A CONVOY of more than 100 classic cars paraded through Oxford to show off the county’s manufacturing heritage.

The Pride of Longbridge Rally takes place each year in remembrance of the 6,000 workers who lost their jobs when MG Rover collapsed in 2005.

Drivers set off on Saturday at 8.30am from the BMW plant in Cowley, which from 1952 to 2000 was part of the Longbridge group.

The motorcade travelled to Longbridge, in Birmingham, in celebration of that link.

Watlington grandfather-offour Ray Coles attended with his wife Sue in their 1979 Austin Princess 2.

Mr Coles is a former plant worker who used to build the model of car he now drives.

Just nine were left on UK roads, he added.

The 58-year-old said: “It’s a good day out and good run as well and of course everyone also gets to admire all the cars.

“Mine is not really a sporty car, but it is very driveable.

And because I used to build them, I know this one inside out.”

It was the fifth year the Oxford delegation to the rally has been organised.

Drivers Tony Pope and Chris Rigby attended the rally together for the first time in their MGF Abingdon convertibles.

The car was first launched in 1995, but Mr Rigby said he acquired his the day before the rally for just £660.

“I got a bargain from a bloke who had just registered it on eBay,” the Salisbury car enthusiast said.

And Mr Pope, from Bournemouth, said he saved his own car from the scrapheap last October.

Mr Rigby added: “We are both pretty MG-crazy.”