Helmingham Hall Car Show 2017 (Part 1)

Sunday just gone I visited one of my favourite car shows at Helmingham Hall in the heart of the Suffolk countryside. Once a year for one day the hall opens its vast grounds to us petrol (gear) heads to show of our pride and joys. I managed to take lots of photos but I managed to break it down to under two hundred photos, including the ones of the hall which I am quite pleased with.

A little about the hall which is a moated manor house in Helmingham, Suffolk, England. It was begun by John Tollemache in 1480 and has been owned by the family ever since. The house is built around a courtyard in typical late medieval/Tudor style. The house is listed Grade 1 on the National Heritage List for England, and its park and formal gardens are also Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. The present Helmingham Hall may have been initially constructed in 1510 on the site of an earlier house called Creke Hall. The exterior was altered between 1745–1760, again in 1800 by John Nash, and in 1840. The original half-timbered walls have been concealed by brick and tiles. The house is surrounded by a moat 60 feet wide, over which it is reached only by two working drawbridges, which have been pulled up every night since 1510. These were originally operated with a windlass but in recent years this has been replaced by an electric motor. The house is not open to the public and Helmingham is best known for its fine garden, which is open on a regular basis. It is a semi-formal mixed garden with extensive borders, a rose garden, a knot garden, a parterre and an orchard. Beyond the garden there is a 400-acre (1.6 km²) park with herds of red and Fallow Deer.

This year I was able to park on the Nissan 200sx owners club stand, so a big thanks to those guys. We arrived early at just gone nine, the gates to the public were opened at ten just as the sun started to shine. We had plenty of space and managed to spread out, I was almost on the end and in a prime location. My friend Craig was in his Honda Integra Type R parked alongside me.

Once everybody had turned up who was going to be there we could shuffle around again, so now I was on the outside and Craig moved to the inside of me. Due to the extra space we could park diagonally which was pretty cool as nobody else could. I even managed to use my new home-made show board stand too.

Once everything had settled down it was time for a dust down and quick spruce up, which took over an hour before I even started to have a look around. I got to use my new Chemical Guys quick detailer which I was very impressed with. I will be reviewing that product soon as it’s not widely available just yet.

There was so many cars at the show again I am having to split the posts, otherwise there will just be photo overload and take for ever to load. There is no real logic to the order of the photos, it’s just a batch at a time.

As a young boy I had posters of this car on my bedroom wall, it still remains one of my favourite super cars to date. This is the update 25th anniversary edition. The unmistakable Lamborghini Countach which means ‘Heavens’.

I will post ‘part two’ in a day or so. There is so much more and unusual cars to show you, everything from more super cars to some timeless classic cars. There was even some birds of prey on show too.