Enfield Pageant Of Motoring ’24 (part 2)

As I finished my last post I mentioned that part 2 will show my favourite car of the show and here it is; the mighty DE Tomaso Pantera. I had a long chat with the owner who was telling me about the 351 Windsor engine in the middle which tends to set the neighbours car alarms off when he starts it up in the morning. Not many of these cars around now and this was a fine example, just beautiful. Another poster car for many teenage kids.

Moving on down the lines of cars I was working way towards the stalls on the right hand side of the field as you drive in.

There was a an old School bus (I think), which had been converted to a motorhome. I would loved to have had a look inside, but it was all closed up unfortunately. I would love to be enlightened what these vehicles are under the yellow exterior and can you even buy them?

I was at the end of the individual entries of cars and at the main tent and funfair. The was a display of radio controlled models that were on an oval track which were just smashing into each other demolition derby style.

I spotted this dog who was totally at home on this tyre and was getting lots of attention.

There was plenty of stalls for auto parts as well as the usual car boot or yard sale items. There was a live band playing regular sets throughout the day, but we didn’t get much chance to hear them from where I was with Mustang Maniac.

After this section as the for sale stalls it was time to move over to the other side of the filed which I will bring in ‘part 3’. There will be an unusual engine and the block of Mustangs collated from various parts of the field.

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Enfield Pageant Of Motoring ’24 (part 1)

On the 25^th of May I attended the Enfield Pageant of Motoring as a guest of Mustang Maniac. The weather looked promising and was going to be a very welcome change from the usual rain over the weekend. The Saturday was going to be the better day with some showers on the Sunday. So the Saturday I got rudely awoken by the alarm at five in the morning, or should I say middle of the night? I sort of stumbled out of bed, woke the wife and then the very short process of waking the dogs from their deep sleep to then being ‘off on one’ wanting to go out right there and then. I eventually got ready and and loaded up the cool bag with lunch, snacks and drinks. I had previously uncovered the car in the garage, disconnected the trickle charger and already put in the the postcode into the SatNav, I just needed to plug it in and turn on from ‘sleep mode’ to resume the directions. The dash cam also sprung into life as the engine fired into life. I sent a text to Adam to say that I was now leaving just a little before six.

The journey there was interrupted by a obligatory stop at the Shell VPower station for a little top up of five gallons. I didn’t fancy having to pay London prices on top of the already premium cost of the VPower fuel. I got back on the road and thoroughly enjoyed my drive, that is until I got to the outer London car park also known as the M25. Then within a space of two miles it seemed as though it was the film set of Mad Max Fury Road where everybody was trying to kill each other. I did my best to avoid the carnage as best as I could, I was traumatised by the time I got off the motorway. There was speed cameras what seemed like on every gantry and the lamp posts when I got the motorway some short ten minutes later. I got to the Pageant at around seven forty and drove up to the Mustang Maniac plot. A total of seventy seventy three miles to get there.

Adam and Lance were there unloading the Falcon and the electric (road worthy) buggy he had there for the weekend.

We had a quick discussion on how we were going to park and I took the corner spot. I then had a little drive of the Falcon to park that up too.

I think Adam felt sorry for me as he kindly bought me and Lance an all you can eat full English breakfast at the carvery just before you enter the show ground. You can trust me when I say that they didn’t make any profit from us as we certainly die honour the ‘all we could eat’ offer. In fact I was so full after the breakfast and ‘free refills’ of soda that I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. I think my veins were pumping pure cholesterol rather than blood, but it was very nice I must say.

On the day I took just over three hundred photos. Some of those photos I have shared with Mustang Maniac for their blog. I try to keep my posts to around a hundred or so photos to keep the loading times down and not make it a scroll fest and getting bored. So I aim to post these three posts in fairly quick succession.

The walk back was welcome to stretch of the legs and helped walk some of the breakfast down. There was some more cars turning up on the stand and we even had a Pontiac ‘ringer’ park with us.

Adam relaxing after the breakfast and sitting with his much loved vintage flat bed.

Directly behind the the Mustang Maniac pitch was the Afro Classic Register who were providing us with entertaining music throughout the day via some more than capable in-car sound systems.

