Culford Classic Car Show 2025 (part 1)

One of the biggest car shows in the area is this one held in the private school grounds of Culford boarding school, to give it its full name Rotary Classic Car Show at Culford. It’s located only fifteen miles or so away from me. It’s a nice straight road for most of it with only a couple of miles of back roads. With that in mind, the past it has always been a bit of nightmare to get in with the queues so they have moved the entry times to a very early 6:30 to 8:45, after that you won’t be allowed into the exhibition field, but you will be directed to the public car park. The public were then allowed in from 10am onwards to 15:30 when the show closed. I must be mad, up at 6 on a Sunday morning? Due to the number of cars I have split the show report into two posts sharing just under the four hundred photos I took during the day.

Usually the night before I put on my Galaxy smart watch so I don’t forget it, as a novelty it records the sleep etc. I got into bed late Sunday morning and the dogs were restless with the heat and kept mooching around eventually settling. The alarm did wake me up into a dazed and confused state, I was tired. I got myself ready loaded the cool bag with some niceties for a chocolate rush once I got there. I wouldn’t check my watch for the sleep details until I had taken photos of most of the cars. Here is the picture of the amount of sleep I rustled up from the night before, just a little under three hours, of which two half were light sleep.

Close-up of a smartwatch displaying sleep tracking data, including hours of light and deep sleep, with a blue classic car in the background.

As I arrived at the venue I was asked where I was going to be parking I showed them booking form for the Bury Retro Car Club who had a reserved plot of field for us. The bloke didn’t have a clue and sent me on my way with, “go and see that bloke with the high vis down there”. I drove to him and asked for the car club, he responded with, ” he should know as he has the parking list mate”, promptly followed by “drive to that bloke with the high vis down there”. So I drive to the third bloke who says, “all the club stands are over there, I don’t know why they sent you to me”. Where was he pointing to? Right by the first bloke I spoke too. Now I had to drive back across the field looking like a complete ass to get roughly where I wanted to be. I found the stand and parked up with the rest of the guys already there, the time is now roughly 7:45 and it was warming up. I had a chat with the guys and gave my car a quick wipe over to get rid of the dust from the dry roads in the school grounds.

Front view of a blue 1966 Ford Mustang at a car show, showcasing its chrome grille and headlights.

The big advantage being in so early was that I could wander around to look at the cars without the distraction of the visiting public getting in the way. Having said that, I think many people had the same idea and it was still fairly busy for nine in the morning, especially near the coffee and burger stalls.

A view of the Rotary Classic Car Show at Culford, showcasing a lineup of classic cars parked on a grassy field, with trees and banners in the background under a clear blue sky.

I started by taking some pics of the club stand.

Then a nice gentle wander up and down the lines of cars working left to right across the field.

A view of the Rotary Classic Car Show at Culford, featuring a vibrant lineup of cars including a yellow and a green Abarth, with a historic building and people enjoying the event in the background.

I cam across this 1974 Ford Escort Mk 2 which had under side paint shown via a mirror just as good as the top. A trailer queen, but it didn’t get my vehicle of the show, I will reveal that in part two of this show.

The posh club stands Porsche and Ferrari were well stocked and I will start with those in part two. This was about half way round the field and i took a bit of a break under a line of trees. I did detect a waft and unmistakable smell of some special hand rolled cigarettes made for sharing which would come from Central Asian origin I dare say. I just hope they weren’t the ones driving home! It was hot but just starting to cloud over a bit which made it a bit more bearable wandering around.

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Ringshall Car Show 2025

Last weekend there was an fairly well advertised car show at a little village called Ringshall about twenty minutes away from me. Last time I attended this show it was a bit overcast and a very light drizzle pretty much all the time I was there. This time the weather was so much warmer and clear skies, the sun cream would be needed for sure. Arriving at the field I could see a few cars and a couple of stalls around the edge of the field. The marshals directed me to the far side of the field where I parked up and looked at my watch, wondering if I was so early the other cars hadn’t arrived yet. The show was officially open to the public in half an hour, although the public were already arriving. The show is held in the village hall grounds, inside the village hall itself there was a few craft style stalls which saw a steady stream of people in and out. However not many of those visitors at the event walked towards the cars.

A classic blue Ford Mustang on display at a car show with its hood open, showcasing the engine. Other classic cars are visible in the background on a sunny day.

There was basically one back line of cars and second row in front, about one third of the way along the field. I decided to walk up and down in the glorious sunshine for some pictures, which didn’t take long.

