TRANSPORT

The journey is rarely the interesting part of an important motor car's story.

But it can be one of the most important.

A competition car travelling to a historic race meeting, a prototype being moved before its public unveiling or a significant collector car crossing Europe may spend only a matter of hours inside a transporter. During that time, responsibility for something potentially irreplaceable passes almost entirely to the people moving it.

That requires considerably more than a truck.

Paul Grimshaw Vehicle Movements — better known as PGVM — has spent more than 25 years building its business around that responsibility.

Based in Brackley, at the heart of Britain's motorsport industry, the family-run company has developed from a single transporter into one of Europe's larger privately owned enclosed vehicle transport operations. Its fleet now extends from single-car enclosed transporters to two-car vehicles, eleven six-car transporters and dedicated race trailers, allowing the same business to move an individual collector car or coordinate the movement of an entire group of competition machinery.

The cars themselves can be equally varied.

Historic and classic motor cars sit alongside contemporary supercars, prototypes, competition cars and one-off vehicles. PGVM has supported film and television productions, automotive manufacturers, private collectors, international tours and race teams across the UK and Europe.

The machinery changes.

The responsibility does not.

More Than Loading a Car

Moving an ordinary road car is principally a logistical exercise.

Moving something significant introduces another set of considerations.

Ground clearance may make a conventional loading ramp impossible. A competition car may have no conventional handbrake or steering lock. A prototype may need to travel without attracting attention. A historic car can require an understanding of controls and starting procedures that bear little resemblance to anything contemporary.

Then there is value.

PGVM's standard Goods in Transit insurance covers vehicles up to £5 million, with enhanced cover available for higher-value consignments. Its enclosed fleet is predominantly discreet and unbranded, protecting cars not only from weather and road debris but also from unnecessary public attention.

Loading equipment is similarly dictated by the machinery.

The company's dedicated high-value single-car transporter uses a slide-out bed designed to provide virtually flat-floor loading for exceptionally low racing cars and hypercars. Its two-car transporter combines a full-height tail lift with a raising deck and onboard charging capability for hybrid supercars, while the larger six-car fleet uses tail lifts to accommodate low vehicles without sacrificing the capacity required for tours, launches and multi-car movements.

These details matter because damage rarely begins once the transporter is travelling.

The critical moments are often getting the car on and off it.

PGVM also digitally documents movements with photographic records and signed proof of collection and delivery, while 24-hour live tracking provides visibility throughout the journey.

For an owner handing over a significant motor car, that information provides something almost as important as physical protection.

Certainty.

When Transport Becomes Motorsport Logistics

PGVM's proximity to Silverstone is appropriate.

Motorsport has become an important part of the business, particularly historic racing where transportation frequently involves far more than the competition car itself.

A race weekend may require several cars, wheels, tyres, tools, bodywork, fuel equipment and enough spares to deal with the unexpected. The transporter can become part workshop, part stores department and part paddock base.

PGVM's dedicated race trucks have consequently been developed around the requirements of teams rather than simply the dimensions of the cars they carry. Depending upon the assignment, they can incorporate office facilities and transport the supporting equipment required for an entire event.

The relationships built around that work are revealing.

Jordan Racing Team has worked with PGVM for eight years, sometimes taking as many as ten cars to a single historic race meeting together with the associated spares and equipment. AF Corse UK has similarly used the company for eight years, with movements ranging from a single vehicle to as many as 20 cars across Britain and Europe.

BGMsport's relationship extends beyond a decade.

During that period PGVM has supported movements to events including the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Race Retro, Modena Cento Ore and Rally Legends. BGMsport also witnessed the business develop from its original single transporter into a fleet now numbering around 25 trucks.

That experience extends beyond conventional race meetings.

PGVM has transported cars for The Grand Tour since the programme began and has supported large-scale automotive events and promotional tours. One project involved moving 30 different cars to Seville for a private track event; another saw multiple six-car transporters coordinating separate collections at the NEC Classic Motor Show.

At that point, vehicle transport becomes something closer to event logistics.

Cars need to arrive in the correct order. Drivers work around restricted loading windows. International paperwork has to be correct. Equipment needs to accompany the appropriate vehicle and the entire process often has to reverse itself immediately once the event finishes.

The successful part is usually the part nobody notices.

Everything simply arrives where it should.

Crossing Borders With Significant Cars

International movement has become more complicated in recent years.

