The second half of the show had a general mixture of the almost new cars, that cost a lot when new, but not worth so much now as they common in any car park. However, there was some amazing looking cars there and I will start with a couple of my favourites again, the Audi Coupes, why o why did I sell mine?
The Morgan had a full on picnic setup going with a candelabra.
There was a club of ‘Fast Fords’ as they become known a decade or so later, in a circle display and few nearby. Among them was a couple of Mustangs in the middle, the blue scissor door Mustang has been around a few shows but is either a love it or hate it mod, it’s not for me to judge.
I enjoyed this camper van with the “Adventure before Dementia” slogan, love it.
This Renault ‘Williams’ is a bit of a rare find now days.
I was back to my car and the rest of the car club, the entertainment was going strong throughout the day, either these ladies singing to the backing tracks or a DJ playing some classic tunes from the 50’s and 60’s. There was many more car related stalls at this smaller show than the much bigger show such as Helmingham Hall, which is surprising. I spent a good while looking around the various automotive gems for sale, although I didn’t buy anything.
My car of the show was this huge Cadillac Eldorado, a monster of a land barge, beautifully turned out and I watched it drive in and it was whisper quiet even for the (i believe it to be an) 8.2ltr engine.
It was a good day, lovely weather and I spoke to a number of friends there too. A good show with lots of diverse cars to be seen. Busy day with lots of people all in good spirits, not the alcohol version.
I left about an hour before the end of the show. The drive home was serene and relaxing, if not a bit warm. I got home in good time and wiped the car over from the accumulated road and showground dust before I my my pride and joy under its soft cotton cover until the next show.
As I was editing these photos cropping out unwanted areas, I realised that I only took a few pictures of my car which was a little unlike me. The one above was early on before the car show got going.
A more general purpose classic car show was hosted at Stonham Barns on 18th August 2024. I wasn’t going to be expecting to much from this show, but I was wrong. It turned out to be much better supported than i expected and took a little over three hundred photos. As with big events and lots of photos I have split it over two posts to save the repetitive strain injury from scrolling down the page.
The day’s forecast was going to be nice weather, so I packed the factor fifty and plenty of cold drinks in the cool bag. I needed fuel and stopped off Shell for a fill up of some V-Power. I wasn’t hungry until the smell of freshly baked food greeted me when I walked in to pay. My will power failed me as I asked for a nice warm sausage roll, my treat to me just because I got up early, that was my excuse. The walk back to the car by the pump was slow while I devoured breakfast, I made sure to not get any grease on my fingers by holding the roll in the bag and the serviette. There was only one other car filling up, so it wasn’t as though they were busy. I binned the rubbish, got in the car and buckled up for the journey.
The journey to the event was fine, but the usual wedge of a traffic jam to get in was a bit longer than normal. While sitting in the car burning the recently purchased fuel, I happened to look around and spotted a convex mirror on a telegraph pole. I could almost see my car in it. As the line moved forward I got the camera out and took a couple of pics for something different, I think they came out well. The cars in front moved more than I expected, but I stopped where i wanted anyway. The impatient Audi driver wasn’t impressed and was waving his hands as if to move me up the road, all for the sake of a couple of car lengths. Not only that, he sat right up filler cap going round the twisty roads. Bovered? Nope! I won’t let anybody ruin my Mustang car trips.
I eventually got to the event and asked where the Bury Retro Car Club was to be parked. I was told follow the road round and they will park you up. I followed the road round and the dude hadn’t got a clue. So I just pulled to the side of the main arena and said I will wait here out the way. I parked my car up and waited for him to return, which he didn’t. I rang the club organiser to ask where he was and said that he was also stuck in traffic. I told him where I was parked and to let me know where I should be parked.
I wandered over to the main entrance to watch the cars come in and look out for the rest of the club to arrive. They arrived some quarter of an hour later and were directed to the a dark corner of the field with only three spaces. The drove round to where I was so we made out own stand!
I started at the far end of the field and worked my way back to where I was parked.
Cars were still coming in after the ‘start’ time but they got to park at the field near the end of the entrance road.
While I was waiting at the main gate I spotted a car like mine drive in, I found it at the far end of the field. This car was almost the same colour but had the standard interior and the rear quarter trims. I waited around for a while as I wanted to have a chat with the owner.
Around the same area there was a few Mustangs so I grouped them together.
I’m not sure what is going on with this Citroen 2CV, is the bloke having a laugh or has he got issues?
