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  • How UK Car Clubs Are Keeping Analogue Driving Culture Alive as EVs Take Over the Market

    How UK Car Clubs Are Keeping Analogue Driving Culture Alive as EVs Take Over the Market

    There’s a quiet battle being fought in pub car parks, on Scottish B-roads, and in industrial estates on the edge of Coventry. It doesn’t make the mainstream news. It doesn’t get column inches in the broadsheets. But UK car clubs are actively, deliberately reorganising themselves to protect something they can see slipping away: the culture of driving a proper internal combustion engine car for the sheer love of it. I’ve been to enough meets over the past year to say this isn’t paranoia. It’s pragmatism.

    UK car clubs ICE driving culture meet with classic and modified cars gathered in a countryside car park
    Photo by Emre Gencer on Pexels

    The numbers aren’t small either. The Motor Sports Association estimates there are well over 600 affiliated car clubs in the UK, and that figure doesn’t include the hundreds of informal groups running their own meets through Facebook, WhatsApp, and Discord. Many of these clubs are changing how they operate in 2026 in ways that go well beyond organising a Sunday run-out. They’re restructuring membership, negotiating bespoke insurance schemes, and deliberately framing their identity around ICE vehicles before that becomes a legally or financially complicated thing to do.

    What’s actually driving the change at club level

    The shift isn’t just about the 2035 new petrol car sale deadline. That date feels distant to some, but club secretaries and committee members are thinking longer. The real pressure is coming from insurance, venue access, and the growing complexity of running older or modified vehicles under UK regulations. Clubs that were happy to exist loosely for decades are formalising because they have to.

    The Scottish Classic Car Club scene is a useful example. Groups running single-marque days in Perthshire and Angus have started negotiating block insurance arrangements with specialist brokers, partly because getting competitive cover for older performance iron as individual policies has become genuinely painful. A 1991 Subaru SVX or a turbocharged Mk1 MX-5 that’s been lightly modified doesn’t fit neatly into comparison site categories. Clubs that pool their membership give brokers enough volume to price things properly. That’s not a trivial development.

    Down in the Midlands, modified meets that used to be entirely informal are registering as proper clubs, partly to access track time at venues like Donington Park and Mallory Park through club hire rather than open lapping days, which are both more expensive and less forgiving of modified cars. I spoke to one organiser running a monthly meet near Wolverhampton who told me his WhatsApp group of 340 members had converted to a paid membership structure in January 2026 precisely because it gave them bargaining power they didn’t have before.

    Insurance structures built around ICE club members

    This is where things get genuinely interesting. A handful of specialist UK insurers, including Adrian Flux and Footman James, have been working with clubs to create what amounts to fleet-adjacent cover for groups of classic and modified ICE vehicles. The policies aren’t fleet policies in the traditional sense, but they share characteristics: agreed value, limited mileage, and provisions for track days that standard road policies simply won’t touch.

    If you’ve ever tried getting breakdown recovery included for a track day, you’ll know how difficult that is. What UK breakdown cover actually does and doesn’t cover on a track day is a topic that causes genuine confusion, and clubs are starting to handle this centrally rather than leaving members to sort it individually. Some of the more organised single-marque clubs now include a basic track day recovery addendum as part of their annual membership fee. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference.

    Modified ICE engine bay at a UK car clubs technical event
    Photo by Ayyeee Ayyeee on Pexels

    How single-marque clubs are positioning themselves

    Single-marque clubs have always had a clearer identity than general modified meets, and that clarity is proving useful right now. The Lotus Owners Club, the Subaru Owners Club GB, the Honda Owners Club and dozens of similar groups are explicitly marketing themselves to younger buyers who are picking up 15-20 year old ICE performance cars rather than new EVs. If you’ve been following what’s happening to values on cars like the Elise, you’ll know that buying and running a Lotus Elise before values make it impossible is a very real concern for enthusiasts right now, and clubs are capitalising on that anxiety by offering genuine support: technical days, group buying on parts, shared knowledge networks.

