Don't let your special date get away

Great Escape Classic Car Hire, the UK's largest specialist classic car rental fleet operator, says it is experiencing unprecedented demand for car hire in 2011. The news suggests the tourism industry in 2011 may be recovering and the trend towards 'staycations' is continuing.
"Our advance bookings are significantly up on 2010," explains Graham Eason of Great Escape. "Some of our cars are fully booked for popular weekends right up to November 2011, which is unprecedented. We have also sold a record number of gift vouchers, which will redeem during 2011.
"We are recommending that customers who need particular cars for specific dates, such as for a wedding, book early to avoid disappointment."
Despite the popularity of its fleet, Great Escape Classic Car Hire has not changed its commitment to fair and transparent pricing. Customers still get a full 24 hours use for every day booked, unlimited mileage, comprehensive insurance and full AA breakdown cover. You can also book a single day at weekends and the price for weekends is the same as weekdays - there is no premium charged.
Great Escape Classic Car Hire operates a fleet of 50 classic cars from 6 locations across the UK including Shropshire, Suffolk, Yorkshire, East Midlands and Worcestershire. The company's entire fleet of cars can be booked online up to 12 months in advance - or specific dates can be reserved.
For more details visit www.greatescapecars.co.uk or call 01527 893733.

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48 hours with 24 cylinders

They just don't make engines like the classic Jaguar 5.3 litre V12 any more. It's an engine so smooth that you can safely balance a £1 coin on it while it is running. After you've driven a V12, everything else just seems unrefined.

Great Escape Classic Car Hire in Worcestershire has launched a special weekend driving experience that lets you sample two applications of this iconic engine. Called the V12 Dilemma, the package lets you put this 285 bhp engine to the test in two of its most iconic settings - the Jaguar E Type convertible and the Jaguar XJS convertible. These cars represent two very different approaches to grand touring from two different eras, but sharing the same engine. Spend 24 hours touring the Cotswolds in each car and then tell us which you think is best. The package includes use of both cars and accommodation in a luxury B&B.

You can choose to start your experience in either car. Then spend 24 hours driving the first car before we deliver the second car to your local accommodation. Tour the Cotswolds in that car - using our recommended routes if you want - and then return to our storage site 24 hours later.

In addition to our normal hire package the V12 Dilemma experience includes free extras worth £100, including delivery and collection of one car to your local accommodation and a gourmet picnic lunch for two.

With the V12 Dilemma you can choose to head north, south, east of west from the Great Escape storage site and travel as far or as little as you like. We'll discuss your preferences and create a bespoke package to suit you.

1973 Jaguar E Type Roadster

Regularly voted the most beautiful car ever made, the E Type is the archetypical classic car. When Jaguar dropped its ultra-smooth V121 5.3 litre engine into the Series 3 EType it created a brilliant grand tourer that is effortlessly powerful. Over 30 years after it went out of production the E Type is a car that bears the weight of expectations ably on its curvaceous shoulders. The Great Escape E Type is a late Series 3 with Old English White paintwork, black leather interior, four speed manual gearbox and power steering.

1988 Jaguar XJS Convertible

When Jaguar replaced the beautifil EType with the lithe XJS in 1975 buyers were surprised. But the XJS went on to outsell the E Type and remain in production for longer. Today coupe and convertible XJS' are sought-after classics recognised for their style and presence. Jaguar finally chopped the roof off the XJS in 1988 and created the elegant convertible, generally acknowledge as the most attractive variant. The Great Escape Jaguar XJS is an early 1988 pre-facelift V112 convertible with light blue metalllic paintwork and blue leather interior with walnut dashboard. It is fitted with every available optional extra including heated seats, cruise control, powwer roof, air conditioning and a trip computer. It benefits from a TWR rear seat conversion to create a 'compact' four seater.

V12 Dilemma Package at a Glance

• 24 hrs each in two classic Jaguar V12 convertibles
• Includes free local delivery and collection
• Includes free gourmet picnic lunch for two
• No mileage limit
• Two full day suggested driving routes provided
• Insurance, breakdown cover, carbon offsetting and parking for your own car included
• Great Escape DVD
• Available as a Gift Voucher package valid for 12 months

Total package price is £650 including car hire and accommodation. For more information click here or call 01527 893733. The package is available to buy online as a gift voucher at http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk and is valid for 12 months.