I hope it was tongue in check as it looked like the badge was just slapped on! This car got my runner up car of the show, I’m not a fan of these cars at all, but it made me smile. Part two’s post will have the rest of the show and my actual favourite car of the day.
After lots of walking around the club stand field and watching the exhibition runs, we wandered over to the privateer field. There was a Ford main dealer showing some cars and some food stalls. We decided to go back to my car for a regroup and something to eat and drink as the smell of the food had made me hungry. There was a brass band hiding under a tree near the main dealers who were playing movie themes and other popular tunes while the audience were eating hotdogs and their burgers. There was no order to these photo’s, except for the rows were arranged by decades. We just wandered up and down the rows taking photo’s of the cars we liked. There was lot of modern cars there which looked just like a Tesco car park, so we sort of ignored those. A four of five year old Jaguar or Toyota doesn’t make a classic car show for me. But, there was some fantastic cars parked up, including some regular cars that I recognised from other shows.
A couple of my all time favourites, The Audi Coupe for the daily and the Aston Vantage for the weekend.
We were working our way back to our car’s location and ready for another quick refreshment before the next and final walk around.
This old Ford even had candles for a light.
My car of the show was this quite rare Porsche Carrera GT.
WE got back to the car and sat around for a while just chatting and people watching. Then we felt it, a few drop of rain and the sky looking a little greyer than earlier. We had a great day wandering around and decided to go before the rain started. A few others had the same idea as us and we got out without any hold ups.
Craig took this photo as we wandered back to the car.
I took this just before we left.
We left and the rain wasn’t quite enough to warrant the wipers, and the steady drive home on the main roads made the rain evaporate quickly enough and the roads were fairly dry. I wiped the car over quickly during a dry spell and managed to get the car in the dry with the dehumidifier on to dry out any damp bits on the car.
Thanks to Craig for his photos and the good company as ever. I hope I didn’t bore you with so many photos over the last two posts.
One of the biggest car shows that I attend is this show, Helmingham Hall. The show was on the 4th August 2024, once again I had the pleasure of my good friend Craig (another total petrol head) to join me. The day was an early rise for Craig who had to travel from the next county to my house which was around forty minutes including his fuel stop. He assures me that he was within the speed limits all the way. We uncovered my car in the garage and packed our cool bags into the trunk along with his camera and chair. I set up the SatNav and backed the car out. We set off for the show and enjoyed a peaceful steady trip to the show, until we got to the usual traffic snarl up at the entrance. We wasn’t on the show stand like previous years so we had to park with the other private entrants in a field on the other side of the main driveway which goes up to the hall. We had a pretty good spot to be honest and parked up. The weather was looking good and the app promised to hold that way for the rest of the day.
As this is such a big show the event will have to be covered in two parts with a lot of photos on each. I took well into six hundred photos on the day. Some were unusable as I had managed to put my grubby fingers on the lenses on the back of my phone. Soft focus filter wasn’t what I was after.
We got the chairs out for little refreshment and a sit down before we summoned the energy to start the walk around this huge show. We decided to start on the stalls before they got busy. We needn’t have bothered as most of them were not car related. I was little gutted about that as I wanted to buy some 20W – 50 engine oil. But, I could buy some pot plants, hats or some home made jewellery and fudge! There was only one car related stall there which was for a alloy wheel refurb company, that was it.
We got to the main area at the front of the hall where you can pay the extra to park and get some afternoon tea in the cost of the entrance. These were the cars from that area.
As we were about to move onto the club stand field, a Countach could be heard arriving to join the area.
These are Craig’s photos of the same cars which are so much better than mine.
The Clubs stands didn’t seem to have the wow factor for some reason this year. There was some nice cars there, ironically on the stand that we normally park on.
Simply Mustangs stand was mainly the more modern iterations of the Mustang, with plenty of orange.
More of Craig’s photos of the club stands.
It was a busy day with cars parking up in the public car park throughout the day, and lots of people.
The display cars are split in to two halves either side of a main driveway up to the hall itself. Clubs stands to the left and the private entrants to the right. At the end of the club stands the the main drive way has an exhibition of cars that drive up and down. We stopped to watch the first showing which usually take around half hour or so.
