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.
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.
Over the course of the winter my pride and joy is tucked up in the garage with the dehumidifier and temperature controlled garage, which is vitally important. To supplement the car’s cosy environment is the next most important thing, the trickle charge to the battery. Couple of reasons being it keeps the battery at an optimum level and prolongs the life of the battery. I use the CTEK mxs5 which has served me well for the last eight years 24/7 and I haven’t had any problems, until now. The wall mounted charger showed that all was good and the unit was on the maintenance cycle as expected when I popped into the garage to check up and have a day messing around in there.
A couple of months or so ago I went to the garage and noticed that the unit’s quick connection (which has a traffic light set of LEDs) was flashing red, this is a visual sign of low power in the car’s battery. I just put it down to a recent power cut during a storm which had messed up the maintenance charge process. I reset the charger and the process started up again, and I thought no more of it. I went back in a couple of weeks ago and all looked OK. Something told me to check the battery level, I got in the car turned the ignition on and the volt meter was showing just over 11 volts not the 12.5 volts that should have been available. Those that know these old cars are aware that there is an ‘Ammeter’ not a volt meter in the instrument cluster. I didn’t like the idea of a direct battery feed going to the dash, it didn’t tell you a great deal either as they either didn’t work or just in the middle of the gauge. Safety in mind I swapped out the Ammeter for a volt meter which I made on my own. (If you want to know how I swapped the stock Ammeter to a modern voltmeter that also still looks stock, click here.)
I tried to turn the car over which was rather slow, but eventually she fired up before what seemed like an eternity of ever slowing turn overs until I reckon the last but one revolution of the starter motor managed to fire the car into life.
I ran the car for a few minutes to get a little power charge into the battery while I finished up what I was doing in the garage. After shutting the car down and reconnecting the charger back up, I closed up the garage and wandered back into the house where I assumed the horizontal position on the sofa to start researching the issue. I found a forum where it seems there is a generic failure where these units show the maintenance cycle, but it’s not actually trickle charging the battery, so the battery runs low. I got into some heavy reading looking for the replacement, and to see if anything new was on the market since I bought that last one. I have previously given the CTEK unit 10 out of 10 and after (nearly) nine years it’s still a deserved score, and they still make them. With that in mind I was certain that I was going to do a like for like CTEK swap out, but another brand ‘NOCO’ caught my eye. I did the usual comparison, review readings and there was virtually nothing in it between the two manufacturers for the price and functions. So I ordered the NOCO for one reason only. I have also reviewed the NOCO Genius 5 here or cut and paste this link to read it:
“Thermal Comparison: the new integrated thermal sensor automatically monitors and adjusts the charging cycle based on fluctuations of ambient temperature, limiting the chance of under-charging or over-charging, providing a more accurate and fully charged battery. Avoids under-charging in cold weather down to -4F and avoids over-charging in hot weather up to 104F.”
My garage can get hot sometimes in the summer, so this ‘Thermal Comparison’ for me was the winning function, just pipping the CTEK. To replace the CTEX with the same model would have been literally five minutes, going to another supplier was something I knew would take a little bit of time to get it nice and neat under the hood, back to how I wanted it, out of sight out of mind.
The NOCO doesn’t look as fancy as the CTEK, but it’s function for me at the end of the day, I don’t have to look at it all the time, so it’s not really an issue or is it?
Once unpacked there is a rubbish bracket that clips to the NOCO and is held in place by a rather tacky looking velcro strap. You have to thread the strap under the unit into the bracket’s loop all of which is a bit cumbersome. Perhaps it’s a quick release, but it would have been nice to have a wall mount without the velcro. For £80 I would have wanted something a little nicer looking to be honest. When I walk into the garage and see it, it just bugs me. Surely it would have been cheaper for a slightly longer bit of plastic for the all mount, than to make and brand a bit of velcro.
The cable length under the hood wasn’t long enough, so I had to cut the wires and splice a longer cable in (same amp rating), so that I could route the cable where I wanted it to be out of sight but also easy access at the front of the car once in the garage. This supposedly half hour swap of charger took me about three hours by the time I took the car battery out, remade the cable, re-routed the cable, cleaned the area thoroughly, reinstalled the car battery and clamp, mounted the unit on the wall and cleaned up.