Down the left side of the field there was a a few tractors, and motorbikes.

The rest of the vehicles that were on the next row.

The show had a couple of cars turn up later on and many didn’t stay long. In fact I only stayed a couple of hours myself and left before the midday sun got to hot. I felt sorry for the event organisers as not many cars turned up around, only forty or so. I’m not sure why there wasn’t more cars there on such a nice day. Checking my phone I couldn’t see any other shows on that day in the area. A shame, but I guess not all car shows will be well attended. I only spoke to three people throughout my time there. One of which was a bloke who insisted on telling me what oil, petrol (gasoline for my friends across the pond) and timings I should be using for my car as he told me, “I’m a mechanic you know”. Thanks for the advice mate, but I was to hot and bothered to argue with his rather suspect and poor recommendations.

I enjoyed the drive home where a car took its time to overtake me. The youngster sitting in the back was having a good look and waved to me, I gave him a little hooter back with a big thumbs up which made him smile. For me, that made my day too.

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Chipping Away

The first of June’s car show took me into another county of Norfolk to a little place I had never heard of before, Gissing. According to Google maps it would take me about forty five minutes to get there and thirty one miles away. The difference of miles and time tells me that this was going to be little village roads and not main roads.

I packed my bag, double checking that I had my phone this time, my spare phone was charged and I had a full tank of fuel. Starting the journey there was a cloudy sky, but it was getting brighter as the miles and minutes ticked by. The first three quarters of the trip was main roads and pretty much straight forward and a nice pleasant cruise. A couple of miles out from the venue I was told turn left. The lanes were fairly narrow full of potholes. I rounded a corner into the village called Burston where a complete nightmare was waiting in front of me; the road had just been stone chipped! In the UK the councils can’t be bothered to put a nice tarmac road surface down so they just chuck tons of stone chips and gravel on the road where the cars are left to squash it down. It’s utter laziness from the councils which I dare say is also to save money. I stopped and thought about doing a U-Turn to go back on myself. That wasn’t going to happen as I couldn’t make the turns needed in the narrow lanes, I had to go on.

I dropped the car into low gear and just let it roll forwards on idle tick over. Even that was too fast as I listening to the sound that makes any car guy’s skin crawl, the metallic tinkling of stones bouncing off the underside of the car. I slowed down even more, now I’m literally moving slower than a walking speed. By now there were a couple of other cars joining me wanting to get past. Tough, I wasn’t going to go any faster – end of! After about five minutes or so the road for a residential section widened where I pulled over to the side and stopped to let the other cars behind me past. A U-turn would be possible at this point, but I would have to go back over what I had just come through and not get any closer to the event. The issue then would be the cars going to the show where I would then be going against that traffic, on stones and gravel, on a single track road. This was a loose loose scenario for me.

After the cars past me I took this pic after they roared off, you can just about make out the stones.

View from the hood of a blue car driving on a narrow, stone-chipped country road surrounded by greenery.

Just after this straight bit of road there was a corner to the left. As if things couldn’t get any worse, they were about to, two road sweepers going slower than me. They were brushing the stones about making horrendous dust clouds, I sat well back wondering what to do making up new swear words as I broke out into a cold sweat. I couldn’t sit behind them as stone chips would make the front of my car look like the surface of the moon.

The road did have passing points a little further up due to the narrow roads. My strategy was to time it so that I could speed up a little to pass the sweepers at the wider part and get past them. The only good thing about this scenario was that the first sweeper didn’t have the middle of the road brush working and was just sweeping the the side of the verge. Getting past them I didn’t hear any of the dreaded metallic tinkling, although I would be thoroughly checking at the show.

I reckon this village stretch was just over a mile took me around twenty minutes to navigate, that isn’t an exaggeration either as I could have literally pushed my car faster. Emerging from the village the roads the roads were back to tarmac and pot holes again. Even then it was a gentle increase in speed as I didn’t want stones flying off the tyre treads up onto the paint job. A few minutes later the SatNav announced I had arrived at my destination on the left.

I was directed onto a field to park up trunk first near a fence. I got out and started look around my car. The detailing products were out during the cleaning I paid extra attention to any body damage. There was one tiny little chip which luckily hadn’t gone down to the metal on the headlight door, this will be sorted out when the weather is nice. The cars that were following me in were also moaning big time about the stones. According to one bloke from the village he said that they only put the stones down the day before.

The show was busy and my first time here in Gissing. In fact it got busy enough that some classic cars were parked within the public car parking.