    The Land Rover community is another instructive case. Defender and Series owners have always had a strong club culture, but in 2026 that culture is getting more technical and more politically conscious. Clubs are tracking legislative changes closely and maintaining resources like Car Data Wiki for historical vehicle information that helps members understand what they own and what exemptions might apply. Knowing your vehicle’s exact specification matters more than it did five years ago.

    Modified car meets and the formalisation challenge

    The informal modified scene has always resisted structure on principle. That resistance is softening out of necessity. Clean Air Zones, local council restrictions on certain car park meets, and the increasing scrutiny of modified vehicles by police and insurers alike have pushed groups towards formalisation faster than anyone expected.

    The DVLA’s rolling regulatory updates and ULEZ expansion have made it harder to run older, louder, or heavily modified cars at certain venues. Clubs that can demonstrate organised, responsible events with proper insurance have a much easier time negotiating with venue managers and local councils. The Birmingham and Black Country modified scene has largely moved its main summer meet out of the city entirely and into private-land venues in Worcestershire and Shropshire partly for this reason.

    Remapping culture sits at an interesting junction here too. What a genuine Stage 1 remap does to long-term reliability is the kind of technical question that modified car clubs are well-placed to answer collectively, with members sharing real-world data across the same platforms. That sort of peer knowledge is genuinely valuable and it’s one of the things keeping members engaged and renewing subscriptions.

    What membership structures look like now

    The days of a £15 annual sub and a sticker are largely gone for any club trying to do meaningful things. In 2026, the better-organised UK car clubs are operating tiered membership. A basic tier gets you the newsletter, forum access, and discounts with parts suppliers. A mid-tier adds track day priority booking and the group insurance benefits. A top tier includes technical consultancy, legal helpline access for modification disputes, and priority places on organised road trips.

    Annual fees range enormously. Small local clubs might charge £30-50. Larger single-marque clubs with active programmes can run to £120-180 a year, and the evidence suggests members are willing to pay when they can see exactly what they’re getting. The clubs that are struggling are the ones still running on inertia, expecting the same turnout and the same revenue as 2018 without offering anything new.

    What I find genuinely encouraging is how much of this is bottom-up. Nobody handed these clubs a template. Ordinary enthusiasts, many of them people with day jobs who run a club committee in their spare time, have figured out that the window for preserving what they love is open now but won’t be forever. They’re acting accordingly. That’s the kind of thing the mainstream motoring press mostly misses, because it doesn’t have a press release attached to it. It just happens, one committee meeting at a time, in function rooms above pubs from Inverness to Ipswich.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    How do I find a UK car club for my specific make or model?

    The Motor Sports Association (MSA) maintains a searchable directory of affiliated clubs at motorsportuk.org. For marque-specific clubs, a direct search such as ‘[make] owners club UK’ will typically surface the main registered group, most of which have their own websites and active Facebook or forum communities.

    Can joining a car club actually reduce my insurance costs in the UK?

    For classic and modified vehicles, yes, in many cases. Specialist insurers like Footman James and Adrian Flux offer club-negotiated rates that can be meaningfully cheaper than individual policies, particularly for agreed-value cover and limited-mileage schemes. You’ll usually need to show current paid membership to qualify.

    Do UK car clubs cover track day events under their insurance arrangements?

    Some do, but not all. The more organised clubs, particularly in the single-marque space, have begun including basic track day provisions or recovery add-ons as part of membership. Always check the exact wording, as track day cover varies significantly and standard road policies almost never apply once you’re through the circuit gates.

    Are modified car meets in UK cities becoming harder to organise legally?

    In several areas, yes. Clean Air Zone rules, council restrictions on certain public car parks, and noise complaints have pushed meets towards private land and rural venues. Formally registered clubs with proper public liability insurance have a much easier time securing permission from landowners and local authorities than informal WhatsApp groups do.

    Will UK car clubs remain relevant as EV adoption increases?

    The evidence in 2026 suggests they’re becoming more relevant, not less. With ICE driving culture facing regulatory pressure, clubs are the primary institutions preserving knowledge, access to group insurance, parts networks, and legal support for owners of older and modified petrol and diesel vehicles. Many are also actively welcoming younger buyers of used ICE performance cars.