So far the new unit looks to be doing it’s thing as I would expect. However, I did notice that the maintenance cycle (slow green pulse LED) took a while to initiate as I suspect the charger was stabilising the battery from what it had been left with from the CTEK.
The one function I’m missing though is the LED lights on the CTEK connector. This was a simple traffic light idea for the status of the battery charge.
It’s not the end of the world of course, but a rather nice to have which I think NOCO should investigate for an option accessory purchase, I’m happy to test and review the item if you are reading this NOCO. I’m yet to decide on the final position of the new charger, so it’s not the neatest of fittings I have done. But for now it will serve a purpose until I can fully trust the new charger.
It wont be long now before the first car show is ready, so I will need to get the car out, fill it up with fuel and give it the de-winterising of the products I applied for protection. That usually takes me about a day all in. Hopefully I will be a little more regular with the posts again once the car shows start.
I have more reviews to add so look out for those too. I can’t wait to get my car out and go for a drive.
The first post of the new year and it regards a little project that kept me busy over the holidays which is detailed below. But first, over the last couple of weeks I am yet again having issues with Facebook – my Nemesis. I created a second business page which is a couple of years old now, as my original page was hacked. That page is still up, but I can’t access it because they have blocked ME from it. The replacement page has NOTHING on it that differs from the original, apart from the heading picture and email address. The one man and his mustang Facebook page is only there for an exposure on Social Media – that’s it.
I have challenged Facebook about their decision and I’m waiting to see what utter garbage they come back with.
If they decide to uphold their ‘decision’ then they can go and do one. I will remove myself from Facebook as an individual as well. When I actually think about it – what does the platform do for me? Honestly, nothing. I just shows me what other people are posting. I hardly get any referrals to this website as a result, so I don’t need to be on it. Besides, I’m not that interested in seeing what people are eating, where they just checked into or what they just liked by somebody else. It would be nice to keep it running, but I’m certainly not going to miss it.
Rant over and apologies, but Facebook really does wind me up.
Back to sensible stuff now, what I got up to wasn’t much so I decided to pad it out a little with some hopefully useful information.
The key to an engines performance is the air fuel mixture. To much fuel and the engine runs ‘rich’. Not enough fuel and the engine runs ‘lean’. There are various things that can cause these problems, so I will try to highlight the symptoms of each. There are many sensors on new cars that can become faulty all of which will give the same symptoms. I will focus on the classic car scenario of a carburettor, as you don’t need a degree in computer science to tune an engine with a laptop on these cars. Instead you need to understand the dark art of engine tuning with a carburettor, screw driver, a good ear and how the car feels when driving. Of the two scenarios a rich running engine better than a lean running engine.
A ‘Rich’ running engine.
Possible causes; a clogged air filter will not allow sufficient air to get through to the carb. this will result in poor engine performance and leaving extra unburnt fuel behind. As the air filter can become clogged over time, the subtle loss of power may not be noticeable at first. Mixture levels on the carburettor need adjusting. Quality of fuel not burning correctly. The carb jets becoming clogged due to debris in the fuel or maybe the choke not opening fully.
The symptoms of a rich engine:
Smell: One of the common symptoms of a rich engine is a strong smell of fuel as the unburn gas is left lingering in the exhaust pipe(s).
Poor engine performance:this could be a series of problems which could be lean vs rich spark plug, ineffective combustion chamber, or inappropriate air-fuel mixture. If the compression and spark plugs are fine, then the problem is surely an inadequate air-fuel mixture.
Engine rough idling: improper air-fuel mixture could be responsible for engine stalling and vibrations. Rough idling indicates the engine running rich.
Less mileage: if you keep getting less fuel mileage on your vehicle regularly, it shows your engine is running rich and burning a higher amount of fuel.
Fouled spark plugs: when your engine is running rich, there will be black carbon deposits on the lower edge of the spark plugs, leading to low engine performance. It is an indication of unburnt fuel in the exhaust pipe.
Dangers of a rich fuel mixture.
Running excessive fuel into the cylinders is ‘bore wash’. This is where the fuel washes the lubrication from the chambers. You will notice increase use of oil. This can cause excessive wear on the pistons and cylinder walls.
This is bore wash is more common where an oversized carb is pumping in two much fuel to burn efficiently. The calculation for the correct sized carburettor to be used is as follows:
The engine size is the displacement in cubic inches.
The max RPM is the maximum speed of the engine in revolutions per minute.