Craig was taking a number of photo’s and messing around with photography settings, I’m not sure what it all meant to be honest, even though his explanation authoritative, it was toned down to his audience, me. He was trying to get the wheels moving while stopping the cars. It was nice to see the cars rolling and not driving at the same time. I could enjoy them, some where brutal sounding like the American muscle and the Aston Martin, the others were just poodling along enjoying the scenery .
After the exhibition runs we wandered into the privateer field where I had parked up, which we will cover in Part 2. There were much nicer cars on that side and plenty to look at.
The weekend of 24th July 2024 at Stonham barns was the Carrot Town Car show. This is usually aimed at the American classic and is usually a pretty good show. The night before the weather app(s) were consulted with no rain forecast but with one hundred percent cloud coverage. I don’t mind cloud as it makes it easier to take photo’s and you don’t sit in an open field with no shade. The journey there would require a fuel stop which was on the way with the Shell V-Power being my primary fuel. After the open wallet surgery was performed from an almost empty tank to full I restarted the journey to the event. The Stonham events always clashes with the car boot sale every Sunday in the field to the left of the show ground. The entrance is always a pain to get into, but this time I sailed straight in and paid my £5 to get in. I was directed to park up near a couple of other Mustangs which were by the main entrance, but in order to get there you have to drive down a gravel track to the other end of the field and then back to almost where I had came from. I parked up and within a space of about twenty minutes there was a whole line of Mustangs. The cars kept coming and a second line was created for those, a total of twenty four ponies in one area, it was almost like being back at the Mustang Owners Club Nationals a few weeks ago. I took over two hundred and fifty photos, but condensed it down to just under two hundred on this post.
I was pleased as a couple of friends parked up on the other side of the fence in the main arena and we had a good catchup. With the cars I decided to group them, Mustangs, Corvettes, trucks, bikes and the rest.
There was a one of kind wide body kitted out ‘Ghost’ as it was called. Not to every bodies taste, but it was certainly unique.
There was a Corvette owners club
Plenty of trucks and vans.
There was a section of movie and TV cars. The Knight rider car had the sweeping red light at the front with the sound it made. The interior was pretty cool as well.
Motorbikes scare the living daylights out of me but there was this ‘Boss’ bike which had a 430CiD V8 with 430BHP and 440 torque all put down on the road with the biggest rear tyre I had seen.
Then there is the rest of some stunning cars.
This stunning Charger RT with a rebuilt 528 Hemi won car of the show.
There were some trade stands around the show ground, and the first time I have seen some Bull horns for sale. I bought myself a replacement Chemical Guys P40 quick detailer as I had almost run out. It worked out cheaper than Amazon and eBay even with their ‘free’ postage.
Throughout the day there was a band that was playing some pretty good sounds it has to be said. The singer of the band also did a solo set.
I got back to the car ready for a sit down and a some refreshments.
A good day and I spent most of my time talking to lots of people. What I didn’t realise was that when the sun came out it was stronger than I expected. I hadn’t put my baseball cap on as well as not apply the factor fifty. I’m the sort of guy that burns easily and much to the wife’s amusement once I got home; ‘you like as red as a Budweiser label’. With that I went to fridge and twisted the cap off a cool beer and sat at my PC to write this post. I couldn’t admit it, but she was right, the top of my head does look the colour of a Budweiser beer label!
My wanderings around the show was about halfway round now. It was now around lunch time and the public was still coming into the show. I did spot that some of the cars arriving were also classics which were being parking up in the public areas, and getting their own attention amidst the see of Euro wind tunnel designed boxes. This car show is always fully booked and you need to get in early, or at least be a member of a car club.
My car of the show is this beautifully stored Willys Jeep, not for the paint job or rarity. The owners attention to detail was evident throughout. I wanted to drive it home and that is what matters to me for picking my car of the show.
The rest of the show needed to be explored, but first the collection of Mustangs:
There was a Lotus restorers there with some amazing cars.
I eventually got back to my car and the urge for food was greater than ever due to the many other food stalls now fired up. There was the more generic ‘craft’ style stalls there as well.
The show was due to finish at three thirty in the afternoon with show cars being allowed to move at three.
With my issue of having not a lot of fuel I was watching where the public were leaving, and where I could cut into the queue as near the exit as possible. Again this was round the back of the school on a single track so the wait was around ten minutes to get out. I made the point of leaving just after three in order to miss the traffic jam. Eventually I got to the roads and headed back home. I did arrive home with the fuel gauge showing empty. I suspect there was more in the tank, but you can’t be sure in these old cars. I didn’t want to be held up just in case. I do carry a spare fuel can in the trunk. However, it’s not full as the hot weather can make the fuel expand and the fuel has a shelf life anyway. I will need to get some fuel before the show, so that will be via a Jerry can, enough to get me to the petrol station and fill up properly.
