The Sporting Bears Motor Club is back for 2026, and thank heavens for that. In a motoring world where too many events feel like polished excuses for influencers to photograph themselves leaning against someone else’s supercar, the Bears are out there doing something useful. Dream Rides. Real punters. Real cars. Real money for children’s charities. What a novel idea.
If you have never come across the Sporting Bears before, they are not a gathering of pretty stuffed toys. Picture a group of enthusiastic car folk offering passenger rides in all manner of fabulous, ridiculous, noisy, shiny machinery in return for donations. That money goes to local children’s charities, which rather neatly strips the nonsense out of the whole thing. You get a grin and a story. The charities get funds. Everyone leaves happier than when they arrived, although I can think of a few other ways to get that result, am I right?
The 2026 season has already kicked off at the Practical Classics Restoration Show at Birmingham’s NEC, and from now until year’s end the club says it will take part in more than 60 events. That is not a token calendar. That is a proper touring roadshow of goodwill, horsepower, and volunteer graft.
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ABOVE: Sporting Bears volunteers, Dream Rides moments, and the gloriously mixed machinery that keeps the charity dollars flowing.
Why people love the Bears
There is something rather charmingly British about the whole thing. Of course for Gaycarboys, the term “bears” has furrier, more leathery connotations. here, it is supercars, classics, oddball film cars, sports cars, and whatever else turns up on the day, all assembled not for concours preening or social climbing, but to sling happy strangers into passenger seats in exchange for a charitable donation. It is part village fête, part horsepower carnival, and part organised mayhem. Better still, it works. Sporting Bears says it has now raised more than £4 million for children’s charities since 1989, with £312,000 of that coming in 2025 alone. That is not spare change found in the glovebox. That is proper money doing proper good.
The season ahead
The club’s next stop is the South of England Showground in West Sussex on 18 and 19 April, and the calendar gets silly from there. In May alone the Bears will be in Dorset, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Berkshire, and Hampshire. Summer highlights include Supercarfest at Sywell Aerodrome on 16 and 17 May, the Silverstone Classic on 24 to 26 July, the Beaulieu Supercar Weekend on 1 and 2 August, the British Motor Show at Farnborough on 21 to 23 August, and the relaunched CarFest at Silverstone on 28 to 30 August. Anyone claiming this is a hobby with a few token outings clearly has not looked at the diary.
More than just owners
A nice touch is that Sporting Bears is not only after people with special cars. The club is looking for new members who can organise events, marshal cars, or help keep busy event garages from descending into chaos. Sensible really but lets out anyone I know in the UK. None of them could organise a chook raffle. A Lamborghini might grab the headlines, but someone still has to point it in the right direction and stop Nigel (and Karen) from wandering into its path while holding a sausage roll. If you fancy helping out, the club is making it abundantly clear there is room for you.
The bigger point
Charity motoring can sometimes drift into self-congratulation, all warm fizz and polished social posts. Sporting Bears feels different because the formula is so brutally simple. Get people in interesting cars. Take donations. Give the money to children’s charities. Repeat until the season ends or someone runs out of tyre shine. In a crowded events world stuffed with vanity projects, that makes the Bears rather easy to cheer for.
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Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
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