I wandered around my little section of the field.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked in a field during a car show, surrounded by various vintage cars and spectators, with a church in the background under a partly cloudy sky.

Really nice Ford Model T

At the end of the rows of cars I could walk onto the hard standing part of the show, again only a couple of rows of cars.

A crowded classic car show in a field, with attendees walking among vintage cars, under a partly cloudy sky.

My Car of the show was this 1935 Ford Model C Touring.

At the end of the hard standing car park there was a nursery who looked to be having their own car show!

The village hall next to the nursery was selling craft type stuff, plants and some BBQ food. The funny thing about the plants was that they were selling well to the wives who had arrived with their husbands. I heard a couple of ‘discussions’ not quite arguments had taken place once the plants had been taken back to the classic cars where the owners were sitting. One owner was getting quite upset once he heard the words, “It’s just a car” and he didn’t want them in the car because of the dirt, I could see his point to be fair. Now if the husband had bought in a dirty carburettor into the kitchen to be cleaned, I dare say it would have been a similar sort of argument.

Once I had finished walking around I got back to my car where the chair came out ready for some lunch and a long cool drink.

Close-up view of a blue classic car at a car show, showcasing its sleek design and shiny chrome details, with a vintage car visible in the background.

It is worth noting that the field we were told to park up was occupied by sheep previously. Needless to say there was wool and err ‘waste’ all over the field, making a simple walk in the field just a perilous as the drive in to the show, but for different reasons. I didn’t want to be cleaning that stuff out my car once I got home.

A close-up view of a grassy area with scattered bits of white fluff, possibly sheep wool, among the green grass.

It was a well supported show with around hundred and fifty cars at a guess. The best thing about this show was that these were all new cars to me and I didn’t recognise any of them from previous shows. The weather on the day was all over the place with the sun in and out, but at least it didn’t rain.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked at a car show, surrounded by other vintage cars and attendees observing the event.

Before I set of home about an hour before the show was due to end at five, I spoke to one of the marshals and asked him a better way home to avoid the road chippings. I had a nice little tip and checked it out on the SatNav. This route would add about three miles in the opposite direction to start with for the journey home, but it would be worth it to avoid any potential damage from stones. The trip home took me just under an hour and was all main roads once I left the village. Apart from the stone chippings on the way in, I’m glad I went as I got to see some different cars parked up at a show that I hadn’t seen before.

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A Double Spring Break

Today was a promised to be a nice day according to my weather app. I was awoken by two little dogs whom decided they wanted to wander round the garden before the alarm went off. Fortunately it was only five minutes before I was due to get up anyway and saved me from the torturous alarm sound. I could of done without the furry foot on my face though.

I packed the cool bag with plenty of drinks as it was going to be a hot one. I loaded the trunk, got in the car and set of down the road. There was plenty of classics on the road, some going the opposite direction to me, I’m not sure what event that was, perhaps I should have gone to that one if i knew where it was of course. About twenty minutes later, no road works and no hold ups I arrived at Stonham Barns in Suffolk which was advertised as their “Spring Break”. Every Sunday at this location there is a huge car boot sale which is held in a field to the left of the main entrance. A marshal started to direct me into the car boot area, (I’ve experienced this once before at this location). I kept trying to point past her to say I wanted to get into the car show. She eventually let me past and I continued on my way. I was directed to drive into the main arena to park up. To my left was a more modern Mustang and to my right was a General Lee also just parking up next to me.

The gates open to the public at ten o’clock which was in about forty minutes time. I got my detailing products out to wipe of the road dust along with virtually every insect that decided they wanted to splatter themselves on the windscreen, the grill, front valance and number plate. One of the headlights looked like a checker board with the black bugs all over it, the other side was fine with none on it. A good tip to get rid of bugs is to a spray quick detailer on the bugs, allowed it to soak into the bugs in order to soften them up. By the time I had wiped over the upper surfaces of the car. It only took a couple of minutes to wipe them off. In no time, all was soon sparkly clean again.

I had a long cool drink before I set of to take some photos of the cars. There was quite a few cars that I hadn’t seen before, thus quite a few picture on this post like the last post. I wandered around the outside of the main arena before working my way inside to the arena and eventually back to my car.

There was some amazing paint jobs on display and this was the first of them, these black skulls appeared as you walked around the car in the sunlight.

I just loved this Plymouth, no idea what model it is apart from its a ’56. If somebody could let me know it would be great. I couldn’t find the owner as I would have asked them.

Another General Lee was at the show, wit ha closer colour to the TV series cars.

Another great paintjob, nothing fancy simply a beautiful colour such a deep gloss.