The weather? It was mostly cloudy with the odd breakthrough of sun. Not enough for the factor fifty, but at least there was no rain.
A great show as always, well organised but they do need to sort out the entry and access delays.
This year the Rotary Classic Car Show at Culford was held on 14th July 2024 and is one of the biggest in the East Anglia area with over six hundred cars on show. I really enjoy this show and is always booked up well in advance for both entrants as well as stall holders. The setting is located in a private school grounds and only takes about thirty minutes for me to get there. In fact it took longer to drive down the access road than it did to arrive at the venue. There were delays getting to the display area as there a speed bumps and some low riders were having trouble getting over them. As I didn’t see many at the show for a few cars that had issues they could have driven over the grass at the sides of the path. In fact my car’s long headers do hang pretty low, so I too have to be careful and always take speed humps slowly. The ground was dry and wouldn’t have damaged the grounds. The drive to the main display field is always a pleasant experience.
Eventually I was pointed to the Bury Retro Car Club stand where I parked up and got out to chat to few friends who were there before me. After the exchange of banter I got back to the car to give it a little wipe over before I started my wanderings round the show.
First things first the car club was parked near some food stands and I thought I would treat myself to a nice sausage roll. That would have been fine if I had remembered to bring my wallet. This was a problem in itself as I also needed to get some fuel on the way home as the fuel gauge was now lower than it’s usually allowed to get. As there wasn’t going to be a fuel stop now the drive home was going to be a steady gentle drive home. The weather was promising to be dry all day although the cloud cover was coming over with patches of sun.
The plan was to start on one side and work across the field, I started with the club stand itself:
The only thing I will group in part 2 will be the Mustangs that were at the show. In order to save huge amounts of photos, I tried to take a more multi car shots without loosing the details of the cars.
At the end of the first row there was a Ferrari stand with some beautiful examples on show.
A modern an increasingly rare car that I still have a very, very big soft spot for them.
The public was getting very busy and I managed to grab these couple of shots before the general public came in as the event opened at ten o’clock.
There is much more to come from this show in part 2.
A few miles away from my village is small tourist attraction called Pakenham Water Mill which is the oldest surviving flour mill in Suffolk, where once there were many. The Pakenham watermill has been around for almost a thousand years, and for all that time millers on this site have been using the simple technology of water power to produce stone-ground wholemeal flour for local people. The mill is currently owned today by HistoricSuffolk, a team of around fifty dedicated volunteers continues to look after the mill, machinery and grounds for this long tradition. There is a tea room and a little shop too.
The grounds on the day were populated with a tent full of home made cake stalls, a mini bar, and a BBQ area. I was hoping to by some local made bread from the mill, unfortunately they didn’t have any on the day.
The event was billed as starting at eleven, but I wasn’t sure if that was the public entry or arrival time for the cars. I took the time as being the public entry thus allowing us exhibitors to get ourselves organised. I woke up early before the alarm, the the dogs decided that sticking one of their little paws in my mouth would be a good way to let me know that they wanted to go out. I packed the cool bag for the day as well as the factor fifty as it was going to be a hot one with the sun being out for the whole day. I had a gentle cruise to the event just a mere twenty minutes away and pulled into the entrance. Nobody was about, but a minute or so later the rumble of my exhaust must have alerted a marshal to come over and he advised me that I was very early. The event was due to start at eleven, for both the public and the exhibitors. I was shown to a slightly elevated area for the show cars.
I was parked next to an MGB V8 which was owned by one of the volunteers. As he walked away I decided to move my car to another more scenic part of the field to take some pictures before the field got busy, which wouldn’t be for another half hour or so yet.
After my impromptu photo session i moved back to where I was initially told to park. The main hard standing parking area that I parked on last year was this time reserved for the pre war vehicles, the rest of the classic cars were going to be up where I was located. Many of the exhibitors like myself turned up around ten and were swiftly parked up in rows near to me. This is a small local show with only around fifty cars or so, more of a social meet of a local car owners.
The pre war section was well supported, more than I expected to be there.
Throughout the day there were exhibitors coming and going.