For the collector-car world, that matters.

Historic race meetings, concours events, rallies, exhibitions and tours routinely take British-owned cars into continental Europe before bringing them home again. The vehicle may not be changing ownership and may never be permanently imported, but the documentation surrounding its temporary movement still needs to be correct.

PGVM consequently handles ATA Carnets in-house and works with specialist customs partners for other international requirements.

It is an increasingly important part of specialist vehicle logistics.

The company can arrange movements throughout the UK and Europe, combining the transport itself with customs administration rather than leaving the owner or race team to coordinate separate providers. For competition machinery travelling with spares and equipment, the administrative requirements can become particularly detailed.

There is also a difference between moving one car and managing a collection.

A private tour might involve numerous vehicles travelling through several countries, with cars joining or leaving at different points. An event may require vehicles to be collected from several owners before converging at one destination. A manufacturer launch can involve machinery whose existence is still confidential.

Flexibility therefore matters almost as much as capacity.

PGVM's fleet ranges from smaller enclosed trailers capable of reaching locations inaccessible to its larger trucks through to six-car transporters capable of moving substantial numbers efficiently. Short- and long-term storage provides another option when collection and delivery dates do not align.

The result is an operation that has grown well beyond the conventional idea of a car transporter.

Yet the underlying service remains remarkably simple.

Somebody hands over a motor car that matters to them.

PGVM has to deliver it somewhere else in exactly the condition in which it was received.

For a modern supercar, that may mean protecting exposed carbon fibre and negotiating extremely limited ground clearance. For a historic competition car, it can mean understanding machinery whose controls and construction belong to another era. For a prototype, discretion may be as important as physical security.

And for a race team moving ten cars across Europe, the challenge is ensuring that every vehicle, every piece of equipment and every document arrives in the right place at the right time.

After more than 25 years, PGVM has built its reputation around making that complexity largely invisible to the client.

The transporter arrives.

The car is carefully loaded.

And the next time its owner sees it, it is exactly where it needs to be.

That combination of more than 25 years of experience, a substantial purpose-built enclosed fleet, established motorsport expertise and the ability to manage complex movements throughout the UK and Europe is why PGVM is a trusted and HACCA Trusted Specialist.

PGVM Ltd
Northamptonshire, England
+44 (0)1280 841548

The collector-car world has become genuinely international.

A motor car might leave a collection in Britain, appear at a concours in Italy, compete in a historic event in France and subsequently travel to an auction or new owner in the United States.

For the owner, the memorable part is usually what happens when the car arrives.

Behind it sits an increasingly complicated exercise in logistics.

Road transport. Air freight. Shipping. Customs documentation. Temporary importation. Carnets. Storage. Insurance. Event schedules. Collection and delivery windows that cannot move simply because a border crossing has taken longer than expected.

For more than three decades, CARS — Classic Automotive Relocation Services — has operated within that world, moving historic, rare and high-value motor cars between countries and continents.

Today its reach extends considerably beyond conventional vehicle transportation. With operations across the United Kingdom, continental Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East, CARS combines road, air and sea freight with customs services, carnets, storage, vehicle registration and international event logistics.

The destinations are equally revealing.

Goodwood. Pebble Beach. The Mille Miglia. Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. International auctions, concours lawns, rallies and private collections.

Each requires something slightly different.

The objective remains exactly the same.

The car has to arrive where it is expected, when it is expected and in precisely the condition in which it left.

When the Journey Crosses Continents

Enclosed road transportation is familiar within the collector-car world.

International movement is another matter.

CARS operates custom-built enclosed, air-ride transporters across the UK, Europe, United States and Middle East, accommodating everything from historic road cars to contemporary supercars, factory prototypes and Formula One machinery.

Hydraulic lifts allow vehicles to be loaded horizontally, while low approach angles and winch assistance accommodate machinery that may have extremely limited ground clearance or may not currently be capable of moving under its own power.

Condition reporting before and after transportation establishes a record of the car, while real-time tracking allows its progress to be monitored throughout the journey.

But a transporter can only take a car so far.

Moving between continents introduces air and sea freight, and with it another layer of preparation. Vehicles have to be correctly documented, securely handled and coordinated with airlines, shipping lines, customs authorities and agents at both ends of the journey.

The choice between air and sea is itself determined by more than cost.

