Behind the Curtain: A Day with the East Midlands RREC

There are few better ways to start an open day at Flying Spares than looking out across a car park full of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys.

This week we welcomed the East Midlands Section of the RREC to Merry Lees as part of their Autumn Getaway — a three-night stay at Bosworth Hall Hotel, just ten minutes down the road from us. The group spent their stay exploring the local area, taking in some of the sights around Leicestershire, including the famous Bosworth Battlefield, enjoying a Black-Tie Gala Dinner and, amongst all that, making time for a visit to Flying Spares.

Thankfully, the weather was on our side this time around, which meant plenty more members were able to bring their Rolls-Royces and Bentleys along for the day. The top car park was soon filled with everything from a Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn to a modern Bentley Flying Spur, with a healthy selection of SZs and SYs filling the gaps in between. Quite the timeline of Crewe engineering, all parked together in one place.

Once everyone had arrived and the obligatory admiring of the cars was out of the way, it was time to head inside.

Duncan took the group through our Sales Department and Quality Control, giving an insight into what happens between a customer placing an order and that part eventually making its way out of the building. With thousands of part numbers to keep track of, identifying the right component is sometimes considerably more complicated than simply finding something that looks about right.

From there, Craig took over, starting with Goods-In and Dispatch before taking the group through the warehouse.

With parts constantly arriving and leaving Flying Spares, Goods-In and Dispatch gave the group an insight into the logistics behind what we do. Parts arrive from suppliers and customers, orders are picked and packed, and parcels leave Merry Lees bound for customers all over the world. It's a surprisingly busy operation, with everything from small components to rather less convenient packages passing through the doors.

Then came the warehouse itself.

This is usually the point where the scale of what we do starts to become apparent. Rows upon rows of genuine, aftermarket, reconditioned and recycled parts, all organised, catalogued and ready to be picked and packed. For anyone accustomed to seeing these cars as individual machines, it's perhaps slightly surreal to see the sheer number of components that go into keeping them running.

Then it was time for the technical side of the business.

Andy took the group through our Technical Services Department, where used components are stripped, inspected, measured, rebuilt and tested before being returned to service. Steering racks, carburettors, distributors, hydraulic units and other increasingly difficult-to-source components all pass through the department, where the objective is simple: make the part good enough to go back on the car.

From there, the tour continued into the workshop, where the process looks rather different.

This is where cars arrive when they're destined for dismantling, assessment or repair. Components are removed, inspected and either prepared for reconditioning, tested for future use or carefully dismantled and booked into stock. It's not quite the glamorous side of Rolls-Royce ownership, but it is an important one.

Of course, no tour of Flying Spares would be complete without a wander around the yard.

For owners used to polished bodywork, gleaming chrome and concours presentation, our collection of donor cars can be something of a reality check. But there's a reason they're here. Even a car that has reached the end of its own road can contain hundreds of components capable of helping another one continue along theirs.

That, ultimately, was the point of the day.

Flying Spares can look very different depending on which part of the building you're standing in, and each department has its own job to do, but we are all working towards the same thing: keeping these remarkable cars on the road.

A huge thank you to the East Midlands Section of the RREC for coming along, for the questions, the conversations and for bringing such a fantastic selection of cars. We were delighted to be a small part of the Autumn Getaway — although we're not sure how anything involving a Black-Tie Gala Dinner could possibly compare with a tour of our workshop and yard.

We hope you enjoyed the tour as much as we enjoyed having you, and we hope the rest of the Autumn Getaway was just as enjoyable.