There was the steam model guys riding up and down, one of the engines had his lunch packed in the front boiler part, a few jacket potatoes filling the air with an amazing smell which made me hungry.
The sun was brutal, I had the factor fifty slapped on all over the place, but there was no shade. I wasn’t going to complain, far from it. I eventually sat down and had some lunch and a long cool drink watching the world walk buy.
I was greeted by a couple of friends I have known from the car shows in the past and a couple of members from the Bury Retro Car Club. I was taken back to a good few years to my first car show at the Birmingham NEC when I was on the Mustang Owners Club stand. A gentleman approached me and reminded me that he spoken to me way back then at that show. I even let his girlfriend sit in my car on the day he informed me, I had forgotten that little detail. The guy still follows my little ol’ blog and I was very humbled by the fact that he took time out to come and meet me again, we spoke for a little while and that conversation alone made my day. I’m terrible with names, I will admit it. I apologise to anybody in advance if I have forgotten your name when you come to speak to me, I put it down to my old age.
As I was editing (crop and resizing) this batch of photos, I decided to play around a little with the colours; the original, a straight forward black and white, sepia, and a hand tinted cream version. Let me know if these photos are improvement or not. I kinda like the bottom cream tinted one.
Another good day, even if I did unnecessarily sacrifice a Sunday lay in. A pretty well organised day and knowing that the £5 entrance fee has gone to the upkeep of the water mill and not in somebody’s greedy pocket.
This year is the sixtieth year celebration for the launch of the Mustang at the New York Trade Fair in ninteen sixty-four. There have been numerous events around the country to celebrate such an achievement for the iconic Mustang. The Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain (MOCGB) are no exception. The biggest show of the year for many Mustangs owners is the MOCGB National Show, this year it was held at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire on sixteenth June twenty twenty four, on Fathers Day in the UK.
This year, I was determined to go to my first MOCGB national show, even though it’s a little bit of a drive for me, about fifty miles away from my door to the event. For the last ten days I had been watching the weather forecast with interest. Rain forecast on the day and all the way up to the days before. My village was expecting rain on the Sunday morning for a couple of hours, seven till ten. But, the event was due a light shower in the morning and no more rain after nine. I was going to go for it with even with the chance of rain, I hatched a plan.
I had set my alarm for six thirty, aiming to leave at seven, with an ultimate plan of getting to the event early before the gates opened at ten missing the rain. I can’t lie, I was worried as the apps were conflicting each other, if it was raining when I woke up I wouldn’t be going. I woke up at four thirty and opened the blinds a little bit so that I could see out the window from the bed what the weather was doing, or more importantly, what it was going to do. I wasn’t sleeping, do I or don’t I go? Constantly refreshing the weather forecast apps (yes more than one) hoping they would show me what I wanted to see, compared to the real time visual outside. It was getting darker as the minutes passed by, so I got up and got ready as quickly as I could, skipping any breakfast to save time. I filled the cool bag up with the drinks and lunch, grabbed the car keys and stepped, or should I say, staggered out the house a little before five thirty. I needed fuel and so did the car. The usual stop of the Shell garage when travelling in this direction opened at six, with only a slight detour to get to it of the main dual carriageway. I pulled into the garage as it was opening up and lights going on, perfect timing. I filled up and grabbed a can of Red Bull on my way to counter to pay. I drank up on the way to the car and would wait for the rush to kick in shortly. I threw the empty can in the trash before I got back into the car and buckled up.
I was back on the main A14 again within a couple of minutes of leaving the garage and could see in my mirrors the dark clouds following in behind me. The journey was a little tense as a few little pockets of rain hit the car, not enough to put the wipers on, just enough to give me the hump a bit, but I was keeping in front of the rain just. What is even worse than rain? A cyclist hogging the road for no reason. A cycling event was taking place early on a Sunday morning, To be fair to them it wasn’t at a peak time during the day. Some of the these dayglow ‘lycra louts’ were riding two or even three abreast on the left lane of a triple lane carriage way. This A14 is perhaps one of the busiest roads within this and the adjoining county. The only good thing was the roads were fairly quiet at the moment, but cars were swapping lanes avoiding them.
Around half seven, I was just a mile away from the event when the rain started, not heavy enough for the roads to start filling up with puddles as these were now minor back roads. Then a few minutes later the rain stopped just as I pulled into the area main concrete car park, more perfect timing. The master plan had worked, I pretty much beat the rain to the event leaving before the rain hit my village and arriving as the rain was leaving the event. The weather apps both now promised no more rain for the rest of the day. We shall see!
