A CAR show with a difference is gearing up for a major performance at Bentham.

My Last Car is an epic road trip that explores the life and death of the car through a series of poignant, funny and uplifting tales. Part exhibition, part live performance and part community event, the creative project explores all that the car means to us at the end of a great transport era.

The project is the product of a collaboration between Bentham-based community arts organisation Pioneer Projects, Ryedale Folk Museum, Bradford-based 509 Arts, Warwick Arts Centre, and imove, the Legacy Trust UK’s celebratory programme for Yorkshire and part of the Cultural Olympiad.

The My Last Car project team has been working for months with local communities looking at the meaning of the car in modern society and what it means for people in the future.

It includes a Rover 316, which has been carefully dismantled and parts turned into an exhibition that will run at Bentham Town Hall, from noon-6.30pm, until Saturday, June 2, except when there are performances. Performances last an hour and run on Wednesday, May 30 (1.30pm and 7.30pm), Thursday, May 31 and Friday, June 1 (7.30pm) and Saturday, June 2 (11am, 1.30pm, 7.30pm).

Saturday will see the whole town come alive with My Last CARnival. Extraordinary buses, bikes and boats will be found throughout the town, together with video installations, workshops and street performance. An Astronaut’s Caravan will be parked in the town centre garage and an arts trail, Car Bizarre, showcases the inventiveness of local people and guest artists who have transformed their cars into extraordinary creations.

Pioneer Projects’ creative director Ali Clough said the Car Bizarre cars were really amazing. She added: “Some are temporary transformations, such as filling a car with balloons and some artists from further afield are really rebuilding, respraying and reshaping their cars in incredible ways. We hope the CARnival and Car Bizarre will become an annual event, and people will travel to Bentham to see a unique annual display.”