Hennessey Performance Cars & Coffee 2023

I thought that the Stonham Barns (parts one to three) was going to be the last car show of the year for me. For all intense and purpose it was as the second show at Stonham Barns on the trot would be rained on and I wouldn’t go anyway. That was until I was checking on my Facebook page very early this morning after one of the dogs decided to stand on my face as he wanted to go out. I was laying there trying to get back to sleep while the dogs settled back down, I stumbled across a post that said coffee and cars at a little place about ten miles away from me. I checked the weather and it was going to rain early afternoon. This ‘gathering’ was a simple turn up, have a social coffee or bacon sandwich and look at some cars that may turn up.

Hennessey Performance based in Suffolk are a Performance Parts Stockist, specialising in Prestige & Performance vehicles, they sell things like alloy wheels, heat management wrap, oils, merchandise etc. Not to be confused with the Hennessey tuners in the USA.

I made the decision to go, a couple of hours in the morning and then back home again would be ideal. I got the car out and remembered that I needed fuel from sitting in the last stupid traffic jam from the last show at Stonham. The event was only a few miles away, I thought that driving conservatively there and back again I wouldn’t need to top up. Over the winter I always run the fuel down as it goes off in the tank and causes running issues next time I start it up in the summer.

I have driven past this place a few times, but didn’t realise it was there. There was no traffic jam this time and I just pulled straight into the yard and was directed where to park up in a really nice position.

I got out and had a quick look around looking at the cars still coming in. Some were directed onto the grass field to the right adjacent to the yard on the left as you drove in, others were directed onto the yard for parking.

Directly opposite me on the edge of the field was a line of black cars that looked pretty cool. Just to the other side of where I parked was the coffee and food barn with three super cars parked out the front of it.

I decided to go for a wander and pick Marts Car of the Show, what I picked even surprised myself. This was going to be difficult as there were super cars there worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each. It would have been so easy to pick any one of the McLarens, Ferrari’s, Aston Martin, Nissan GTRs or the odd Lambo. There were so many Porsches there I didn’t take many pics of those, also there was plenty of the out of the showroom Ford Focus STs or a couple of year old BMWs and so on, I didn’t want this post to look like a Tesco’s parking lot filled with expensive cars you can see just about anywhere. It was obvious that this gathering was going to have a distinctly modern feel about it.

As this was a ‘performance’ gathering there was some great cars of yester year that were now becoming classics in their own right.

As I got to the end of the row opposite me I wandered down the row of cars on the field to see what was there.

I wandered back to the main area a rather nice Ferrari pulled in. I have a very big soft spot for these 308s anyway, and for me was the runner up for Marts Car of the Show as it was a really nice example in an unusual colour for a Ferrari, which suited it.

Back to the main area again and the cars will still coming in.

The three cars parked out the front of the refreshments;

I wandered back to my car and was asked if I could lift the hood, for once I hadn’t done it as not many other cars had it.

Just behind where I had parked up there were some units that were opened up, one was the Hennessey unit to flog their stuff.

The other had a track car in bits doing something to it to make it go faster I guess.

Marts car of the ‘gathering’ rather than ‘show’ was this little Suzuki Cappuccino. It has a 0.6ltr engine which is the size of a piece of A4 paper. The owner hadn’t had it long and he uses it as his daily driver. This isn’t a UK spec as it had been imported from Japan a few months ago.

Outside the merchandise unit there were some stools which had now become free, so I decided to assume the position and take some different photo angles of my car and watch the world go by for a while.

I left just after mid day as a number of other cars were starting to leave. It was a another gentle drive home and the fuel was almost on the empty line. That was fine with me as I was going to prep the car for the winter storage.

It was a good gathering and spoke to a few nice people, not as many as I normally do at a proper car show. The conversations I was listening to was about the amount of boost and what type of horsepower they were running. Me, no boost just a v8 with plenty of torque that will drive along in top gear gear at 25mph. I do believe I was the oldest car there apart from the ‘hot rod’ and the Pontiac station wagon that wasn’t a runner. I would make a point to go to this one again that’s for sure. A good way to end my run of car shows for the year.