60% off with Living Social

Great Escape Classic Car Hire has teamed up with Living Social, the discount voucher provided, to create a unique deal on our popular Gourmet Classic Car Package. This package normally retails at £499 and includes 24 hours sports car hire, touring routes and picnic. Living Social members get exactly the same deal for just £199. It's our gift for Christmas.

You can find out about the Living Social deal by clicking here - even if you aren't already a Living Social member it only takes a minute to sign up. The voucher is valid until the end of April 2011 and includes insurance, unlimited mileage and breakdown cover. The deal covers cars like our MGB and Alfa Romeo Spider and is valid from our sites in Yorkshire, Suffolk and Cotswolds. The package is available through our sister company The Getaway Driver, which organises driving experiences and classic car breaks.

To find out more about Great Escape's classic car hire fleet visit http://www.greatescapecars.co.uk/ or call 01527 893733

Make your great escape in the East Midlands

Great Escape Classic Car Hire has opened its sixth UK site in the East Midlands to serve customers who want to getaway to Derbyshire, the Peak District and the Lincolnshire Fens. The new site, between the A1 and M1 near north east of Nottingham, will be hiring cars from February 2011 but customers can buy gift vouchers covering the new fleet now.
The new Great Escape fleet in the East Midlands initially includes a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit and Alfa Romeo Spider. The full fleet will be announced during November 2010 and will include classic convertibles, saloons and coupes from the 1960s to 1990s.
The new site operates to Great Escape's established hiring procedures, which ensure high standards of vehicle safety and presentation. It also conforms to the company's commitment to transparent hire pricing so that every hire includes 24 hours use for every day booked, unlimited mileage, insurance for 1 driver and full AA breakdown cover. So the price you see is the full price you pay with no hidden extras.
"The East Midlands is a great area for starting a classic car break," explains Graham Eason of Great Escape. "From our base near the A1 and M1 you can be in the Derbyshire Dales and Peak District in less than 45 minutes or head towards the Lincolnshire Fens and the beautiful North Norfolk coast. With our unlimited mileage packages there are no restrictions on what you do so you can enjoy the car to the full.
The new East Midlands branch will also support Great Escape's weekend break and driving experiences packages, sold through its sister company The Getaway Driver. The Getaway Driver enables customers to buy a complete weekend package with hotels, car and driving routes individually tailored to their requirements and budget.
For more information on the new East Midlands fleet click here or call 01527 893733.

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Goodwood a go-go

The growing popularity of the Goodwood Revival saw Great Escape Classic Car Hire rent more than 20 classic cars to Goodwood Revival visitors over the mid-September weekend. Despite a normally quiet late-summer period Great Escape had one of its busiest weekends on record thanks to demand for classic cars by visitors keen to enter into the spirit of the Revival weekend.
Particularly popular were Great Escape's pre-1966 classics, which give customers access to the vast Classic Car Show field. Despite the Great Escape classic car hire fleet completing several thousand miles over the weekend, including long periods stuck in the usual Chichester traffic jam on the road into the event, only one of the cars suffered a minor mishap. Great Escape's local Dorset branch managed to remedy the problem in a short space of time and provided the customer immediately with an alternative car.
Among the cars on hire were a trio of classics for a corporate client. Great Escape delivered the cars to Winchester at 7am for the client and collected them that evening at 7pm.
"Goodwood Revival is a remarkable experience," says Graham Eason of Great Escape. "We start booking up for the following year as soon as the event is over. This year was particularly busy for us as we've added several pre-1966 cars and we also supported two corporate events during the week. To ensure we provided cars on time in the right place some of our team had 90 minutes sleep over two days."
Great Escape Classic Car Hire is the largest specialist classic car rental company in the UK. The company has a fleet of over 50 classic cars for hire from sites in Yorkshire, Suffolk, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Dorset and Oxford.
For more details call 01527 893733 or click here.
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Drive the best ever Alfas - as voted by you

When we read at Great Escape Classic Car Hire that Alfisti - Alfa fans to you and me - had voted the Alfa Spider and Alfasud their third and fifth favourite Alfa Romeos of all time we had to agree. Since we started Great Escape four years ago Alfa Romeos have been a central part of our fleet. We now have three Alfas - although our Alfasud is not for hire any more - and they remain amongst our most popular cars.
The Alfa Romeo poll was organised to celebrate Alfa Romeo's centenary and appears on the dedicated Centenary website at http://www.alfacentenary.co.uk/.
Great Escape has two Alfa Romeo Spiders for hire in the UK - one in Suffolk and one in Worcestershire, ideal for the Cotswolds. The cars are beautiful and elegant two seater sports cars that are very easy to drive and ideal for year-round touring thanks to their good quality hoods, excellent heaters and easy driving style.
To find out more about the Great Escape Alfa Romeos in Suffolk and Cotswolds click on the links or call 01527 893733.

