Sunday 17th May saw the first of the Volvo Owners’ Club meets for 2026, with the Southern Meet & BKV taking place at a new venue – the excellent REME Museum at Lyneham in Wiltshire.
Situated a little further west than some of our recent Southern BKV venues, the location proved to be a very good choice and attracted a number of members travelling up from the West Country, including several attending a VOC event for the first time.
The weather remained dry and pleasant throughout the day, although the wind became rather stronger later in the afternoon. We received a very warm welcome from the museum team, who helped make the day run smoothly and ensured that members could enjoy both the Meet and everything the museum had to offer.
A total of 42 members and their Volvos attended, with 26 cars entered into the Best Kept Volvo competition. As always, there was a varied selection of cars on display, including a particularly impressive S80 Limousine which had been kindly loaned to one of our members by a local business.
The event also provided another opportunity to support the Club’s chosen charity, Legend on the Bench. Two of our charity teddy bears found new homes during the day and, together with other fundraising, an excellent £220 was raised for the charity. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this very worthwhile cause.
Our sincere thanks go to everyone who helped make the Southern Meet such a successful and enjoyable event. In particular, we would like to thank the REME Museum staff for making us so welcome, together with Dennis Le Worthy and Dave Ovenden, who carried out the judging, and Jan Ovenden, who carefully collated the scores.
Most importantly, thank you to all the members who supported the event and brought such a wonderful variety of Volvos along. Your attendance is what makes these rallies possible, and following such a positive first visit, we very much hope to return to the REME Museum again in the future.
Details of all the trophy winners can be found in the relevant edition of Driver magazine.
