A former Telford College student, who is now working on restoring a vintage 1955 Lancia Aurelia, got the chance to drive it on its first ever outing at the London Classic Car Show.
Harry Ruffell-Hazell, 19, from Ditton Priors, is now on an apprenticeship at Classic Motor Cars in Bridgnorth.
The former Bridgnorth Endowed School student said: “Restoring the Aurelia under the supervision of trained technicians has been a fantastic opportunity for me.
“I have learnt a lot and driving the car on the Grand Avenue at the show was a dream come true.”
Harry completed a level engineering diploma at Telford College, and is now on a Marches Academy apprenticeship with CMC.
He added: “The most challenging part of the project was sourcing the parts. This is because the Lancia is such a rare car. The car is also Italian, so most websites for the parts were in a different language.” David Barzilay, who owns the car and is a director at CMC, said: “I wanted apprentices who are serving their time at CMC to work on the car.
“I knew that it was going to be a challenge and it seemed to be the ideal project for young apprentices to get their teeth into and learn as they went along.
“There were many challenging aspects of this restoration. From finding the parts, to making sure that the car was re-built to the original specifications, and researching trim and paint.
“With the help of senior technicians at the firm Harry and his colleagues have completed a car that the original production team would be proud of.”
The car has been a three-year project for apprentices at the famous restoration company, which has received awards for its work.
The company operates from modern 60,000 sq ft premises, offering everything from a full nut and bolt restoration to servicing, storage, cars and parts sales, and even bespoke car design.
The car is nearly finished, but Harry and his colleagues will be putting the finishing touches to it over the next few weeks.
You can find out more about Telford College’s range of engineering courses at its next open event, from 10.30am to 12.30pm on March 16.
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