One of the bigger car shows in the area is held at Culford School which is independent school with boarding options. The school will take all ages as long as you have the money and its not cheap with prices in the tens of thousands – per year. The grounds are impressive with lots of space to hold a car show, although the cars were not allowed to be parked at the front of the school this year. The entry to the event requires cars arrive before eight thirty in the morning, with the show ending at three thirty in the afternoon. So an early start was on the cards, but not to early as the venue was only about twenty minutes away for me. The only trouble was on the way there I realised that I had left my wallet at home, my plan for for a bacon roll went out the window. My excuse was that it was to early to think straight.
I took around three hundred photos on the day so my phone ran out of battery, probably because I didn’t put it on charge the night before. My excuse was it was to late in the night when I went to bed and I wasn’t thinking straight. But, I did already pack my portable power bank the night before in the cool bag pocket, perhaps I should of done that with my wallet. Some of the photos were taken in the morning, then after some lunch with an hour or so charge on the phone got me some power so I could take the rest of the photos. I had about two hundred and sixty of photos that didn’t have people walking in front of the cars or looking directly at the camera with stupid looks on their faces. To save a huge scrolling post, I thought I would split across two posts.
For something a little different for my car show posts in the future, I had an idea to pick my favourite car of the show. There’s no criteria, no pre conceptions, no categories and no prizes, just bragging rights that the car that caught my eye was the best there in my opinion, apart from my own of course.
I arrived at eight twenty(ish) with virtually no queue to get in, but it was little stop start in the grounds as the cars were being directed to the locations.
I asked where the Bury Retro Car Club was and was directed to the stand and parked up. The club had booked plenty of spaces and had two rows. I parked up trunk to trunk with a friend of mine who has a number of cars, this time he bought his ’65 Coupe. I got out had a quick chat and started to wipe over the car and remove the road dust. The weather was a bit windy and stayed blustery all day, although the wind was supposed to have died the night before, with no rain forecast.
I will start with the car club cars, as that was where I was standing.
I wandered up the lines and and back down each side.
There was a nice selection of UK ‘Fast Fords’ on show, most of these cars ended up in a ditch, wrapped around a tree or they just couldn’t be given away. Now they are commanding some pretty strong money.
There was an area of super cars including this 1,400bhp GT-R with a parachute.
There was a couple of Fiat Dino there. Contrary to popular belief they are not Ferraris by brand, although designed by Pininfarina and built by Ferrari. The brand Dino was Ferrari’s lower cost sports car that had the mid engined V6. The V12 engines were reserved for the prestige Ferraris’s of the time. this was Enzo Ferrari not wanting to diminish the Ferraris brand. Enzo didn’t want to produce the car but he relented to fight with the Lamborghini Miura at the time. These cars are now accepted as Ferrari although they are not badged as such.
There was a good turn out of proper Ferraris in one corner of the field.
It was about this time that the phone needed a recharge so I headed back to my car for some refreshments. I will post up the second part in few days with ‘Mart’s Car Of The Show’ to be revealed.