To take the pics I started in their direction heading towards the back of the field. This part of the field where individual entry cars were lined up in rows. I wandered up and down the rows taking pics of the interesting cars, rather than the six year old everyday cars that were parking up.

This is the end of the batch of rows and is an ideal time to stop ready for the ‘part 2’ of the show. I came across my car of the show at the start of the next post.

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Rickinghall Car Show ’24

A small little village about thirty miles away from me called Rickinghall was hosting a show on the nineteenth of May. The show was supposed to be the second of a double header weekend but but last minute I didn’t get to the Saturday show, I will be posting in a couple of weeks about the reason why, as it’s car related.

The weather was sunny as I woke up and was looking forward to the drive. I would need the SatNav to get there as I’m useless at directions. Those that know of my directional skills or lack of, will know just how much of an understatement that is! I was thoroughly enjoying my drive along the country roads window open with the sound of a V8 filling the quiet roads. A few miles out from the venue I was followed by another classic car. Like me when I’m driving behind another car, he was sitting a good few yards back from me, obviously thinking of stone chips from the country roads. We got close to the entrance and I followed a McLaren MP$-12C supercar into the venue. To be honest I was expecting a little village green effort, but I’m glad to say I was very wrong. This was a large field with lots of cars on show and plenty of parking for the public. Although I got there about forty minutes before the opening to the public, I was still a good two thirds of the way down the field.

The McLaren I followed in parked up and I repeated the manoeuvre a respectable space away from him. I got out and had a great chat with the owner and we admired each others cars. The McLaren is a pinnacle of automotive excellence hand built, and parked next to it was a sixties car that was mas produced and originally thrown together on the production line, just to get them out the factory. Throughout the day it was so interesting to see the people who wanted a super car, and those who wanted an old classic.

There was some really nice banter between us about who had the shiniest car. We both polished the cars each checking out the others standards, after finished inspections – we called it a draw! 🙂

After some refreshments I decided to take a wander around the show which was going to take a while. The cars were still arriving and some visitors also starting to wander around too. The chairs were out and the factor fifty sun cream was on.

The plan was to just wander up and down the rows of cars. There was many cars here like eight year old modern cars often seen in supermarket car parks, I tried to avoid those. The show was organised in conjunction with the Jaguar owners club, so there was a awful lot of them in an area near the front of the field, again I avoided a lot of those more common cars.

This 1915 Model T was over a century old and still going strong. Simply beautiful.

There was amazing Lotus Europa which I haven’t seen at any shows and was a pleasure to see. This got my runner up vote of the show. Did you know? The Lotus Europa is only 2 1/4″ taller than the mighty GT40. Needless to say, my 6’4″ bulk wouldn’t get in it. let alone get out of it.

There was the odd Yank there and a few replicas, surprisingly my Mustang was the only one there.

There was a quite a few BMWs as well, again lots of run of the mill stuff which I skipped over most of them, apart from the unusual ones.

My favourite of the show is this Citroen, when this car came out it shocked the world, and to a degree it still does! I believe this is quite a rare example, I must confess I don’t know much about them. The owner was a nice guy who opened the car up to let me take a pic inside.

Back to the rest of the cars. The Gordon Keeble in the first two pictures is one of only 98 built!

At the end of the field was the refreshments in a classic Airstream and a few food stalls and a bit of music all day, not that I could hear it down the other end of the field.

Inside the village hall was some craft stalls and and somebody who made lights out of a fire extinguishers! I had my eye on the Ford one, I still might get it from their Facebook page.

I wandered back to the car after a comfort break and finished up with the tractors and some incredible detailed working models.

I sat in my chair for a well earned rest after a longer walk around than I expected.

It was such a nice show I stayed pretty much until the end which was half an hour before the closure at four in the afternoon. The camera struggled a little with the bright light and contrast a bit, so you will have to forgive me on that. The journey home was as relaxing as the journey there, unrushed and enjoyable without some sort of SUV trying to overtake me on a country road. Once I parked up at home the dogs were going mad to see me so I had to go in give them a cuddle before I changed into something a little loose fitting before I wiped the car over and put her away. Rickinghall was a great show, well organised, not expensive for the visitors to get in (£3 per adult) either, so I will be back there again next year – as long as it don’t rain that is.

A slightly longer post than normal with lots of pictures. Hope it wasn’t a too much of chore to scroll through them all.

