PHOTOGRAPHY & WORDS: Tom Horna

It’s rare that a classic car owner would have every car they’d like to own in their garage, even those that are lucky to assemble a larger collection of cars. I personally own three classics and I’m nowhere near to fulfilling my dream collection, after all we can’t have them all. One of my all-time favourite classics that I’m yet to add to my collection is the classic Mini. Whilst my desire to own one is currently on a peak level, I am yet to find one that fits my needs. However, I found a solution to my Mini cravings – a recently founded experience and hire company – Classic Car Adventures.

Classic Car Adventures (CCA) are not your average and old-fashioned ‘experience day’ or a classic car rental company. CCA deliver a fresh and innovative approach to the ‘car experience days’ market. Not only do they offer cars prepared to the highest standard but they also provide a choice of carefully curated routes and equip you with a preloaded SatNav (with food, attractions and fuel stops) taking the planning effort away, leaving you more time to simply enjoy the experience.

Their expanding fleet consists of mostly classic Mini’s but you’ll also find a classic VW Campervan and soon to come, Italian icons like Lancia Fulvia as well as many more interesting vehicles in the pipeline. All cars are (discreetly) fitted with a vintage style stereo with all the modern tech like Bluetooth, USB and iPhone connections. For that extra icing on the cake, CCA will make sure to know what music rocks your boat so they can upload a suitable playlist for your ‘Classic Car Adventure’.

Last week it was my turn for a classic Mini adventure. I met the CCA team at their premises which neighbours with one of the best modern classic specialist; ‘4 Star Classics’. My aim was to get familiar with the classic Mini but also to find out more about the CCA and to trial one of their ‘curated’ routes in the British countryside. I was glad to learn that the lads from 4Star decided to join us and in no time, we assembled a fleet of 5 cars which turned it into a proper ‘Classic Car Adventure’.

Due to the nature of our businesses, we somewhat all knew each other for a while via our social media channels so we decided to combine the trial with some festive celebrations… and so we set off on a few hours’ drive through the stunning scenery of the Surrey and Sussex hills to our Christmas lunch destination.

The weather was typically British but this made the experience even more authentic and exciting at the same time due to the nature of the bendy and hilly Surrey countryside roads.

This route was one that I was more than familiar with because I’ve taken it many a times whilst traveling to Goodwood. However, this time was my first time in a classic Mini and it made me fall in love with the car even more!

Our only stop was ‘The White Horse Pub’which is one of the recommended CCA stops (which I now can personally recommend too), we had a blast talking cars and consuming crazy amounts of fabulously delicious food and beverage.

As you can imagine, good company, food and drink can only mean that we lost track of time and barely managed to take some drone shots of the cars before the last part of day light disappeared. I guess lucky us as only seconds after landing my drone and getting into our cars it turned dark and the rain reappeared.

Driving back in the dark wasn’t as picturesque but allowed me to take some interesting night-time images of the cars.

What a great Classic Car Adventure this was!

I highly recommend you get in touch with the Classic Car Adventures guys. I’m certain you will not regret it. I’ve been in a classic car business for a long while now and I have to admit it was one of the best drives I’ve had in a while.