A car required at an event on a fixed date may need the speed of air freight. A collection moving between continents can make sea freight more practical. Particularly significant or unusual machinery may require bespoke arrangements dictated by its dimensions, value or condition.

Then there are cars that do not fit conventional assumptions at all.

Historic competition machinery can be exceptionally low. Prototypes may require confidentiality. An unrestored car might not run. A modern hypercar can combine considerable width with minimal ground clearance, while an early motor car may require very specific knowledge simply to start, steer and stop it safely.

Successful logistics begins by understanding what is being moved.

The method can then be built around the car.

Following the International Calendar

Few things demonstrate the global nature of collecting more clearly than the modern event calendar.

The season can begin in Europe in winter, move through concours and rallies in spring, arrive at Goodwood and Monterey during the summer and continue into major international events during autumn.

Cars follow it.

CARS regularly transports vehicles to concours d'elegance, historic rallies, exhibitions, auctions and motoring events around the world. Its established relationships include acting as Official International Shipping Partner to RM Sotheby's and Official International Logistics Partner to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, alongside involvement with organisations and events including Bonhams, HERO-ERA, Rally the Globe and the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

Those relationships illustrate how specialist event logistics differs from arranging a single collection and delivery.

An auction may involve cars arriving from numerous countries before being dispersed internationally again once the sale concludes. A concours entrant has a specific arrival window and may need to be prepared before reaching the lawn. A rally car can travel with tools, spares and documentation before being required hundreds or thousands of miles from where its journey began.

The Mille Miglia presents one challenge.

Pebble Beach presents another.

For the collector participating in either, the logistical process ideally remains largely invisible.

That requires the transport company to understand more than the route.

Customs requirements become particularly important when a car is entering another country temporarily rather than being permanently imported. Carnets and associated documentation allow qualifying vehicles and equipment to cross borders while establishing that they will subsequently leave again.

Mistakes can mean delays precisely when delays are least welcome.

CARS consequently handles freight documentation, customs brokerage and Carnet de Passage requirements as part of the wider movement rather than treating the paperwork as somebody else's responsibility.

It is an important distinction.

The client is not simply buying space inside a transporter or aircraft.

They are buying the ability to get the car from one jurisdiction to another.

Looking After the Car Between Journeys

International ownership also creates periods when the car has arrived somewhere but its owner has not.

Storage therefore forms another part of the CARS network.

In the UK, the company operates facilities at its Chedburgh headquarters near Bury St Edmunds and near Woking, with additional storage available through its operations in Los Angeles, the Netherlands and Dubai.

Security is only the starting point.

Vehicles can be stored for short or extended periods, with maintenance programmes, cleaning and detailing available while they remain in CARS' care. Many members of its UK storage team are trained mechanics, allowing developing mechanical issues to be identified rather than discovered when an owner next attempts to use the car.

The Dubai facilities add climate-controlled storage, particularly relevant in an environment where heat presents its own challenges.

For an international collector, this can fundamentally change the way a car is used.

A motor car does not necessarily need to return to its owner's home country after every event. It can be transported, stored, prepared and subsequently moved to the next destination within the same logistics network.

Registration services extend that process further.

A car arriving permanently in the UK may require an MOT, Individual Vehicle Approval where applicable, preparation to meet UK requirements, DVLA registration, road tax and number plates. In the UAE, the equivalent process involves another set of authorities, inspections and documentation.

The physical movement may therefore represent only one stage in a considerably longer process.

That is perhaps the clearest way to understand what CARS has become.

It moves motor cars.

But behind that simple description sits an international infrastructure designed around what happens before the transporter arrives and after the car has been unloaded.

More than three decades of operating within the collector-car world have coincided with an extraordinary change in the way significant cars are owned and enjoyed. Collections have become more international. Events have become increasingly global. Cars routinely cross continents to compete, be displayed, sold or simply driven.

The logistics supporting them have had to evolve accordingly.

For the collector, there is something reassuringly simple about the result.

The car can be in Suffolk today and at Pebble Beach, the Mille Miglia or an event in the Middle East when it needs to be.

Everything between those two points is somebody else's responsibility.

That combination of more than three decades of specialist experience, genuinely international infrastructure and the ability to manage transportation, customs, storage and event logistics around some of the world's most significant motor cars is why CARS is a trusted and HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Cars Worldwide
Suffolk, England
+44 (0)1284 850950

There is a considerable difference between moving a car and understanding the car you are moving.

