Movetech UK turned up at the Le Mans Motorsport Festival in Bolton at the request of the event’s main sponsors, the University of Bolton, to help attract attention to a Keating Supercar by revolving it on an automotive turntable in the main show arena in front of the Town Hall. Held during the Le Mans 24 Hour Race weekend, the Festival is one of the largest free motorsports shows in the UK and was initiated to celebrate the town twinning links Bolton and Le Mans have enjoyed since 1973.

Supplying an ‘invisible’ Merlin™ Major to rotate the car, Movetech UK’s MD, Tim Entwistle, says: “It’s a tremendous privilege to be asked to contribute to such an exciting event in our home town. We’re very proud of our heritage in automotive display, and our Merlin is ideal for this sort of situation.

“It sits under the car, using four pads to support the wheels, making it practically invisible in operation. Safety’s built in, too: if someone gets in the way of the revolving car, the motor pauses until the obstruction has gone, so it’s the best solution where there are lots of people – and a lot of people turned up for the Festival!”

“Not only that, the Merlin will operate off the car’s own battery, so there’s no danger of people tripping over trailing wires.”

“We enjoyed the event enormously and hope to take part again next year.”

Keating Supercars have a very special relationship with the University as much of the development work has been done in partnership with the University’s automotive engineering department. Future development of the car includes the addition of a 3,000 bhp engine, which should make it hard to beat on the circuit.

Movetech UK has an impressive heritage in displaying cars to their best advantage. Founded in 1959 when the current MD’s grandfather, John Entwistle Senior asked his son to design and build a car revolve for a new model being introduced to the showroom on Deane Road, the company now designs and manufactures a huge range of rotating, linear and vertical movement for display, live events and materials handling purposes. The range includes small point of sale units, revolving stages up to 33m in diameter as standard, vehicle access revolves and transporters and tuggers for production flow lines.

Most turntable products are available for rental for exhibitions, live events and other short term requirements.