  • Driving the Causeway Coast and Antrim Glens: Northern Ireland’s Greatest Road Trip for Car Enthusiasts

    Driving the Causeway Coast and Antrim Glens: Northern Ireland’s Greatest Road Trip for Car Enthusiasts

    There are roads in Northern Ireland that most UK car enthusiasts have never driven, and that genuinely baffles me. I’ve covered the NC500 twice, blasted through mid-Wales on a damp Tuesday, and done the Causeway Coast route enough times that I can tell you exactly where the tarmac gets interesting. The A2 coastal road and the B-roads threading through the Antrim Glens are among the finest driving roads in these islands, full stop. Not “pretty good for Northern Ireland”, genuinely world-class. And because the crowds concentrate on the tourist honeypots, the roads themselves are often empty when you actually want them.

    This is a proper route guide for drivers who care about the driving. Photography spots and fuel logistics included, because nobody wants to limp into Cushendall on fumes having miscalculated the nearest petrol station by fifteen miles.

    Winding coastal road along the Antrim coast — a perfect Northern Ireland road trip car enthusiast destination
    Photo by Mario Spencer on Pexels

    The A2: what it actually drives like

    The A2 between Belfast and Larne is a warm-up. Decent dual carriageway sections, some roundabouts, nothing special. Forget it as a driving road and treat it as transit. The magic starts north of Larne, where the A2 hugs the coastline and the road begins to narrow, twist, and throw views at you that make passengers grab the door handle.

    Between Larne and Ballycastle, roughly 50 miles of it, you get the kind of surface variation that keeps you honest. Long fast sweepers open up near Carnlough, the sort where a well-sorted hot hatch will cover ground quickly and a low-slung sports car will feel every camber change. Then suddenly it tightens. The section descending into Glenarm is properly technical: late apex, decreasing radius, bumpy on the inside line. Respect the road or it will catch you out.

    Cushendall is a useful marker. Stop here, fuel up at the small filling station in the village (the next reliable stop heading north is Ballycastle, so don’t gamble), stretch your legs, have a look at the sea. Then push on. The stretch from Cushendall to Ballycastle via the coast is the highlight of the A2, open, fast-ish, genuinely scenic, and almost completely ignored by people who don’t know the route.

    The Glens B-roads: where the real driving is

    Here’s where I’d tell any proper car nerd to spend their time. The nine Antrim Glens run inland from the coast, and the B-roads connecting them are extraordinary. Narrow, properly surfaced in most places, with gradient changes that expose your car’s damper tuning and make you think hard about brake bias.

    The B14 through Glenariff, sometimes called the Queen of the Glens, drops into the valley with a sequence of hairpins that reward smooth inputs and punish anyone who brakes too late. If you’ve fitted uprated pads and fluid for a track day, those same components will feel magnificent here. The road surface is generally good, with a few patched sections that catch you mid-corner if you’ve gone too wide.

    Glenaan and Glendun are quieter still. These are the ones locals use, so agricultural traffic is a real factor, meet a silage trailer on a blind crest and you’ll suddenly appreciate why mirrors and road position matter. Early morning runs are ideal. By 8am on a weekend the light is extraordinary, the roads are empty, and the temperature is low enough to make your engine breathe properly.

    Cross-linking the Glens with the A44 and B94 gives you a loop that can easily fill four or five hours of actual driving, not including stops. I’d plan it as a dedicated day rather than trying to add it onto the Causeway Coast itself, you’ll rush both if you try to combine them in a single push.

    What car makes the most of these roads

    I’ve done this route in a few different things. A stage-2 Golf R felt planted and fast but slightly blunt on the tighter Glens roads where you really want feel. A Mazda MX-5 ND was closer to perfect than anything else I’ve driven up here, light, communicative, narrow enough for the B-roads, and the gearing suits the speeds you’re actually doing. An Impreza Prodrive on decent all-season tyres was also brilliant, the mechanical grip making the wet sections far less stressful.