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Spring Break Kustom Kulture ’24 (part 2)

The car show was getting warmer and more people were coming into the show as the car boot sale was finishing up in the field adjacent to the show field. It was getting on to be a busy ol’ show.

The end of part one of this show I mentioned there was a exhibition tent. This was a radio controlled club. The amazing thing about these models was the sound, They changed gears, the big rigs dumped air now and again, lights and just so detailed. Throughout the day these were seen driving around the hard standing areas. Some very impressive models taking dirt form a pile, into a truck which in turn drove to the other end of the tent to drop it off. Once there another excavator loaded up dirt from that end to back where it had come from.

Parked right in the corner of the field was this truck. It also got my vote for being the car (vehicle) of the show. I couldn’t believe the size of this thing! I would loved to have seen inside it, and I know virtually nothing about this truck.

Working back up the lines again more really nice cars.

This beautiful Oldsmobile got my second place, it was just amazing.

There was a little group of some UK ‘Fast Fords’ which are now commanding some pretty serious money.

There was a few Mustangs at the show, both old and new, so I have grouped them together. There is even a Mach-E as well. Controversial being called a Mustang by Ford, but who am I argue?

The rest of vehicles around the outside of the main arena.

After a good walk and look round I got back to the car for a well earned rest and plenty to drink. The sun stayed out all the time I was there at the show and with little cloud cover. I did leave early as there no point hanging around for the trophies. One of the cars that was selected had a dent in the rear drivers rear quarter. So I’m not sure what the criteria is to be placed, but the Knuckle Busters show does tend to be very same old, same old cars. The truck to left of my car won something too.

Fantastic weather, beautiful cars and some great people that I spoke with throughout the day. Here’s to the next double header weekend of car shows, providing the weather is nice of course.

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Spring Break Kustom Kulture ’24 (part 1)

The second day of car shows was on the Sunday at Stonham Barns, about thirty minutes or so away from me. Dual carriage way for half of it then onto smaller roads. The thing I like about the trip going there and back is the fact that people tend to be in their front gardens watching the cars go past, even getting a wave from the younger spectators. I always try and give a little hoot and wave back, if they made an effort to watch, then it’s only fair. Well that’s the way I see it anyway.

Arriving at the show ground there wasn’t much of queue to get in which made a pleasant change. We were directed into the field rather than go down the usual gravel single track road. I took over three hundred photos and thought I would again split the show into two parts. The marshal asked me if I wanted to go in the main arena or park outside, the main arena was calling me. There was a space on the far side where I was asked to park between a Chevy Truck and and a Stingray. The funny thing was the Stingray was also sandwiched between my first gen Mustang and a newer Mustang.

The show was getting busy due to the nice weather, for a change I was really pleased with the show turn out as there was quite a few cars I hadn’t seen before, hence the large amount of photos. The sun was out, the chair was out and so was the factor fifty sun cream.

After the car had its mandatory quick detailer wipe over, I went for a walk working clockwise around the arena and then up and down the lines of cars outside. I will group the Mustangs together in part 2 of the posts for the show as there was a few of them which was nice to see.

The ‘Hulk’ Ford van below had green perspex all round. I ‘m not sure how they drove it, but when it drove in, it was loud and had drag tyres and anti-wheelie bars!

Around the outside there was some stalls and people selling some stuff by their cars.

Around the outside there was a few rows of cars on the one side of the walkway and a single row next to the main arena.

I’m not sure if this is a genuine race car or not, but it looked a bit of mixture to me with most of it stripped out and a bit of a roll cage. Perhaps somebody could enlighten me on this one.

I was about half way around the show with the cars I have captured here. There was an exhibition tent at the top of field which I will be bringing in part two as well.

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West And Loud 2024

The first car show of the weekend was held at West Suffolk College in Bury St Edmunds, about ten miles away from me. The weather was going to be perfect for me, temperature was low to mid twenties with light cloud cover, according to my app of course. I was looking forward to a car show on a Saturday as well as on a Sunday. The added bonus that I got out of doing some gardening that my wife had got lined up for me. I did sort of feel guilty, for all of about thirty seconds until I started the car up that is.