For Jack Smith, that distinction is fundamental.

Before establishing A2D Transport, Jack spent his working life considerably closer to the machinery than most people entrusted with transporting it.

His career began as a Porsche technician at RPM Technik in Buckinghamshire before taking him into professional motorsport. Formula 3 followed, then GP3, World Series by Renault and GP2, before eventually reaching Formula One.

It was an environment in which preparation mattered, procedures existed for a reason and seemingly insignificant details could have significant consequences.

Today, the machinery may be travelling inside an enclosed trailer rather than being prepared in a Formula One garage, but much of that mentality remains.

Founded by Jack in 2023, A2D Transport provides enclosed specialist vehicle transportation throughout the UK and Europe.

The company's name explains the philosophy behind it.

A2D means Attention to Detail.

And in specialist vehicle transport, those details begin long before the wheels start turning.

Knowing what you are handling

Handing somebody the keys to an important motor car requires trust.

The financial value may be considerable, but value alone rarely explains an owner's relationship with a car.

It could be a recently completed restoration. A competition car heading for a circuit. A classic being transported to a specialist. A newly acquired car making its first journey to its next owner.

Some are effectively irreplaceable.

Understanding that changes the nature of the job.

Jack's technical background means the person collecting the car is not encountering specialist machinery from the perspective of transport alone.

He has spent years working directly with performance cars and competition machinery.

That knowledge becomes particularly relevant when a vehicle is unusual, exceptionally low, mechanically temperamental or simply requires more consideration than an everyday road car.

Loading is part of the process.

So is securing it correctly.

So is understanding when something about the car requires a different approach.

The objective is not merely to deliver it undamaged.

It is to ensure the owner feels comfortable from the moment the vehicle is entrusted to A2D until the moment it is handed back.

The Formula One mentality

Motorsport has an unusual ability to expose complacency.

At the highest levels, preparation is relentless because mistakes are expensive and opportunities to correct them can be limited.

Jack's route through F3, GP3, World Series by Renault and GP2 before Formula One placed him inside precisely that environment.

It also meant working around logistics constantly.

Race cars, equipment and personnel move repeatedly between circuits and countries, often against immovable deadlines. Cars need to arrive where they are expected, when they are expected and ready for what happens next.

A2D applies elements of that discipline to specialist road-car transportation.

Its enclosed service operates throughout Britain and Europe, protecting vehicles from weather and road contamination while in transit.

The company carries £2.5 million Goods in Transit insurance, but the more interesting reassurance is arguably the experience behind the steering wheel.

Insurance protects against something going wrong.

Attention to detail is intended to prevent it happening in the first place.

Before and after restoration

There are moments in the life of a collector car when transportation becomes particularly important.

Restoration is one of them.

A car arriving at a restoration workshop may already have considerable historical and financial significance, even if its condition does not immediately suggest it.

The return journey can present the opposite challenge.

After hundreds or thousands of hours of bodywork, paint, mechanical rebuilding, trimming and final detailing, the finished car may be as pristine as it will ever be.

The last thing anybody wants is for its first journey to involve rain, road grime or unnecessary exposure.

A2D therefore provides pre- and post-restoration transportation using enclosed trailers, alongside movements to servicing, detailing and other specialist appointments.

The same principle applies to auction cars and dealer transfers.

Presentation matters.

A car being delivered for sale should arrive as intended. A newly purchased car should reach its owner in the condition in which it left the seller.

Transport becomes part of the ownership experience rather than simply the distance between two addresses.

Attention to detail

There is an understandable tendency to judge specialist vehicle transport by the visible equipment.

The tow vehicle matters. The trailer matters. Insurance matters.

But ultimately, the most important component is still the person responsible for the car.

A2D Transport is built upon established experience with three transport vehicles on its fleet.

Eighteen years spent around road and competition cars have taken Jack from working as a Porsche technician through the upper levels of international motorsport and Formula One to running his own specialist transport operation.

The environment has changed.

The expectation has not.

Preparation, mechanical understanding, careful handling and attention to the smallest details remain fundamental.

Because when somebody entrusts you with a significant motor car, getting it from A to D is only part of the responsibility.

It is this combination of Formula One experience, genuine mechanical understanding and an exacting approach to specialist vehicle logistics that makes A2D Transport a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

A2D Transport
Buckinghamshire, England
+44 (0)7876 621881