    The roads are not kind to very low cars. Ground clearance matters on some of the glen sections where the road surface has subsided slightly at the edges. If your car is sitting below 100mm ride height and you’re running stretched rubber, you’re going to be anxious rather than enjoying it. Something with a bit of travel in the suspension, a well-sorted hot hatch, a light sports car at standard or near-standard ride height, will be faster and more enjoyable than something slammed for show.

    If you’ve been considering a remap before a trip like this, read up on what a stage 1 remap actually does to long-term engine reliability before committing. The extra mid-range punch genuinely helps on the rolling glen roads, but the decision deserves proper consideration, not a snap choice before a weekend away.

    Photography spots worth stopping for

    Garron Point, about halfway along the A2 coastal stretch, gives you an elevated view looking north along the coast that is one of the best “car on a road” shots available in the UK. The road curves away below you and the sea fills the frame. Get there before 9am in summer and the light is golden; the tourists haven’t arrived yet.

    The Glenariff viewpoint car park on the B14 is obvious but genuinely good. The layby above Cushendun, which you’ll see as you descend towards the village, is less well-known and better for an actual car shot because there’s enough verge to position a car without blocking the road.

    Fair Head is worth the short drive from Ballycastle if you want dramatic cliffs with no crowds. The track to the top isn’t suitable for low cars, but anything with reasonable clearance will manage it. Views from the top towards Rathlin Island and the Mull of Kintyre on a clear day are spectacular.

    Fuel and logistics

    Fuel planning is non-negotiable on this route. Larne, Carnlough, Cushendall, and Ballycastle all have filling stations, but the Glens loops between them are long. If your car is tuned and drinks fuel at a rate you haven’t properly calculated, you will get caught out. Fill up at every opportunity rather than pushing on.

    Accommodation around Ballycastle is limited and books up quickly in summer. Cushendall has a couple of decent options and puts you well-positioned for morning runs into the Glens before anyone else is on the road. Mobile signal is patchy through the glens, so download offline maps before you leave. Google Maps has sent drivers up tracks that end at farm gates, and that’s not a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

    Northern Ireland roads fall under the Department for Infrastructure rather than Highways England, and the Department for Infrastructure NI publishes road condition updates that are worth checking before you go, particularly after a wet winter when the glen roads can be rough in places.

    Making the most of the trip

    If you’re flying over from the mainland, check whether your insurance covers Northern Ireland specifically, most UK policies do, but modified car cover sometimes has geographic restrictions worth double-checking with your broker. Getting a car across on the ferry from Cairnryan to Larne with P&O or Stena takes around two hours and makes far more sense than hiring. You want your own car on roads like these.

    The route also connects nicely to the broader Causeway Coastal Route that Tourism NI promotes, though their version is very much aimed at tourists in hire cars doing 30mph past the viewpoints. The driving version of this trip, the one I’m describing, is something else entirely. If you’ve already explored the coast from the tourist perspective, check out our earlier look at driving the Causeway Coast and Glens as a car enthusiast for more context on what makes this area so special from behind the wheel.

    One last thing: respect the locals. These are working roads with farming vehicles, school buses, and people who actually live on them. The car nerd etiquette that applies on track days applies here too. Back off when something’s behind you, pull in when you meet oncoming traffic on a narrow section, and don’t leave tyre marks through the villages. The roads will keep being available to us because drivers who use them with a bit of sense don’t generate complaints. Keep it that way.

  • Why Cadwell Park Is the Most Technically Demanding Circuit in the UK and How to Learn It Properly

    Why Cadwell Park Is the Most Technically Demanding Circuit in the UK and How to Learn It Properly

    There are circuits that challenge you, and then there’s Cadwell Park. Tucked into the Lincolnshire Wolds, this place is unlike anything else on the British motorsport calendar. The elevation changes are savage, the sightlines are genuinely terrifying until you know them, and the Mountain section will haunt your dreams after your first session. I’ve driven a fair few circuits around the UK and I’d argue Cadwell is the one that demands the most from a driver relative to the raw speed involved. You won’t see 160mph here. You will, however, need every ounce of spatial awareness you own.