I parked up to dry the the car off and went over to speak to the guys who were still setting up the stand with their merchandise.
I was asked if I was going to enter my car for the judging, I said ‘OK’, thinking it was like most other car shows, if they like it, you get a trophy. They told me to move the car round into the judging area just in front of the main parking area which was separated by barriers. As I was so early, I had the choice where to park, so I parked right in front of the main stand, something I didn’t think through at the time.
However, this judging was going to be a whole new level up for me. The sun was making more frequent little appearances as I was giving the car a better wipe over to make it look more presentable. During this once over stage I was handed a form to fill in; the usual stuff, name, Mustang model, reg number etc. Under those main details were categories with sub categories. Exterior; workmanship, body, paint, bumpers, trim, chrome, gaps, door shuts etc, Underside; exhaust, suspension, fuel tank etc. Interior; seats, trunk, mats, carpets, dash, steering wheel, Wheels & Tyres; cleanliness, condition, wear, so on and so on. I can’t remember all the various categories to be honest. Then there was a last column for the judges to put their comments and scores. This was a pretty serious Mustang version for their style concours judging. However, they do allow for some sensible mods for the older cars. That means you start with one hundred points and then judges knock marks off for things that were wrong or dirty etc. The higher the final score the better. The judging was due to start at eleven(ish) where they started at the far end, working left to right as you look out over to the field. I had to work fast and clean the car for a third time but properly all over again. My trunk looked like I had slept in it on the way down there and needed a good tidy up. I cleaned the spare wheel, wiped over the inside of the paintwork with quick detailer. I took out the chair and show board and arranged everything still left in the trunk as neatly as my OCD would allow. I carry everything I need for detailing, such a quick detailer, hard wax, spray wax, tyre finish, glass cleaner, degreaser, engine dressing, rubber treatment, you name it it’s in the trunk. I don’t carry the full bottles as I decant the products into smaller bottles, they last a couple of shows before they need a top up. That way I save space and it’s easier to store more products.
I got to talking to some others who had now now pulled up and started cleaning their cars too, they were cleaning door hinges to remove excess grease, cleaning their exhausts, even inside the exhausts tips too. I was now cleaning everything with a full on hot flush going on and looking like I had literally just got out of that messy trunk. I managed to ruin a couple of good microfibre cloths while multi step cleaning of various areas. I only take good cloths with me to shows and not the more general ‘work’ cloths, that will now change going forward – just in case. Time was running out, but I did as much as I could for a couple of short hours. The judges eventually got to my car.
There was nothing more I could do except now go for a wander around the field to look at all the other amazing Mustangs; classic, modern, resto mod and everything in between. With these first few pics I was trying to take in the scale of the show. This first pic I took was earlier in the morning, before the majority of the other cars arrived. I think as the sun came out and stayed out, those that were in two minds to come or not, then decided to go to the show a little later on in the morning.
Due to the now accurate weather forecast a few promised cars didn’t make it to the show unfortunately. However there was some stunning cars here, something for everybody.
There is no particular order to these cars I just wandered up and down the lines. The sun was becoming more prominent and longer lasting spells as the day wore on. I spoke to my wife who informed me that it poured down in our village about half an hour after I left.
There was a few non Mustangs that gate crashed the show but still Fords such as Falcons and the odd truck.
Amongst the Mustangs there was some other really nice non Ford American muscle arrive and a lonely VW;
Adam and Lance from Mustang Maniac attended with their 1973 Convertible and GT350 respectively.
There was some stalls around the outside, selling their wares, food, a bar with a break out area with support for the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity too.
After I got back to the car it was time to check out some more of the other cars that had be judged and then a well earned sit down, something to eat and chat to lots of nice people.
At around three in the afternoon the winning trophies were to announced and given out.
There were different categories Concours 1964.5 – 1968, Concours 1969 – 1993, Concours 1994 – 2016, Triple Six motorcycles Choice of Show, Father’s Day award (chosen by the kids), Best modified and Mustang Maniac’s Choice of Show.
The proceedings started with the the 1964.5 to 1968 category reading out in reverse order the points awarded; 3rd was announced, 2nd was announced then with 96 points my name was called out, I had won! There were pictures taken at the time of all the winners, but to be honest – I looked a mess from the morning’s charging around, I never really recovered from it, so I look a bit rough and have seen thge photo’s. 🤦♂️ I was asked a few questions and I answered, the MC got my first name wrong as well, “Matt” instead of “Mart”! I didn’t care to be honest, I was trying to take it all in.