The efficiency is the volumetric efficiency of the motor. Most engines have a volumetric efficiency of about 85%, or .85. It’s common to see standard engine efficiency values of 70-80%. Race engines can be 95-110% efficient.
So for a good engine you can use this calculation for this example:
Heat: the engine will tend to run hotter as not much fuel in the chambers. An overheating engine can cause all sorts of problems.
Clogged Fuel filter: Your fuel filter handles all the dirty particles within the fuel. Over time, all the deposits and dirt start building up and preventing adequate fuel passage to the engine. This can be a real issue in classic cars and E10 fuel attacking parts of the fuel delivery system.
Inefficient fuel pump or clogged strainer: lean vs rich engine issues starts from the fuel pump. Not enough fuel is getting into the chambers to be burnt.
Leaking fuel lines: Obviously this cause the engine to run lean as the fuel pump, mechanical or electric can provide enough fuel. Highly dangerous as it could cause a fire that could result loss of vehicle or in the loss of lives.
Vacuum leak: One of the problems happens when unaccounted air enters the system, creating an unbalanced air-fuel mixture.
Trouble starting your car: Many factors can cause your engine not to start as a result of little or no fuel getting into the combustion chamber. That’s why one of the most common symptoms of a lean engine is hard starting.
Poor performance and low power out: If you manage to start your car, you will have low power output and poor performance. Less fuel in the chamber means poor detonation of the mixture which is unable to push the pistons down on the power stroke.
White or Clean spark plugs: when everything is working at the optimum operating level, things get dirty. If you pull out your spark plugs and notice it looks brand new or white, you probably have a problem. there should be an element of dirt on the spark plugs as they are burning a fuel.
Stalling Engine: One of the common symptoms of an engine running lean is keeping it running. In some cases, it’ll continuously cough and splutter until the engine stops. When you’re exporting more gas into the system by accelerating the car, it should keep running easily but with reduced power output.
Dangers of lean fuel mixture.
Heat: As I mentioned before the overheating can cause all sorts of issues like, fluid leaks, burning smells, unexpected engine sounds, cracked engine block, warped cylinder heads, blown head gasket, exhaust damage to name just a few.
Hard seizure: This is where the chambers and pistons have heated up more than the engine can cope with. The Pistons may typically grind against the cylinder walls if you fail to fix the cause. The connecting rod can bend, or the crankshaft arm can snap or bend. The effect is a catastrophic engine failure and will require you to either replace or rebuild the engine.
Soft seize: Similar to the hard seizure which causes a dry spot between the cylinder wall and piston and excessive wear. Even with a correct air-fuel mixture the cylinder and pistons will work fine, but the damages will still be there.
With this in mind I noticed that I was getting a little uneven idling, especially after a sudden stop, which I try and avoid at all costs. I have been noticing the air filter was dirty and decided that perhaps it was time for a new one. I has been on the car for a few years but only done six thousand odd miles, but it was time for new one regardless.
There are arguments that my style of air filter is a restriction to airflow. Many of the higher performance filters are the large round styles, often with a top opening as well. Having a clogged or dirty air filter will make fuel mixtures matters worse. I was speaking to Mustang Maniac and they said to try their ‘Tall’ filters made by S&B. The height is now 2 1/4″ compared to the 1 3/4″ that I previously had. These tall filters are just like the K&N brand which are reusable and washable filters. So the initial outlay is quite a bit more expensive, but in the long run it will be cheaper. Saying that you will need air filter cleaning kit which consists of a cleaner which is flushed out with water. Then once the air filter is fully dried, a spray of air filter oil which will give the filter its ‘redness’ back.
The ‘tall’ filter on the right side by side with the original doesn’t look a like a lot of difference, but the extra half an inch will increase air filters potential air intake.
The material of the S&B filter is a much better quality and again this improve the airflow through the filter itself. A double advantage of more air flow capacity and better air flow throughput. That in turn means a few more horses let out to play when I want them. I may need to slightly tweak the air fuel mixtures but i would need to run the car for a while to find out.
As this is a tall filter you will need to make sure there is room under the hood. If you don’t you will have an air filter knocking the paint and causing a racket. I measured the gap clearance and made sure all was clear. The filter was a tight fit in the air filter casing itself which was a good thing.
Once fitted I really like the look of the filter as a contrast to everything else under the hood.