    This Cadwell Park circuit guide is written for driving enthusiasts who want to actually learn the place, not just survive it. Whether you’re arriving in a hot hatch on a budget track day or bringing something more purposeful, the fundamentals of reading this circuit correctly apply across the board.

    Aerial view of Cadwell Park circuit guide UK track day location in Lincolnshire countryside
    Photo by Wolfgang Vrede on Pexels

    What makes Cadwell Park different from other UK circuits

    Most UK circuits are fundamentally flat. Silverstone, Snetterton, Thruxton, Donington in its upper sections, they all reward clean lines and late braking, but they don’t punish you for not knowing where the road goes. Cadwell does. The circuit sits across natural undulation in the Lincolnshire countryside, and MSV (MotorSport Vision), who run the venue, have left that topography largely intact rather than flattening it away.

    The result is a 2.17-mile layout with multiple blind crests where the car goes light, corners that tighten mid-apex due to camber changes, and the infamous Mountain, a compression-to-launch sequence that sends properly sorted cars airborne. According to MotorSport Vision’s own circuit data, Cadwell regularly tops their surveys for repeat attendance from track day drivers. People come back because it rewards learning in a way that flatter circuits simply don’t.

    The circuit direction is anti-clockwise. It’s quite short, so you get plenty of laps per session, which is exactly what you need for a venue where learning each corner in isolation matters enormously.

    The key sections: a corner-by-corner breakdown

    The start/finish straight and Park Corner

    You won’t be carrying exceptional speed onto the start line. Park Corner, the right-hander at the end of the straight, is tighter than it looks on approach. Novices almost universally brake too late here because it appears to open up. It doesn’t. A reference point on the banking on the right is your friend; get to around a third of the way round before you even think about applying power. Getting Park wrong sets up a poor entry to the following section, so nail this first.

    Charlies, Mansfield and Chris Curve

    This sequence in the infield is where rhythm starts to matter. Charlies is a left-hander that flows directly into Mansfield, a right. The temptation is to separate these corners; the reality is they work as one combined movement. Carry too much angle through Charlies and Mansfield’s exit tightens. Trail braking helps here, and if you haven’t practised that technique on a circuit before, this is the section that’ll make you learn it fast.

    Chris Curve is the following left sweep, and it’s far faster than it initially looks. Once you trust the grip and the line, you can carry genuine speed through here. That confidence takes time, though. Don’t rush it.

    The Hall Bends and Barn Corner

    The Hall Bends are where Cadwell’s gradients start doing real work. The downhill compression into the left-hander loads the front axle hard. Overshoot here and you’re wide at exactly the wrong moment. Barn Corner at the end is one of Cadwell’s more straightforward braking zones, but after the disorienting Hall section it still catches people out. Use the brake marker boards; on your first several sessions, they’re your best friends.

    The Mountain: everything you need to know

    The Mountain is Cadwell’s signature, and it’s the section most discussed, most feared, and most misunderstood. On the approach, the circuit rises sharply before cresting at a point where the road drops away faster than the car wants to follow. At speed in a car with reasonable suspension, this means air under the wheels. At lower speeds in a softly sprung road car, the compression before the crest is the more dramatic sensation.

    The critical thing is where you place the car on the approach. Too far left and you’re on a tightening line at the worst possible moment. The traditional advice is to carry a slightly wider entry than feels natural, letting the crest resolve the line rather than fighting it. At novice pace you may not get airborne at all, which is fine. As pace builds, don’t chase the airtime, it comes naturally as you gain confidence in the approach.

    After the Mountain, the circuit drops into Gooseneck, a left-right that requires a complete reset from the drama above. The chassis is unsettled; give it a moment before you commit.

    The Hairpin and the Chicane

    The Hairpin is Cadwell’s main overtaking point. It’s a heavy braking zone into a slow left, and getting the exit right matters because the straight that follows feeds into the start line. Brake in a straight line, get the nose turned early, and resist the urge to get on the power too soon; the exit opens up later than it appears.

