Festival Of Wheels

Last weekend was a full on couple of days with a show on both days. Saturday was a two day event so I decided that I would go on the Saturday as the much better show would be on the Sunday at Helmingham Hall, where a mate of mine would be joining me. That post will be split into two posts as I took a lot of pics!

I got up on the Saturday and the weather was little overcast and was supposed to be a dry day. The thirty minute drive to Ipswich or the Suffolk Show ground was a nice run where a Mk 1 Ford Capri sat beside me on the dual carridgeway as we gave each other thumbs up and nods of approval.

The Bury Retro Car Club had a stand for both days and I was directed to the marked out part of the field. Being the considerate club member i parked on the end leaving space for the others.

I didn’t need to worry as I was the only there on the day. The rest were going to show up on the Sunday. So for the day, I was ‘Billy no mates!’

After a quick wipe over that lasted an hour or so, I decided to go for a wander and look at the other cars, to be honest there wasn’t a huge amount there. To put a two year old Ford Focus in the show is not my idea of a car show, sorry. If I exclude a lot of those types of car then there was even less on show.

I walk around clockwise which took me to the traders where there was nothing there for any real petrol head. Wicker baskets, flowers, womens clothing, home made jewellery, kids toys, were all avoided like the plague. No car parts, but there was a cheap and nasty tools stall.

There was an original Charger from the TV series Dukes of Hazard on show. The cast had signed the inside and drew a lot of attention.

There was some exhibition stuff, displays and some fairground rides, which I didn’t see run all day.

There was some nice trucks and vans on in their own little area, which was quite nice to see.

A little further round there was BMX team doing their thing and the bloke on the microphone was really into it, much more than the little crowd watching.

There was a a monster truck fitted out to take a passenger payload at the back, this got a constant stream of visitors for the ride, where it would drive over some cars on a little track.

There were a few cars which I think I should the ‘WTF section’. I mustn’t be cruel, somebody loves these cars and they may think that about my car. Look behind the top picture and there is a fairly new Audi SUV. I can see them all day long in a Supermarket car park!

The dying of trend of ‘slammed’ cars was out in force. That does exclude the rather flattened cars that the monster truck rolled over a few times.

A few bikes of various styles were dotted around.

Perhaps my favourite of the day the Hummer; I never realised just how big these vehicles were.

A selection of Mustangs of course.

More American Muscle

Some nice trucks were at the show and there seems to be more each year. I do like a nice truck.

Outside the main arena was another park area where some motorbikes were doing stunts and the low riders were parked up. There was a Porsche low rider that had problems and decided to dump a good deal of what ever fluid they use onto the floor. They didn’t look to impressed and a few naughty words could be heard.

The rest of the cars that took my fancy

As I eventually got back to my car for a well sit down there was a few people around my car who were drifting their way to the centre ring.

I spent a nice hour or so talking to many people about wanting to ‘Do one up’ or restoration for our USA friends.

The main arena had a a little show of ‘Who has the loudest exhaust’. There was a bout ten or so who took it in turns to rev the nuts (mechanical ones – not the men’s dangly bits) out of their cold engines. Just behind where I was parked up on my own was the Subaru owners. Who decided to rev the nuts out of their engines at the same time. Obviously miffed that that they didn’t get picked to go in the ring. There was a tractor unit in the ring with massive air horns. That idiot thought it would be great to do his parade around the ring sounding it for about five seconds and of for about two seconds. It drove me insane.

I got so hacked of with being mostly on my own in my own little bit of field I decided to go home early.

I wish I hadn’t as the wife tried to give me a few jobs to do in the garden. Unfortunately I had to explain to her that the car need a wipe over. For some reason she didn’t look impressed.