I hope that helps explain in very simple terms what goes on with air fuel mixtures, and that’s why you need to change your air filters on a regular basis.
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.
With the sun making an occasional appearance towards lunchtime the show was in full swing with many cars parking up expanding the car show area. I wandered towards the main hanger where some swing music was the background throughout the day and was rather nice.
The main hanger has storage carcoons which are atmosphere controlled.
Within the hanger were some projects that could be purchased in various states of ‘project’.
Back to the cars that were around this side of the show area.
Here I hound Marts car of the show, this really nice Lancia Fulvia.
The rest of the cars seemed to be parked up, with a couple of cars being pushed into place as they seemed to have broken down. 🙁
I left at around three as I spotted some dark clouds looming the car show’s way. This photo was taken by Bridge Classics. The car’s colour looks a bit teal coloured, I sort of like it!
About ten minutes after I left the dreaded spots of rain hit the windscreen, I decided to go the longer route home, but would be faster as it was all dual carriageway. The rain stopped as I headed in a Westerly direction, but when the road twisted and turned it was as if I drove back into the rain again. I started to speed up in order to outrun the rain, it was sort of working with the wind buffeting which was drying the car going along. The roads were still dry so there was no spray to deal with. It wasn’t until I was a couple of miles away from home that the rain finally caught up with me. I drove straight into the garage where I dried the car and made sure the dehumidifier was on full pelt to take the moisture out of the air. The warm engine would help keep the garage moisture levels down too. I turned it back to normal a few hours later in the evening. I had almost gotten away with it, if I had of left quarter of an hour earlier I would have maybe missed it. But, then I would have gone the scenic route home and then I would have got rained on regardless. Lets just say that my journey was rather enthusiastic on the way home and a trip to the petrol station is certainly required for the next car show, that’s all I’m saying.
To finish up the rest of my ‘runway’ shoot!
A great show and I would go again for sure. Such a variety of cars without the pop and banging exhaust boys there. I spoke to some amazing people again and I even had an old friend from my old place of work come to say hello too.
Carrying on from last weeks post where I only got halfway round the Feltwell Anglo American Car Show, I will continue with some more great cars. The weather was super sunny with a few clouds coming over later in the afternoon, and made it tricky to take some photos of the cars especially with the polished chrome and glossy paint jobs.
I’m not sure if the Anglo American theme extends to some Japanese fast cars or some German campers that had infiltrated the ranks! However, it was good to see them as they are getting rarer to find.
This Lada was getting some looks, it’s not the best of cars when it was unleashed on the public, but this was different as it was on air ride. He kindly let some kid in the car to bounce the car’s suspension, after a minute or so of some frantic movements there was a large bang and the car slammed down on the rear suspension. It turned out a pipe had broken and was haemorrhaging hydraulic fluid badly. The owner just said “Oh well, Looks like I’m in for bumpy ride home”.
Moving on to the rest of the rows of cars;
These are the longest cars I think I have seen apart from the stretched limos and hearses.
I don’t much about these Rocket 88’s, but it was an amazing car and I would have been happy to drive around in a pink one. Happy to be educated if anybody knows.
Then we come back to the Normal sized cars.
This MG ZT had a Mustang engine in it, but I think the owner was confused if it was an MG or Mustang, it looked a little odd to be honest with the classic Mustang emblems on it.
A nice selection of trikes all parked up with an accompanying Meatloaf sound track, so I stayed there for a couple of great songs.
I loved this Thunderbird, but in this light blue colour it looked like giant Hot Wheels car, or is it my imagination. Cracking car though.
The replica AC Cobra had the hood up and couldn’t wait to see under the hood. I was disappointed as it wasn’t a Ford block. In fact I would liken it opening a copy of Play Boy expecting to see some artistic photos of lovely ladies, only to find pictures of a building site. The disappointment was real, but It did sound nice.
The biggest engine of the day:
After I had looked all around I wandered back to my car for some lunch and get the hood up and assume the position in my chair.
I had a fantastic time and around three o’clock I decided to leave before before the queues started to form. To help with the traffic flow I was direct out a different way to the way I came in, the SatNav complained a bit, but I followed her directions. I’m glad I did because I drove right past the gates where My car would have driven through a few times over the years that she was stationed here with her owner.
The journey wasn’t as scenic as the journey to get to the show, but I will take an open road anytime! The fence on the right is part of the Lakenheath airbase itself.