    The chicane, depending on the day’s track configuration, can be tight or slightly more flowing. Either way, it’s not where you make big time. Smooth is fast here.

    Car setup advice for Cadwell Park

    Cadwell rewards a car that’s balanced rather than one built purely around straight-line speed. Stiff springs help with the compressions and crests, but they need to be matched to the road car’s existing geometry. If you’re running adjustable dampers, a mid-range setting for both bump and rebound is a sensible starting point. Too stiff and the Mountain becomes genuinely unpredictable over the crest.

    Tyre choice is significant. The circuit’s surface gives good grip once up to temperature, but the elevation and load changes mean tyres that overheat quickly will degrade fast. If you’re running semi-slicks, check our breakdown of semi-slick vs road-legal track tyres on UK circuits before committing to a compound. For most track day drivers in road cars, a quality road tyre in the correct size will serve you well for many sessions.

    Brake preparation matters enormously at Cadwell. The Hall Bends and Hairpin both demand proper braking performance, and if you’re arriving in a car that hasn’t had its fluid refreshed, do it before the day. Read up on brake fluid grades for track use if you haven’t sorted that yet; it’s one of the most overlooked prep items for a first track day.

    How to progress from novice to confident at Cadwell

    The biggest mistake novices make at Cadwell is trying to string a quick lap together too early. The circuit simply doesn’t allow it. Learn one section at a time. Spend your first session just understanding the braking zones. Your second, start working the exits. By your third or fourth session, the blind crests stop feeling blind because your brain has mapped them.

    Walking the circuit before driving it makes a significant difference. MSV usually allows this during lunch breaks. Walk the Mountain on foot and you’ll immediately understand the grade change in a way that sitting in a briefing room never conveys. Stand at Park Corner and you’ll see the tightening radius that drivers miss from the cockpit.

    If your car is modified or has been remapped, be aware that Cadwell’s technical demands can expose setup issues that flat circuits mask. Cars with aggressive low-speed torque maps can be a handful through the Hall Bends where throttle modulation is everything. If you’ve recently had work done and you’re unsure how it affects your car’s behaviour under track conditions, that’s worth thinking through before pushing hard. The same applies to vehicles on finance: there are implications for remapped cars under PCP that are worth understanding before you modify your setup for circuit use.

    Book an instructor for your first visit if you can. Cadwell’s layout is counterintuitive enough that even experienced drivers from other circuits benefit from a guide on the first day. MSV offer tuition through the venue and several independent instructors specialise in Cadwell specifically. You can also find track day listings and local car club events through Maxx Directory, which covers UK automotive events and performance services.

    Cadwell Park is the circuit that sorts out who’s genuinely reading the road from who’s just going fast. Learn it properly and every other UK circuit becomes easier. That’s not hyperbole. It’s just what this place does to a driver.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Is Cadwell Park suitable for complete track day beginners?

    Yes, but you need to be honest about the learning curve. Cadwell’s blind crests and gradient changes make it more demanding than flatter circuits. Most novice drivers benefit significantly from booking an instructor for their first session, and MSV run dedicated novice sessions where overtaking is restricted to keep things manageable.

    What car setup works best for a Cadwell Park track day?

    A balanced, mid-range suspension setup works best. Cadwell’s elevation changes and compressions punish cars that are too stiff or too soft. Tyres should be in good condition with adequate tread depth, and brake fluid should be fresh, ideally DOT 5.1 or a quality DOT 4, before any track use at Cadwell.

    How do I learn the Mountain section at Cadwell safely?

    Build up to it gradually. In your first sessions, take the Mountain at conservative pace to understand the crest and landing. Walk the section on foot during a lunch break to see the gradient properly. As confidence builds, carry more speed on the approach and let the line develop naturally rather than forcing it.

    How much does a track day at Cadwell Park cost in 2026?

    Prices vary by organiser and session type, but typical MSV open pit lane days at Cadwell run from around £150 to £250 per car depending on the date and demand. Club-organised days through affiliated car clubs can sometimes be cheaper. Booking well in advance typically secures better rates.