Inside the main arena there was an area for motorbikes and trikes.

This bike was simply stunning, the more I looked at it the more fine details I spotted. Just an awesome bit of kit and I loved the shotgun detail. The fuel tank artwork was amazing.

The Chevy Nomad from the last show was here again.

This was my car of the show.

I got talking to the owner of this Buick who told me about the story behind it, where it had been bought by a father for his daughter to go to and from college in it. The flag on the roof was painted free hand with spray cans by a street graffiti artist. The owner treats this car as his daily driver and isn’t afraid to get it wet and drive it. This is a rare rare example as they only made these for one year.

This Ford had a bold paint job perhaps the best in the show for artistic flare.

This van had a black paint job with coloured flames which were so subtle you had to catch the light just right to see them. I think this was the best paint job overall.

There was a few Mustangs at the show, some modern and some classics. I’ve grouped them all together here.

It was a bright sunny day and my Galaxy S24 Ultra coped fairly well with the bright conditions. Some images are bit washed out and some had glare, but I think they looked better for it.

There was a diverse range of cars with a very heavy emphasis on the USA models. The Trucks were really well represented with newer models alongside the old school classics.

I left the show a little early just before three before the Birds of Prey exhibition started as they don’t like you moving cars around at that point, which is understandable. The trip home was good apart from some a-hole in a lorry that pulled across the front of me last minute, only indicating as he was making the manoeuvre, like that was going to help. perhaps I should I mention the lorry was on foreign reg plates. As I overtook him I gave a little wave to show just how displeased I was with his lack of road craft and general lack of situational awareness.

I got home some ten minutes later and gave my car its mandatory quick detailer wipe over before putting it away in the garage. Not only had I been on a Spring break car show, my wife was spring cleaning when I walked in from the garage. Seeing the destruction that the tornado had left in the kitchen, I played it safe and kept well and truly out the way. I usually post a week later after a car show that I had attended, after taking time to edit the stock of photos from the day. This week it’s a rare posting on the same evening of the actual car show. Due to the afore mentioned destruction, I powered up the PC so that could edit my photos for this post.

It was a gloriously hot and sunny day, lots of great cars. Let’s hope the good weather continues.

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Made It

Last Sunday was the second show I had booked up, but this was the first one where I made an appearance. I woke up to a glorious day and packed the factor fifty just in case or was that going to tempt fate and make it rain? I packed it anyway just in case.

I backed out the garage with the SatNav already telling me to go take some back roads. On this occasion these particular roads aren’t to bad and can allow a couple of cars to pass. The roads were clear and I was enjoying myself with window down, knowing that I had a full tank of gas tends to relax you for any journey. Before I knew it two cream coloured Reliant Scimitars pulled out of a side road and caught me up at a fast rate of knots. Not going to be intimidated and ruin my drive I just poodled along. A few miles later they were still behind me. I decided to slow down in order and let them pass and get on with where they were going, but no they also slowed. My logic was they were in no rush either. Some twenty minutes later we all arrived at the Kersey Mill Drive It Day. We pulled into the main entrance where I was greeted by a marshal who directed me to zone four.

This turned out to be a great spot by the stream, under some trees and near a wooden bridge that crossed a little stream into another show field.

I set up my show board as I retired my home made and slightly cumbersome home made wooden design. My knew one is an artists easel with adjustable legs and height adjustments. The cool bag was opened for a refreshing cool drink before I started the quick detailing to remove the road dust of my car. Before I had the chance to get my chair out I was asked to have a look under the hood. Never wasting an opportunity to lift the hood, I obliged.

After a lengthy chat about how to get the windscreen washers to work, it was time to have a wander round and look at the other cars. I walked towards the main field to take some photos where I heard a marshal on the radio saying there was seven hundred cars in attendance. I’m not convinced there was that many, but it was a very busy show however many cars were there.

In no particular order I just wandered around the field looking for some nice cars instead of some four or five year old Porsches , I wouldn’t be disappointed with the variety on show. I took over three hundred photos, but narrowed it down to just over a couple of hundred. The little area where I was parked had a mixture of cars as I wandered towards the tea hut and breakfast van that had a queue and smelled amazing.

Towards the front of the mill there was some of the older cars.

At the back of the mill the large field was also packed out which was also where the little bridge by my car made a short cut.