I arrived home and spent fair amount of time getting the stubborn pollen of the car that had settled on the car while in the field. My hay fever was playing me big time as a result, but it was all worth it for such a good day. I will absolutely make sure I attend this show again. Well run show, great cars and the first show of the season. Will the other shows come close to this one? I hope so.
After last week’s cancelled show I finally got a to one Saturday at Feltwell, which is about eleven miles from the wonderful Thetford Forest which I travelled through to get there. This is the third year for the show of its type, due to the popularity last couple of years, it has been moved to a larger field for a bit more space. I got up to bright sunshine and checked the website and Facebook and nothing anywhere to say it was cancelled. I had a choice of two shows, Fast & Loud which was an afternoon show in centre of Bury St. Edmunds or this Feltwell show about forty miles away. I decided against the Fast & Loud show as the last one I visited was full of two or three year old Ford Focus’ that have had eBay spending spree for go faster parts. Invariably the obligatory sound system with a sub the size of dustbin lid and an exhaust made out of the dustbin itself. All fitted to make them sound the ‘part’ with popping and banging to se who can BBQ their balls standing at the back of the cars! Not my scene all that, so it was a no brainer to take the drive through the beautiful Thetford Forest. On the other hand, if there was nothing else on and it was a nice day – I would have gone as it was only for three hours.
I loaded the car up and and travelled out the bottom of our village to join onto the A14 for the first part of the journey. I joined the dual carriageway just in front of a light blue ’67 Fastback. We travelled in convoy for a number of miles where I turned of to go the scenic route to the show, and because my SatNav told me to turn off.
After around twenty minutes I got to the edges of Thetford and rescued some images from the dash cam. Nothing in front of me, nothing behind me and I just cruised along at a gentle 50mph with the window down. so far this has been one of my favourite drives to any car show yet. Stunning.
Just short of an hour I arrived at the show, marshals efficiently directing the show cars onto the field, and visitor cars into the parking area.
I ended up parking near a Corvette and then a group of newer Mustangs pulled up next to me all in a line.
The thing with this show was I had to drive past Lakenheath air base. This is where the owner of my car bought if over from the states in the first place. When he finished his tours he left it here for somebody to buy, neglect it until I bought it.
My car had come home to its old stomping grounds!
This area has many airbases nearby and lots of USA spec cars owned by service men and women, turned up for the show. I got the cleaning stuff out and gave the car a quick wipe over to get the road dust of the car. By the time I had finished the car that were going to turn were here as we had to be in place by quarter to ten. I ended up taking the best part of two hundred and fifty photos on the day so I decided to split the post into two. The photos started at the front run and I worked my way towards the back of the field.
There are some more amazing cars to come in part 2’s post. The best part of this show? apart from there being lots of Mustangs, there were so many cars that I hadn’t seen before so I managed to spend lots of time looking around them.
There has been mumblings of this ‘new’ type of camera being trialed on the UK’s streets since June 2019 when it was first published by the Department Of Transport’s website. So what is it exactly and how will affect the glorious engine note of a classic v8? First we need to look at the reasons behind the noise cameras.
A note on the information that I have found from many different sources. Depending on where you look and what you read the noise level limits are all over the place. Some say 80db others say 72 to 80, one even says 68db. So the lack of documented consistency is worrying.
Why are they being introduced?
The reason it seems is for anti-social behaviour of the typical stereo typical boy (or girl) racers who enjoy the loud exhaust note or the much sort after pop and bang of revving, and if you’re unlucky a flame to cremate your front bumper if you are behind them.
From what I have found out, the actual legal noise limit for road cars is 74 decibels – the equivalent noise of a vacuum cleaner at full pelt or a chain saw.
For non-compliance, it can lead to a £50 on-the-spot fine or as much as £1000, that’s worrying differences. Persistent offenders in ‘extreme cases’ could have their vehicle seized.
Where are they?
Postcode lottery for the initial trials by the looks of it. The scheme is backed by a £300,000 government investment towards efforts to tackle the “social cost” of noise pollution which is estimated to be £10bn annually. (Where do they get these figures from?) Great Yarmouth was chosen to be included in the scheme as ‘Boy racers’ have congregated at Great Yarmouth’s Golden Mile for decades with drivers showing off their souped-up engines into the early hours.