Cars had to be in place by nine thirty ready for ten when the public was allowed in. I got there about five minutes before the so called cut of point. However, I needn’t of worried as cars were still arriving well after ten. The Bury Retro Car Club had reserved a number of spaces so parking was guaranteed.

I had attended this show a few years back, but hadn’t been since due to the lack of variation of cars. This is a show that was to have a bit of everything; trucks, rat rods, hot rods, low riders, new cars and a few year old cars. I started from one end of the large car park to the other.

There was a stand from the college who participate in motor racing who support mental health and wellbeing called ‘Driven Minds’ which is a great cause, click here for their link. Alongside them was an ambulance stand that was doing well with the younger children being allowed to turn the sirens on every so often. I thought I had taken a photo of them, but I must have deleted it while reviewing the pics, my bad! The show was called ‘West and Loud’, but the flyers were shown as ‘We stand Loud’, a clever way to move a couple of letters to make the title read something meaningful, see the top left below pic.

The lower part of the car park was pretty much your every day daily driver cars and not much to report there, go to any supermarket and you will see plenty of them. There was a couple of rare cars mixed in among them, such as the patina brown Granada, Capri and the Rover SDI.

This Nissan import model I have never seen before.

Towards the main entrance was an area where the Japanese cars were lurking.

There was area for some motorbikes and one had some stunning artwork painted on it.

I got back to the club stand where just a few meters away was the BBQ stall now in full smoke mode selling all sorts of fantastic smelling foods. Temptation was very strong.

Sadly not as many of the club members turned up as expected.

There was a couple more cars still turning up whilst on my walk about.

The show was scheduled to finish at two in the afternoon, about half hour before that the majority of cars started to leave. The journey home was via a petrol station, leisurely and thoroughly enjoyable, apart from the open wallet surgery performed after filling up. The car was parked straight into the garage and left uncovered as it would be out again early in the morning for the next show.

All in all, a good show with some nice cars that I hadn’t seen before. I had some great conversations with some lovely people, and even let a few people sit in my car too.

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Kersey Mill Drive It Day ’24 (part 2)

Welcome to part 2 of the Kersey Mill Drive It day. I pick up where I left of with the other side of the field which was to the left of the main entrance road as you come in. I can’t think of a better way to start than a picture of the glorious GT40. Obviously not a real one, as this vehicle was first registered in 1937 according to my app(?), but had its first MOT in 2005. Nevertheless a gorgeous car to look at.

The cars were still arriving throughout the day with much more common cars looking to park up, (more on that a bit later), but the influx slowed around the lunch time mark.

Ouch!

The mandatory Mustang’s own little section:

Towards the main house and the Mill, more cars were parked up including this stunning old black and white paint job Rolls Royce.

I had completed a full circuit of the field or zone areas and I was back to my area again.

As I got closer to my car I could see that this Vauxhall Astra had parked right next to me.

Perhaps I’m being a bit picky here, but there was plenty of space elsewhere in the zone it could have parked. It hadn’t even cleaned and it sort of hacked me off a bit. On the other hand, it must be somebody’s pride and joy.

I got my chair out and the sun made a quick appearance, so I opened the hood and tucked into my packed lunch which was rather sad and no competition for the burger van.

There were a few light gusts of wind about, so I played on the side of caution and fitted the hood strap to stop any such sudden gusts damaging the hood hinges and got the show board out too.

While sitting in my chair a couple of model steam engines parked up and I went over to take some pics of the popular miniature engines. The attention to detail and engineering is mazing.

There were plenty of dogs I saw throughout the day and I managed to get a quick pet with some them. All of the dogs were very well behaved, which wouldn’t have been the case if I had of taken my little guys there!

Later that evening after I got home a friend of mine (thanks Frosty), sent me a link that they had found where a photographer had taken a couple of pics of my car. I’m sure that ‘Curtis Beadle Photography’ won’t mind If i give them a shout out.

I had a great time speaking to many people throughout the day and again I really enjoyed this show. Many cars that I hadn’t seen before so it made for it an interesting day too. Did I use the sun cream? Nope, I had my fleece jacket on instead as it mostly overcast and a bit chilly with the sun behind clouds. I can’t complain as it didn’t rain.

There is a break until the next show, so I will be posting up a little mod I made on the car as well as some detailing product reviews too.

