We live and breathe cars here at Select Car Leasing.
And one of our team, Amy Pepper, has launched a special venture with her dad, David (both pictured below), providing classic cars for weddings and other events.
The Marlow Classic Car Company, a father-daughter enterprise, was launched 18 months ago, and operates in and around the Buckinghamshire and Berkshire - with Select HQ based in Reading, Berks.
The vintage cars in the Marlow Classic Car Company fleet are enough to make any petrolhead drool.
There’s a 1950s Bentley Mark VI, a 1958 Morris J2 minibus, a super-rare 1950s Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire limo (below) - one of only 15 left in the country - and a 1930s Austin 7 cabriolet.
Also sitting in David’s garage is a beloved Triumph Spitfire - a car our reception desk head Amy learned to drive in… and which she also very nearly crashed during an icy incident that left her old man clinging to the dash!
David, a retired former furniture maker and consultant, says he has a whole lot of love for the Austin 7 (below) in particular.
The 62-year-old reveals:
“I’ve never driven a car that’s so much fun. It’ll do a top speed of 50 mph, if you’re lucky, and it bounces all over the road. You also say a hail mary before trying to find a gear.
“But you just can’t help but smile when you’re driving it. To think that it was built in 1934 is just astonishing considering how much fun it is. It’s very basic, but that means there are fewer things to go wrong, which is all part of the charm.”
Meanwhile the Spitfire (below) also holds a special place in David and Amy’s hearts.
David retired when he was 54 years old in order to look after his poorly wife, Lorraine. In recent years the Spitfire, which Lorraine loved to be a passenger in, underwent a full nuts-and-bolts restoration, under the expert eye of David’s brother and Amy’s uncle Stephen Pepper.
Sadly, Lorraine never got to see the finished work. She passed in 2020.
And with Lorraine gone, David was urged to harness his passion for cars and channel it into something positive, a brand new venture - which is how the Marlow Classic Car Company was born.
David adds:
“Lorraine wasn’t always thrilled about the cars I bought, but she always loved coming out in them. And I think she’d be proud of what we’ve achieved with the Marlow Classic Car Company.
“I want other people to enjoy these cars as much as I do.
“The Spitfire, for example, holds so many memories for the entire family - and it’s the car Amy almost crashed when she was first learning to drive!
“It sounds funny to say it, but I’d rather lose my house than lose that car.”
As for the wedding and events company, David says it’s all about adding the personal touch to someone’s incredibly special day. And he takes that responsibility seriously.
David, who’s also a former publican, adds:
“Fundamentally, we like our cars, and we like people.
“We want to make the wedding day experience as personal as we can - which means it’s not just about chauffeuring guests and saying, ‘I’m Dave, here’s your car, you’ve got an hour’.
“It’s about saying, ‘Let’s stop by this river, take some pictures and have a glass of champagne!’ One couple actually ended up inviting me to the wedding reception because they’d had such a nice time in one of our cars - I politely declined but it was flattering to have been asked.
“We recognise that we play a key role in a day that people will remember for the rest of their lives. And that’s very special for us.”
The classic car itch is seemingly never scratched for David, as more and more cars are being added to the Marlow Classic Car Company fleet all the time.
That includes a 1930’s Austin 10 Cambridge, which is currently being completely rebuilt before beginning service.
David laughs:
“There will always be more cars, I think, and I’ve always got my eye on another Bentley, because the one I have is such a wonderful car to own.
“I keep having to tell myself, ‘This is a business - it’s not supposed to be this much fun!’”
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