Other locations are Bradford (from October this year), Bristol and Birmingham following along after a competition launched in April. The locations for the new cameras was decided based upon the impact to locals from illegal noisy vehicles, after MPs across the country applied for the cameras to be set up in their area.
I suspect that they will start popping up all over the place soon, maybe portable versions ones for car cruises and car shows?
How do noise cameras work?
The new technology uses a video camera and several microphones which can accurately pinpoint excessively noisy vehicles as they pass by. When the camera hears a vehicle making a noise of 80db, it takes a picture and records the noise level to create a digital package of evidence.
This will then be used to issue a fine — much like a regular traffic camera would for a speeding ticket. An earlier trial in Chelsea in London – a magnet for supercars – saw more than 130 drivers fall foul of the limits in the first 11 days.
What do they look like?
There are varying designs that are getting more sophisticated as time goes on. Some virtually hidden and other more traditional looking. However, unlike the speeding cameras that need to show warning signs and the speed cameras themselves have to be visible usually being marked in yellow, these sound cameras by the looks of it don’t need to follow those rules.
Or you could get something like this that could be slapped on the side of a road in minutes and looks super safe – NOT! Now I’m pretty sure a friendly lorry driver on a narrow road like this one, could cause enough draft to knock it over if they got close to it, and that would be a real shame I’m sure.
I have done a few searches for some ‘official’ signs and there aren’t any I could find, the only pics I did find are these below and I suspect they aren’t official either.
CurrentUK MOT Rules
In the UK vehicles older than three years must pass an annual MOT test in order to inspect the roadworthiness of a car or motorcycle. When a vehicle fails an MOT, it is prohibited from being driven on the public highway, other than to or from the test center if appropriate, until the defect is corrected. The testing consists of the following:
The exhaust system is examined visually for any defects during the MOT test, such as holes in the pipes. Although this is an inspection that is undertaken mainly for safety reasons, it does identify exhaust systems that may be producing excessive noise due to poor maintenance or simply an old exhaust.
A subjective assessment is also made as to the effectiveness of the silencer in reducing exhaust noise to a level considered to be average for the vehicle.
I personally want to know who decides this ‘average’ limit and what experience do they have to determine that!
Powers
Police Reform Act 2002 and Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 gives the police powers to stop, seize and remove a vehicle if they have reasonable ground for believing that the motor vehicle is being used on any occasion in a manner which constitutes careless and inconsiderate driving (as defined by the Road Traffic Act 1988 [18]) or which is causing, or likely to cause, alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. Section 60 allows the relevant Secretary of State to make regulations relating to the removal, retention, release or disposal of motor vehicles seized in accordance with Section 59. Following the amendment in Part 1 of Schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002 (powers of community support officers), Schedule 10 “Powers of Community Support Officers” outlined in Chapter 12 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 has been modified to provide authorised officers with additional powers to issue a fixed penalty notice under Section 42 of that Act of contravening or failing to comply with a construction or use requirement about the use on a road of a motor vehicle in a way that causes excessive noise.
What are the limits?
There are two parts to this ‘report’ the first being 103 pages from 2019 and part two 70 pages from 2020. A lot of this documentation is technobabble and technicalities. I have better things to do than read all of it thoroughly, so I tried to pick out a couple of relevant parts. But, as the DfT hasn’t updated their pages, all I can do is show what they have. The final report looks to be two years old already with more ‘trials’ taking place from April this year. I haven’t seen any ‘trials’ being removed when it comes to motorists, have you? these are the full documents if you are having trouble sleeping;
Regulation (EU) 540/2014 The noise levels accepted for vehicle type approval are set out in Regulation (EU) 540/2014 [2] for motor vehicles and Regulation (EU) 168/2013 [3] for motorcycles. Regulation (EU) 540/2014 which repeals European Directive 70/157/EEC [4], outlines limits on the sound levels from road vehicle and gives more representative procedures for measuring sound levels from exhaust systems and silencers. These limits have been tightened through several amendments. Limit values for eight types of passenger and goods vehicles range from 72 dB(A) to 80 dB(A). These limits are expected to be again tightened over 10 years. By 2026 the limit for most new passenger cars is expected to be 68 dB(A) [5].
Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 [9], also made under the Road Traffic Act 1972 (as amended) [8], aim to ensure that vehicles used in the UK are built to a high standard. These Regulations are also used to implement EU Directives. The following regulations address noise emission controls on road vehicles:
Regulation 54 requires equipment such as silencers not to be altered in such way that the noise is greater than when it was first manufactured. Replacement silencers for mopeds and motorcycles
must comply with certain noise requirements which effectively imply there is no increase in noise
emissions compared with the original silencer. In addition, no increase in noise must be caused by
poor maintenance.
Regulation 55 (for cars) and Regulation 57 (for motorcycles) require new vehicles to be controlled by type approval limits.
Regulation 97 requires avoidance of excessive noise which includes the behaviour of the driver in operating the vehicle including the use of audible warning systems.
There are certain tests that can be performed, stationary or accelerating.
Category M vehicles are ‘Passenger vehicles’, category N vehicles are ‘goods vehicles’.
ISO 362-1:2015 – Measurement of noise emitted by accelerating road vehicles – engineering method. Part 1: M and N categories ISO 362-1:2015 [11] specifies a method for measuring the noise emitted by road vehicles under typical urban traffic conditions. The test aims to approximate real world part throttle vehicle operation with a weighted average of a wide open throttle test at a target acceleration with a constant speed test. To achieve stable and repeatable test conditions, the procedure requires a Wide Open Throttle (WOT) test and a constant speed test. The WOT test specifies that a target acceleration be achieved. The gear selection for this test is determined by the target acceleration. The constant speed test is undertaken at 50 km/h. These tests are then combined in a weighted average which is a function of the actual acceleration achieved in the WOT test and the Power-to-Mass Ratio. The test track construction and road surface are required to meet the requirements of ISO 10844:2014 [17].
ISO 5130:2007+A1:2012 – Acoustics – Measurements of sound pressure level emitted by stationary road vehicles ISO 5130:2007+A1:2012 [13] specifies a test procedure for measuring the noise level from road vehicles under stationary conditions. The test method essentially involves holding the vehicle at a set engine speed and measuring the noise level when the throttle is released. The microphone is positioned 0.5m from the exhaust outlet. As specifically stated by the Standard, this procedure is not intended as either a method to check the exhaust sound pressure level when the engine is operated at realistic loads nor a method to check the exhaust sound pressure levels against a general noise limit for categories of road vehicles. ISO 10844.
75% of the rated engine speed, where the rated engine speed is ≤ 5,000 RPM
3,750 RPM for a rated engine speed 5,000 – 7,500 RPM
50% of the rated engine speed, where the rated engine speed is ≥ 7,500 RPM
It all gets very technical, but to break it down; somebody sets up a sound meter to listen to the noise of the exhaust. At some points these guides even go on to mention the use of “mobile phone apps”, I kid you not. Can you imagine some jobs worth police saying “according to my iPhone 11, your car is loud”. Yeah like that’s gonna hold up in court. Even the report goes on to say that the apps are inaccurate!
Simple Answer For Our Classics….
Most vehicles, including imports and classics aged over 10 years, will not need vehicle approval. Therefore, however loud your classic car or motorcycle is when idling or driving sensibly, it shouldn’t be a cause for concern in areas that feature noise cameras.
A ‘Classic Car’ definition according to Wikipedia;
A classic car is anolder car, typically 25 years or older, though definitions vary. The common theme is of an older car of historical interest to be collectible and tend to be restored rather than scrapped.
So from what I can make out, a 10 year old Honda civic worth £2000 with a frying pan sized exhaust bolted on it is not a classic, sorry.
My Opinion (for what it’s worth)
All this as far as I can see is pointless, the types of people (boy or girl racers) who have these types of exhausts are mostly over ten years old. So somebody in a beautiful Skyline R32 with an exhaust you climb into doesn’t have to worry either.
If you have a hotrod with straight pipes – that seems to be OK as well.
The point is where these police “powers” come into play could be subjective. On one hand stop the noise, but a car over ten years old is fine, as it’s a ‘classic’. So if you have a nicely tuned, Charger, Plymouth, Chevy, Mustang, a blown v8, turbo Porsche or some other classic American muscle, is the police going to know what the car should sound like or not? Cars over forty years old don’t even need an MOT, so they wouldn’t be pulled up on it then either. There are very strong chances that the car in question is older than the person trying to gauge how noisy it is. The contradiction of it’s over ten years old verses it’s ‘too loud’ is a joke.
