provided by the Great Northern Classics team, who have been brilliant to work with.
The office has been painted, and new floor tiles have been laid and used office furniture has been purchased. As you can imagine, there are a lot of things that need to be taken into consideration: internet access, phone lines, a change of address, and much more. The team continues to work on all of this as we look forward to the official move of the office from Aberystwyth to Derby, which is planned for the end of the year. The team will soon be working to transport the Club archive. This is not a small feat, there is a lot of archival material to move, along with shelving, trophy display cases, trophies and artwork. Once the archives have been moved, there will be a project to make a detailed inventory of what is available and to, where possible, digitise elements so that members can request access.
With the increased footfall for the office at Great Northern Classics, it will be possible for us to sell merchandise directly from the office along with Club memberships.
We are still finding out about other opportunities which are materialising from this new location, and we will look to maximise on these opportunities. We hope that you join us in welcoming this bright new future for the Club.
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