The Jaguar XJS rocks

The Great Escape Classic Car Hire Jaguar XJS V12 convertible has been chosen by up and coming heavy rock band Jett Black to appear in the video for its new single 'Two Hot Girls.' The band wanted a four seater convertible that would fit the retro 1980s style they were looking for and the classic Jaguar fitted the bill.
The band collected the Jaguar from Great Escape's base in Worcestershire and used it on set in London overnight.
Great Escape supplies a lot of cars to TV, film, production and advertising companies for music videos and photo shoots but the Jaguar XJS is usually selected for traditional English roles. This is the first time that its quintessentially 1980s style has been used to effect. The Great Escape Jaguar XJS is best known for its role in the 2009 first series of Antiques Road Trips on BBC2.
A Jaguar XJS convertible also features in Swift Cover's current advertising campaign with Iggy Pop, so clearly its rock credentials are on the up.
You can find out more about the Jaguar XJS here and Jett Black here. The Jett Black video for Two Hot Girls will be out in about 6 weeks.

Police using Rover SD1 again

We were very interested to read in today's Times newspaper (17th June 2010) that the UK police have gone back to using trusty Rover SD1 V8 saloons, like the one we hire out here at Great Escape. Apparently with felons to apprehend nearby and a dearth of modern patrol cars in the car park, officers at Ruislip in Middlesex had to use a Rover 3500 SD1 kept in the police car pool.

The Rover SD1, in full police livery complete with blue flashing lights, apparently belongs to one of the officers at the station and is one of three police-liveried cars that he owns. He also has a 1962 Jaguar Mk2 and a 1956 Wolseley. In similar circumstances with the long arm of the law to extend, for us it would have been a toss up between the Mk2 and SD1 - the Jaguar Mk2 is more powerful (220 bhp according to Jaguar, versus 155bhp for the Rover) but the SD1 copes better with taking corners on the doorhandles. We are told.

Full marks to the police and we hope the miscreants were apprehended. Perhaps they gave up - after all, who'd want to miss a cosseting ride in the big 80s Rover?

You can imagine recreating the scene with Great Escape Classic Car Hire's 1986 Rover SD1 Vitesse - the ultimate high performance limited production Twin Plenum model. You can hire it by the day or weekend with classic car hire prices starting at £165 for 24 hours, including insurance and unlimited mileage.

Cool weekends away without the hassle

The Getaway Driver is a new concept launched by Great Escape Classic Car Hire, the UK's largest classic car hire company, which brings together cool cars, great hotels and superb driving routes to create great weekend breaks without the planning hassle.
The Getaway Driver has access to Great Escape's full range of 60 classic cars to hire from locatons in Suffolk, Midlands, Dorset and Yorkshire. Its trip planners match cars with hand-picked hotels and driving routes to create cool weekends away for customers. By bringing everything together and using their local knowledge, The Getaway Driver saves customers the time and hassle - and cost - of building a cool, stylish and unusual weekend away.
Getaway Driver breaks can be built to suit virtually any budget and using any one of 60 classic cars from four locations.
"The Getaway Driver is all about being Steve McQueen for the weekend," explains Graham Eason of Great Escape. "We created The Getaway Driver because customers were asking us for accommodation and driving route recommendations, so we decided to put everything together.
"The Getaway Driver lets customers create cool, stylish and unique weekends with just one call. We do all the work using our knowledge of the local area and our local contacts.
"I've tried to create the sort of weekend I'd love. I love cars, hotels and places that are different and off the beaten track. When I have a weekend away I want it to be memorable and different. I want to feel I got to know the area. I want to drive some great roads but I want my wife to enjoy it too. That's what The Getaway Driver is all about."
For more information on The Getaway Driver call 01386 793887 or visit http://www.thegetawaydriver.co.uk/

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