Another first time car show for me was the Pakenham Power show which was about twenty minutes drive away from where I live. There was two other car shows on the same day that I knew of so it was going to be a bit of a gamble if this local show was going to be any good or not. I studied the weather apps as I missed a show the previous week due to weather warning of thunderstorms that never took place. The weather apps all said hotter than Saturday so I packed the day bag ready for the morning; battery pack phone charger, sun screen, head ache pills, wallet etc.
The alarm woke me up to an already warm day, I let the dogs out and got ready to go. I packed plenty of drinks into the cool bag, I was going to need them. The factor fifty was moved inside the cool bag so it was cool and soothing to put on on. The show started at eleven according to the flyers, but I didn’t know if that was for the public entry or when the cars were to start turning up. I left at quarter to ten so I would miss the rush to get in that I had played out in my mind. The drive there was super relaxed windows down and an easy cruise at fifty mph.
I pulled into the gates and nobody was there. I think the noise of me turning up triggered them to appear from the other side of a wall. I was asked what year my car was and my response qualified me to park in the lower section for fifty year old cars or more, which sounded much grander than it was. I was told to park in front of a bank of four other cars already there, which I think belonged to the marshals.
An ideal photo opportunity for a minute or two before they changed their mind and asked me to move the car backing it up to wall. I was pleased about that as the stones could easily fly up from tyres onto paintwork.
It wasn’t until I got home and downloaded the photos from my phone that my car was the same colour as the sky! The Samsung S23 Ultra did quite well in the strong light conditions considering.
Once I was parked up there was plenty of shade from the fairly high wall. I wasted no time in getting the chair our to grab a can of cold drink.
The sun was hot already and I decided not to wipe over the car with a quick detailer as the paint was already hot, sitting in the chair I could see the heat haze from the roof. Applying products to hot paint will cause them streak and make it look worse. So for a vary rare change, I didn’t wipe the car over once I parked up at a car show.
I had a wander over to the bus and some fond memories flooded back from being a kid. Looking at the back of the bus health and safety wasn’t a thing then as people jumped on and off the moving buses.
This vehicle is one of one made in 1897, it can reach speeds up to 30mph even back then.
It was now getting closer to eleven and some more cars started to arrive and park in the area I was.
The field by the side of the barn was slightly elevated and was for anything less than fifty years old. The little walkway on the left had some mini steam engines, just chugging away barely making a noise. I stood for ages looking at the intricate engineering that is still running seamlessly today.
There was a modern take on an old school fair ground wind instrument which was fed by punch cards. That was the musical entertainment for most of the day.
There was more cars coming in that were older than fifty years old so they got to park up on the other field.
There was this little mini rod that was buzzing around now and again. I think it had a lawnmower engine or something in there. The woman driving it was of a slender build and just about fitted in it. I doubt I could have got one leg in it!
Then we move to to the opposite end of the scale, this huge Bedford ‘Drifter’ 1969 motorhome. It was quite basic, but pretty cool to see. I didn’t even know Bedford made a motorhome.
Making my way back to the wall there was some local goods for sale, there was a proper BBQ, refreshment caravan, cakes and even bread that was made from the mill itself an hour or so earlier. We even had a brass band playing a couple of slots too, not sure what they were playing, but it was entertaining.
Having some lunch and copious amounts of cool drinks, the sun was creeping over the other side of the wall. Now there was no shade at all, I stuck it out till about two thirty then I had enough.
Some other cars were starting to go, so I joined them for another gentle drive home. It was a good show for very old cars, but it was small. Will I go again? Probably not as it was a bit to small for me. It was a nice day out and wasn’t far away. All windows were down on the way home and the sound of a V8 was flooding into the car. I was thinking, compared to the brass band – the sound of American iron sounded so much better!