I took the trophy back to the car which was only a few paces away and put it pride of place on the air intake.
The rest of the trophies were given out to the other very deserving winners. Shortly after that there was the raffle which went on for ages as some people had already left meaning that their unclaimed winning ticket were redrawn.
As I was in the middle of the main area I couldn’t leave until the area had cleared and it was safe for me to drive out. That oversight was my own fault for parking where I did. The area cleared eventually and I left just after four. Although I left at the end of the show, I maintained a silly grin on my face all the way home which must have looked strange if you saw me in the car.
To win this type of trophy on an important anniversary for the Mustang means so much to me. Thanks to the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain for putting on a great show and for being very well organised.
When I got home I cleaned the car before covering it up in the garage and took a last photo.
I took the trophy in and placed it on the mantlepiece for the wife to admire with me. She liked it for a while, then I got the “OK, that can go in the garage with the others now”. It’s still there (for now), as I think my wife has given me one week’s grace as I’m so proud of it! I deliberately don’t post when I have won any of my other trophies or prizes as it can sound conceited, but on this occasion I hope you will forgive me.
This is the last of the three posts for the Pageant. I will start this post with the all the random Mustangs that were around the field. There was even a ’67 fastback in Acapulco blue as well.
The guy that owns this fastback has the UK reg plate ‘JJZ109’ which of course is the Bullitt number plate (or reg plate). This car is often seen with a black charger at the same in car shows. The owner has decided that he wants this car to look even more like the movie ‘hero’ car and has started to rough it up a bit. The damage here is intentional. We must remember that it’s the guys car and we shouldn’t judge, I’m not sure it’s something I would personally have done to such a nice car.
In the main tent there was a selection of cars from movie sets, the guide in the tent was telling me that one of these cars is said to have come from “Downton Abby” TV series here in the UK. It’s a series that I never watched, as it’s not my thing. So I tried to Google the cars, but my searches haven’t found the car(s), again I’m happy to be corrected on this.
Leaving the tent to go onto the other side of the field there was the main club stands. I mingled around them to get most of them in shot.
I mentioned there was an unusual engine at the show. This is it, a Merlin engine from a WWII Spitfire plane.
The engine fired up a few times throughout the day and it drowned all the noise out from the field. I couldn’t get near the engine as it was constantly busy. The sound, just deafening and mesmerising at the same time.
I was back at the Mustang Maniac stand and there was a steady flow of people wanting to speak to Adam and ask about the cars, especially the ’73 red convertible that he had up for sale. I got my chilled drink and set up my camping chair for a well earned sit down.
The sun cream was slapped on and I enjoyed sitting down people watching f or the rest of the day. Before I left for home I had a secret weapon – a can of Red Bull sugar free. I finished the can and got into the car around half four in the afternoon and set of for home. I wanted to be fully alert as I suspected I might be tired on the way home. The slogan that ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ wasn’t quite true as I had to endure the lunatics driving on the M25 back home again. To fly home would have been nice, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed my car. Once I got back onto the main dual carriageways again getting away from the London area things start to calm down and I could relax a little on the way home. I even got the odd wave from kids in cars and the odd motor cyclist too. As I drove into my road I could open the garage door ready to drive the car straight into the garage. I didn’t cover the car as I would have to clean the car on the Sunday. Why the rush and not clean it as I always do before garaging? It started to rain. I managed to get the car in the garage with just a few spots of water on the car. By the time I got the trunk unloaded, closed the garage door behind me and got into the house, the rain came down like a tap. Literally a minute later on the road and the car would have got soaked. As far as I was concerned it was a great day out at a very busy and popular car show, great company, and I spoke to many really nice people about my car too. I couldn’t of asked for more, apart from my bed as the Red Bull had worn of and I was pretty tired to say the least. On Sunday the sun was out for a couple of hours where I managed to clean the car, cover it up and plug in the trickle charger back in ready for the next adventure.
Driving a classic car can be tiring for long distances, just ask any owner. We are constantly looking out for people who want to wreck our cars through their stupidity or their inconsiderate actions. We are looking for pot holes, lose gravel in the road for stone chips, debris in the road, keeping a good distance from the car in front etc. the concentration can be intense!
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