I came across the two Reliant Scimitars (above right) that followed me in. I walked up to the owners who were sitting in their chairs looking very chilled. I apologised for driving so slowly and explained that I wanted to let them past. They laughed and came with, “No worries, we recognised your car and decided to follow you as you know where you were going”. I had to laugh and confessed, “That’s quite ironic because without my SatNav co-pilot, we would have ended up at the other end of the country, I’m useless at directions”. That is a major understatement, I get lost everywhere, as per the previous week’s aborted episode.

Continuing round the field I bumped into more friends and had some catch up chats about up and coming shows.

The corvette club was out in force.

There was an group of Jaguars and even one made of porcelain.

Continuing around the fields in no particular order.

I came across my car of the show in the main area which was this ’57 Chevy Nomad. I couldn’t believe just how big this car was and I suspect it’s a real handful to hustle around our tiny streets in the UK.

There was a couple of trikes looking amazing and bigger than some of the cars on display.

There was a couple of Lambo Countachs, a proper one:

And this one missing four cylinders!

Over the stream to the next adjacent field.

There was some commercial vehicles which made the short trip from Ipswich Transport Museum with a mate of mine David driving the yellow Karier flat bed.

Just the last field to go.

Not forgetting the few Mustangs that were represented.

Then a short walk back over the main bridge to my parking spot where my deck chair beckoned with some lunch and another cool drink. I didn’t need the factor fifty after all as I was in the shade and spent a few hours in the afternoon talking to people and watching the world go by.

A few dogs were making the best of the stream in the hot weather and it did look quite refreshing for them.

Great views while taking a well earned rest!

After arriving back to my parking area there was a couple of Jeeps now parked up not far away from me. I think my fav photo of the day was taken not even getting out of my chair.

The drive home I took the main roads back as I was expecting the roads to be busier, it did add another 10 minutes to the journey, but it was still a beautiful day and I was enjoying my car again.

The show season has officially started and looking forward to the next ones, weather permitting of course.

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Fill Her Up

Many classic cars of the bygone era of the ’60s & ’70s, not just Mustangs were fitted with a fuel filler pipe that was quite big diameter. The fuel back then was Leaded or Four Star fuels to be pumped through a larger nozzle which filled more of the filler pipe, which makes perfect sense. When pumping was complete, the pump would click off and it was job done. However, with the move to the dreaded ethanol based fuels the filler pipe holes were made smaller along with the pump heads themselves. Fuel pumps from today have the much smaller hole which ensure a snug fit and allow the pump to shut off as you would expect. The problem with classic cars owners now have since this change is that the the large diameter filler pipes still take the smaller pumps which fill at similar rates, but at higher pressure. In turn that when the filling is complete, the fuel should stop the nozzle to avoid over filling, but it more often than not doesn’t. The reason is that pumped gas under pressure can splash back around the smaller nozzles, down sides of the filler pipes and out the top. This invariably results with some splash back out of the filler pipe over the paint job, bumper and if I’m unlucky, me if I happened to be standing in the wrong place. With this in mind I tend to go through some performance of getting a microfibre cloth, laying it over the bumper ready to clean up quickly when I top the tank up. I sometimes get strange looks as to what I’m doing before filling up.

This waste of fuel, smell on your clothes and potential damage to the paint work over time has always been an annoyance to me, but it’s part of the ‘joys’ of owning a classic car. I know many other Mustang owners as well as other manufacturers in fact that suffer from this issue. I just happened to be browsing through a Mustang forum where I spotted a link where somebody had modified the 64 – 70 Mustang filler pipes, a totally random link lead me to a discussion. The filler pipe size was exactly the same as the original, but inside is a simple fitted anti splashback valve. The valve is designed for the unleaded fuel pump nozzles sizes of today 13/16″ and should stop the splashback problem.

After a bit more research I got in touch with the guy and ordered one. A couple of weeks later it arrived and got round to fitting it as the sun came out over the weekend. Below shows the inside of the filler pipe with the anti splash back valve.

I have created a full step by step fitting guide for the filler neck here, but I have shown the basics steps of fitting it below.

This is an exact replacement for the standard filler pipe. The only minor difference is the bottom of the filler pipe has a slightly ribbed bottom which should aid in sealing of the hose to the pipe.

The only difference as i mentioned is the internal fuel valve. The definition of fuel ‘valve’ is a piece of sprung metal behind the reduced filler neck size opening. There are a couple of breather holes as well, two at the top and one where the bottom of the flap finishes almost at the bottom of the filler opening. The inner valve is held in place with a few dimples and a bit of JB Weld.

