We visit Mission Motorsport as it looks to give a Subaru BRZ a new life, as well as its beneficiaries
In a workshop in deepest Oxfordshire, a Subaru BRZ is being restored to life.
It’s a write-off – a Category N, which means it has sustained non-structural damage and can be repaired and returned to the road. So far, so ordinary, except the people putting this Subaru back on the road are veterans of the armed services with the scars – some physical, some mental – to prove it.
They are beneficiaries of Mission Motorsport, a services charity that through motorsport helps those veterans who, in its words, are “hardest to reach” to build fresh careers beyond the military. Since it was founded in 2012, more than 2000 people have found work through its programmes.
Its motto is ‘Race, retrain, recover’ – words that, in the case of the Scoobie before me and the guys working on it, couldn’t be more apposite.
It has been donated by eBay, along with the parts required to return to its original factory specification. They are all used components, reclaimed and verified under eBay’s Certified Recycled scheme.
From eBay’s perspective, giving Mission a car and the parts needed to put it back on the road is a good plug for its scheme but it’s very generous too. The fact is the charity struggles for donations and this crashed BRZ and its bits are a gift in more senses than one.
For a start, the car’s an automatic, which means that, with push-pull hand controls and an extra brake on the passenger side fitted to it, it can be driven by disabled veterans.
Later, it will be turned into a road-legal race car, again with eBay’s help. Its maiden track outing will be the charity’s Race of Remembrance (this weekend, 7-10 November), an endurance vent at Anglesey Circuit. A better demonstration of Mission’s motto is hard to imagine.
“It’s taken a while for an opportunity like this to land in our lap,” says Tony Compson, a former marine who served in the Falklands War and is the project’s crew chief. “All our cars are donated but most are manual. That the BRZ is also damaged makes this project especially worthwhile.”
Compson is responsible for the eight veterans working on the project, among them an ex-paratrooper and tank commander, and former members of regiments including the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) and Royal Logistic Corps.
Each brings their own skill and experience to the job. Well, almost: bodywork is beyond even them so while they will do what they can, the final shaping, filling and painting will be done by Dragontek, a local firm that is providing its services free of charge.
The veterans could use the help because the BRZ, registered in 2016 and with just 25,000 miles on the clock, is in a bit of a mess. It may be only a Cat N but a lot of damage can be done even at this level – and that’s just what you can see.
One thing the guys stumbled across early on was that, at some point, the roof lining around the passenger side curtain airbag had been made good to give the impression it hadn’t deployed. It’s a blip that has set them back but they are using the time to get all the remaining airbag sensors attached and functioning.
Fussing over the engine is Steve Binns, the former paratrooper in the team. He also served in the Falklands War, but less than a month after he came home, he was in an accident and now uses a wheelchair.
Fast forward to more recent times and his experience of a car control day with Mission set him on the path to acquiring a race licence and eventually to project BRZ. “The team has long needed an inclusive car like this,” says Binns, who has refurbished its front subframe. “There are lots of veterans who will benefit.”
Binns’ colleague Dom Pearson already is. The former REME technician also uses a wheelchair after an accident two years ago. He had been in rehab for 18 months when Mission visited him and showed him a new future.
“The BRZ has given me something to focus on and showed me that even in my condition I can make a contribution,” he says. “Now I just want to get back into fixing things.” He looks after, in his words, the Subaru’s “oily bits and electricity”.
The project manager is Clint Geldard. The former member of the Royal Corps of Signals later served in the police and worked for Amazon as a senior operations manager but when things subsequently “went awry” found himself at the door of Mission.
While barrack humour is never far away from any of the blokes, Geldard can shoot a look that says: “Don’t forget we have a target date to hit…” Fortunately, he also realises there’s an even bigger point to Project BRZ: “This car is not just for us. It’s for those who follow. If it gives them the same sense of brotherhood, it’s doing its job.”