The only people this legislation will effect will be the new Super or Hyper car owners like a Ferrari, Pagani, Lambo, Aston Martin etc. These cars come from the factory with loud ‘performance’ exhausts as standard because that is what the car needs. Perhaps restricting the noise from the factory in that case would be the answer? Good luck with that at the manufacturers. The owners buy the cars like that and then you fine them for buying that car often without any modifications being made. Besides, if they did get pulled over and given a £50 fine, will they be bothered? Of course not, that would just be the tip for the valet to park the car for them outside the casino. If they drive like an idiot, then they should get their just rewards, you need to be sensible.
The worst type of culprits are the cheaper boy racer cars made to sound loud and intentionally make noise as if to prove something. This type of ‘upgrade’ is done for no other reason than noise. Then yes – these are the idiots that need the fines, for being stupid. Just because it has a very big exhaust, it does NOT improve performance. Formula 1 cars rarely have an exhaust bigger than 3″.
This post was intended to be a quick one stating that sound cameras are being introduced and to beware of them. But, the more I looked into it, the deeper the rabbit hole went. After hours of reading and research, I came up with this; at the end of the day, people should be considerate with their cars, revving up at two in the morning is unacceptable.
Last Sunday was another sunny day and I was raring to go, the drinks and lunch were packed in no time and the ticket to get in was printed out the night before. Once in the garage I put all my day’s supplies on the slide top tool cart. I put Hedingham Castle waypoint into the satnav and put the cool bag in the trunk. I got in, placed the satnav on the centre console, put my sun glasses on and reversed out. The satnav journey was adjusted for ‘A’ roads not the country backroads that I knew were tight and were going to be very dusty, that would make the journey around six minutes longer. I didn’t care to be honest as I was already enjoying the drive. I was just cruising along without a care in the world until I saw the signs for the castle, and thought to myself best I get the ticket on the dash in order to get in. Nope, I had left it on the tool cart back home in the garage. This could now turn out to be just under an hour drive there for nothing, then the drive back home. Nobody was directing the traffic in with a few from this side of the road then a few from that side etc. it was a free for all. However – we are civilised drivers in classic cars and some were letting others in. I pulled into the entrance gate and there was the slowly moving queue to get in. I frantically looked through my phone to look for the email confirmation I was sent. I eventually found it with the poor signal slowing things up considerably. At the check point the lovely lady marshal asked where the display ticket was. I had explain what had happened and showed her the email. She was great and pointed me to the area to park up.
Hedingham Castle is just outside Colchester in Essex. The castle was built in the 11th Century, so it’s old!
I managed to get a look around the grounds before the main public was allowed in. I don’t know why, but I really like this picture of the row boat tucked under a tree. The mini castle was for the resident ducks that lived on the two tiered lakes.
I was parked up on the lower field this time as I wasn’t part of a car club and had a little glimpse of the castle through the foliage.
I took a walk around the lower field.
Perhaps my favourite ‘Modern Classic’ the mighty Audi Quattro.
Walking up towards the castle the steep driveway cars were parked on the left and right where I was parked last year when it rained all day.
Near the top is a main house which had this amazing steam car parked outside with a diagram of how it worked.
Parked in a little area under just before the bridge was some military vehicles which grabbed some attention throughout the day.
On the upper fields there were the car clubs around the outside.
Around the back of the castle was a bigger open area where more cars were lined up in no particular order.
This camper had an awesome roof rack, From the movie Gladiator, Maximus Decimus Meridius; “Are you not entertained?”
There was some rather tiny little cars that were proving popular.
The we had some red rockets, from Japan the epic NSX, Europe’s Lancia which became the main rival to the Audi Quattro in rallying and some muscle from the USA.
The other side of the castle had some more military vehicles.
After my return back to the car I started speaking to some lovely couples and we chatted the afternoon away. Wonderful people who owned these vehicles, it made for such a nice day.
Not forgettin’ mine which was parked next to that beautiful Cortina 1600E.
Throughout the day I let a few people sit in my car, and a family from Dearborn spent some time chatting to me. thanks to all those that stopped by, I was on verge of losing my voice I was talking so much. Some would say that’s no bad thing though! 🤦♂️
The journey home was awesome, I left about an hour early to avoid the busy leaving time and enjoyed a beautiful ride home. A great day out here when the weather is nice, slightly overcast and warm with some great people too.