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Kersey Mill Drive It Day ’24 (part 1)

For the second weekend on the bounce I was going to a car show. The weather looked promising, although I tempted fate to pack the sun cream I was under no illusion it would be needed. But the outlook was dry with odd sunny spell, for me that would be good enough. I took over well over two hundred and fifty photos again so I will split over two posts.

The drive there took forty minutes, fifteen of which were caused by double parking where cars going in opposite directions had to play chicken head on. The road is a single lane each way with lots of houses on either side. Most people park on one side so that cars could at least pass. One one person decided they wanted to park opposite so it was carnage to get through. A couple of hundred meters in fifteen minutes didn’t put me in a good mood. Note to self – go home a different way!

I parked up and put out this quick Instagram pick for people to come and say hello.

I was really pleased with the position that was on the end of a row.

I arrive at the event and was direct to a zone which was near the burger van. As I had skipped breakfast the smell of bacon and sausage rolls immediately made me hungry. I resisted temptation but it was hard, very hard.

I decided to go for a wander straight away as many of the cars had already parked up. I made my way to the furthest field and worked towards the entrance.

There was a full sized traction engine that was coming up to full steam and the smell of these machines is amazing; coal, steam and warm oil on hot metal. I suspect it’s an acquired taste though.

There was a little are for genuine vehicles used in TV series. The light blue Ford Anglia Police car was in the series ‘Heartbeat’ which was a very popular show in the UK.

Moving to the next area was a big stand of the much loved Mini with more arriving.

Moving away from the fields there was a large gravel area where a vast array of cars were parked up.

As I got to the end of the parking are a poster car from many child’s bedroom wall turned up. The beautiful Lamborghini Countach. My poster was of a white one by the way.

Walking around the corner the other zones were filled with cars and a idyllic little path to those fields.

In part 2 I finish the rest of the field and the field opposite where a friend of mine had already parked up. There will be a little section of some of the dogs that managed to capture from my wanderings.

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Rougham Tower Car Show 2024 (part 2)

Welcome back to the second part of the car show. I finished the last post (part 1), by saying there was a second hut, this one had a monstrous looking gun outside.

Inside were more mock ups of workshops, bunks and medical areas from the war, along with some displays of equipment and some empty ammunition shells.

There was section dedicated to the medical corp. which was represented by a lovely guy called Dan.

Dan took time out to explain to me the guns and the rounds they fired. He was standing next to central table with lots of weapons standing up on end for display. He even let me hold the big Bren (light) machine gun, top right below. Let me tell you there is nothing light about it. It was awkward to hold as one hand had to be underneath quite far forward of the magazine as the empty cases were ejected from the bottom. I can only image what it must have been like to be cold, wet, being shot at, tired, hungry and then lug this monstrous gun about! Thanks to Dan for his time and sharing the wealth of knowledge.

Outside the cars were pretty much all in place now and the turn out was looking very good.

I had parked by a memorial which had plenty of plaques dedicated to the fallen crews and airmen.

The cars were scattered around beside the tower;

Around the back of the tower there was a nice selection of cars.

Around the other side of the tower there was more displayed equipment outside.

Full circle again to back out the front of the tower there were some tents were the dressed up[ army guys were staying.

Just behind the tents was a another more modern hut, through the door and turn right takes you to the tearoom.

Turn right through the main door you walk into a ‘members only library’ leading onto an office.

The office where time had stood still.

After such an interesting walk around I wandered back to the car, all of about thirty seconds and got my chair out to have something to eat and watch the world walk by.

Around two there was a training exercise where the German army guys walked through the courtyard to the fields. They had two groups where one group fired (blanks) cover rounds while the others moved up, then they swapped making their way across the field.

Once they had finished they spend some time in the bushes doing what ever they do. I sat back down and listened to the haunting and intimidating sound of a dozen German soldiers with their hob nailed boots on marching back to their trench and tents.

I tried to imagine what it must have sounded like with a whole platoon marching down a road, it must have put the fear of God into many.

It was a great day, nice weather and great to catch up with friends again. The question was; did I use the sun cream? No, but I did put a fleece jacket on even though the sun was out. The wind chill was whipping around the open spaces, but it was refreshing to be in the open and in the sun at the same time.

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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.