Kersey Mill Car Show 2023

I attended this show last year when it was held in May not in July as this year. The weather was predicted to be breezy but no rain, so I decided to go for it and turn up. This is a free show held in some nice surroundings just few miles outside of Ipswich.

As ever the alarm woke me to some nice sunshine which was drying the roads from the previous Saturday night’s rainfall. I opened the garage went through the process of getting the car ready to go out, that consists of unplugging the battery trickle charger and uncovering the passenger side of the car first. Then I walk round to the other side and fold up the cover, then I spotted a puddle on the garage floor. My heart missed a beat and then started to pound as I put the cover on top of the toolbox. I got on the floor to see what was going on and felt the puddle, it wasn’t sticky or smell of anything, that usually happens from a coolant leak. I looked around and couldn’t see anything immediately wet or dripping in the engine bay.

Behind me was my dehumidifier which looked to have water around it too. On looking the safety had cut out and wasn’t working, I usually hear a gentle hum and just thought that I hadn’t turned it on from when I was last in the garage. I turned it around and noticed the water collection draw was full, this was an overfill from the pipework that I had plumbed in to avoid constant emptying of the draw. What had happened was the drain pipe from the back now had a high hump point and the water wasn’t able to run away into the condensation pipe primarily used by the heating boiler. The angle of the pipe is fine when the unit is in a certain position, obviously I had moved the unit without realising, thus creating a slow back flow, the pipe would have backfilled into the collection draw and eventually overflowed which is when the safety would have cut in. The unit would have cut off, but the extra water in the pipe was just enough to overfill the draw. I grabbed a few old microfibre cloths and mopped the water up which looked a lot worse than it was, maybe a cup or so. Relieved I readjusted the pipe to the correct angle, and started the unit again to dry the garage while I would be out.

The drive was enjoyable, with sun and cloud taking it in turns to dominate the sky, but the grey clouds were the majority of the sky the closer I got to Kersey. I arrived some thirty on minutes later and asked where to park. I was directed to be on the right of the driveway on the grass near the entrance. I parked up on my own like some sort of Billy-no-mates!

I waited for an hour or so and went for a walk round. It looked obvious that there wasn’t going to be a big turn out due to the weather. There was a couple of lines of cars in place so I started there.

There was a car there that was getting some attention, but I couldn’t put my finger on it why. The car just didn’t look right. I will get to the reason why a little later. when i then became evident why it raised my suspicions. The front bumper just didn’t seem to sit right to me.

Walking over the little bridge to the area where there was some ‘street food’ stalls cooking some amazing smelling food. Near them was a few more cars. I stopped to talk to Paul for a while who owned the Capri, the same model and body kit a friend of mine had when I was an apprentice.

The Rolls Royce was real nice car and a candidate for my favourite car of the show.

Just past the food stalls was a few more cars outside what looked like the owner of the mill house.

Another candidate for my favourite car was this Ford Cortina, the simple reason being was that my Grandfather owned a blue one. Right next to it was a Ford Anglia, another car that my Grandfather owned.

Towards the back of the house there was little walkway with a sign for the cars to display and parking for the public parking. Unfortunately they never got used.

Mart’s Car of the Show

The little courtyard had a couple of cars there which was where I saw this nice Sunbeam Alpine.

That was pretty much it round that side of the venue, so I wandered back to where I was parked up. On the other side of the driveway some more cars had turned up thankfully.

The weather was very changeable with a couple of very light spitting of rain episodes, not enough to bead on the car though. But when the sun came back out along with the slight breeze it soon evaporated away, just like last week.

Back towards where I was parked a few more had parked up, a couple of which I had seen before with their v8 swap outs.

Back to the Lamborghini Countach I mentioned earlier, the owner had opened it up then I realised straight away what was wrong. The car was a kit car and the engine was a Land Rover v8 lump.

For a kit car it was done very well I might add. But, when you start to look around properly you could see the build quality wasn’t quite there. The car left an hour or so later, when it started up it made a nice rumble granted, but it should have been a very shouty howling V12. I had posters of this car on my walls when I was at school, the super car I always wanted, and still do.

Did you know:

That iconic rear wing was purely cosmetic. The Countach actually suffers front axle lift at high speed, and bolting a park bench on the back only exacerbates the issue. But customers loved the look, so engineers zeroed out the wing’s angle, rendering it non-functional. It was designed as a one-off for F1 impresario Walter Wolf, the spoiler wasn’t an official option either. Once the look caught on around 1976, Lamborghini couldn’t afford to re-homologate the car with a new aero wing. As a workaround, completed cars were taken off the assembly line driven to the factory parking lot, where employees installed the rear wing using an electric hand drill while awaiting dealer transport. Apparently the installation of the wing only took about 10 minutes.

After a four or so hours at the show I decided it was a bit slow for me too and left to go home. A shame because it could have been a nice show.

I was emailed a couple of photos yesterday; Thank You Scott. One as I was talking to somebody and the other as I was leaving.

Having a proper camera instead of a cell phone camera makes a difference. That’s all I’m gonna say on the comparison.