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Stonham Barns Classic Car Show 2023 (part 3)

The start of this post was the walk back towards my car which will take in the centre arena which only had a dozen or so cars in it. I was now at the far end of the field and there was a few military vehicles on show.

The cars in the centre ring were ‘movie cars’ and a couple of other random things. Not many cars look good in pink, but I expect a big Caddy to be pink!

This is a replica Bullitt car with the resident keeping a watching brief on the big bad Charger. These pair get around together and I have seen them at the Enfield Pageant. The Bullitt car was a 390ci big block, unfortunately this replica is only a 302ci.

This replica GT40 is a CAV GTR made in 2009 is an awesome looking lady that’s for sure. The trumpet intakes just scream classic car and I’m a bit partial to that look, I would like to think that the 390ci under this hood sounds as good as it looks.

This 6.2lt Rally Fighter looked a lot of fun.

Eleanor was there, but it wasn’t the best replica I have seen to be honest.

There was few traders and auto jumble there, but nothing that exciting, it was more of a car boot sale and my money stayed firmly in my wallet.

Marts Car of the Show

My favourite there was this Lamborghini Espada Series 3 from 1975. A rare car with a total of 1217 Espadas made between 1968 – 1978. The styling of this car still holds up today, yes it’s a super car and really liked the Peerless, it’s the first Lambo Espada I have seen and I wanted to go home in it. After I had taken my Mustang home of course.

I eventually got back to my car as the lunch time sunshine was beating down. I took a couple more picks of the club cars, a couple didn’t make it as they broke down sitting in the stupid traffic jam.

The best part of the afternoon? The big white tent was still empty apart from a few bales of hay. So I got my chair out and put it in the tent where I could still see my car. I sat down with a well earned drink as it was getting warm, no need for the sun creme. About an hour or so after I sat down the rest of the club returned and we all sat in the tent for chat. So the selfish traders were standing in the beating sun while we were nice and cool in the shade.

The corruption I eluded to in the first post was something I have come to expect from this show, and all the shows held at this venue come to that. The prizes were announced at just past 3pm. The compare said and I quote; “The car of the show goes to my ol’ mate…”. Yeah yeah, yeah – what ever! I didn’t need to hear anymore and switched off at that point. Some might say it’s jealousy or sour grapes. Nope, I have mentioned this happens before from this show, so I was expecting it. In fact I didn’t even give my car a wipe over as I usually do when I get to a show as I knew it wouldn’t matter. There were some beautiful cars that deserved to win and I feel sorry for those guys. I had a great day talking to the guys in the tent.

At around three fifteen I started to see a few cars leaving before the 4pm closing time. I said my goodbyes and packed up to come home making sure I missed the rush to get out. The organisation of the show this year was bad, traffic jams to get in, spaces not marked out correctly, and cars parked in weird lines. It wasn’t all bad like I say, I spoke to few people and enjoyed my day, the sun was out mostly and I sat in a cool tent. I was spotted by Matthew Filby and Emily Silkstone who kindly took the ‘Culford Car Show Pro Shoot’ photos a couple of posts back. Great to see you guys again. 🙂

I got home and made sure I cleaned the car this time and covered her up in the garage. That show could be the last one of the year for me, depending on weather there might be another. I was thinking about posting what I do when I lay my car up for the winter, would anybody be interested?

I have come across a some documentation for fasteners used by Ford between 1955 and 1973. Not the most riveting of reading for most people, but all those little symbols mean something on the top of the fasters – bolts and screws etc. I will do a little post on that soon. If your into concours car shows, have a classic Ford, then this document could be the difference of winning and losing!

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Stonham Barns Classic Car Show 2023 (part 2)

Carrying on from my post part one of the show, I moved down the line of cars and came across a true iconic cars ever made, the classic Model T tourer. The only thing I didn’t like was the ‘slow vehicle’ slapped across the back of it, but I could see why they did it. This little gem almost got my vote!

Another poster of cars I had on wall was of the white Lotus Esprit from the James Bond movie, The spy who loved me. So this one is in black, but who cares? It’s still a stunning looking car to this day.