Roll the trunk mat out of the way to expose the top of the fuel tank. I have a a sound deadening mat on top of my polished tank which is semi stuck down. Remove the fuel cap, if you have the security version like mine there is a threaded bolt that goes through the filler panel and held in place by a nylon nut. Undo the nut and remove the security wire and the cap.

There will be four bolts around the outside of the flange which will need to be removed.

Inside the trunk there is a rubber hose clamped in place by two wire fittings. It’s easier to undo both the top and bottom clamps. Either the fuel pipe needs to come out of the rubber hose. Or pull the rubber hose up of the neck of the fuel tank itself. Either way is fine, you just need to remove the pipe from the hose.

In my case the hose came off the tank first. With the fuel pipe now free, remove the hose from the pipe otherwise the filler will not go through the panel as the opening is fairly snug.

Fully remove the pipe along with the cork gasket from the rear panel. Be careful not to let anything full into the open top of the fuel tank, I placed my fuel cap over the opening to prevent anything falling in it.

With the pipe removed I cleaned and applied a long lasting wax to the paint before i added the cork gaskets back on. You only need one gasket, but I like two, as it helps with the alignment of the filler pipe and also gives a little more protection of metal filler pipe flange to the paint.

Add the gasket(s) on the pipe before before feeding the pipe through the rear panel.

With the pipe through the panel it’s easier to fit the hose to the pipe by turning it ninety degrees. Then turn the pipe back round to the correct position and then you can simply press down the hose to the fuel tank opening neck.

With the hose now in place we can add the screws to hold the pipe’s flange to the panel. I started by adding the anti theft bolt through the gaskets and the panel. Add the washer to the front side of the flange, then the second washer inside and finally the nylon lock nut on the inside. Don’t tighten anything up just yet.

Next arrange the clamps how they should be on the rubber hose. When I first fitted the filler pipe and the hose I had the clamps on the inside of the trunk, this mean that things like cloths would catch the bolts. See below right hand photo. I never changed their position until now. The clamps should be between filler pipe and the rear panel so they are out of the way. Left and middle photos below. Lightly tighten the clamps just to hold them in place for now.

Align the gasket(s) up to the holes and add the rest of the screws to the flange and gently tighten up to allow for final adjustments.

With the screws in place start to tighten them up and the bolt for the security wire. Ensure the security wire is aligned with the outer part of the flange, or you won’t be able to fit the cap back back on. Tightening of the bolts or screws will pull the pipe into position on the panel. Now go back to the hose clamps and fully tighten them both up as the rubber will take the difference of alignment up. Recheck all bolts are tight.

The filler pipe was a like for like swap, but now I have little more bling under the trunk with the nickel plating looking great.

From the outside there is no difference to see. But, on the inside there is something (in theory) to stop me getting my regular splashback on fill up. Once I have taken the car for the next fill up I will give the results if the splashback is cured with this little project. It can’t be any worse no matter what happens.

I’m now intrigued to know if any other classic car owners have the same problem, or have hacks that they can share with us.

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Professional video and photo shoot, Euston.

Every now and again I’m lucky enough to speak to professional photographers and videographers. Earlier in the year I was at a show where Matthew Filby (his contact details below) started talking to me about my car. It turns out that he is a professional photographer and was interested in doing a ‘Pro Shoot’ with my car at a nice location. Those type of offers don’t come along very often so I said that I would certainly be up for that and we exchanged details. A few weeks passed while we exchanged a few emails of possibilities of location and dates. Matthew told me that his friend Henry Smith (his contact details also below) was also interested in doing a video shoot at the same time. We eventually found a date that worked for everybody on Saturday 10^th August 2024. The weather was a major question mark as the rain had been a little unpredictable the weeks before. However, the seven day forecast for the day was to be overcast, no rain expected.

The morning arrived and I got up to complete cloud cover, with no rain. I made sure that I had plenty of my detailing products and microfibres and set off to the rendezvous at ten am with the guys. The journey was about forty minutes away just outside Thetford Forest, Suffolk, a quiet little place called Euston just past Euston Hall itself. I was early and parked up somewhere that I could wipe the car over from the road dust.

The guys turned up and we had a chat about the plans for the morning. Henry informed me that he had contacted the owner of the Euston Hall prior to todays shoot and that they had granted permission to film there on the grounds. I drove to the entrance of the hall which was only a few hundred yards away that I had just past about ten minutes earlier. The guys got in the car and told me to follow a dusty track up a bit further to a clearing where the shoot was going to take place. We got out and the guys looked around then directed me to a nice little spot that they liked. The spot was by a little cross path, by some trees and a field.

The guys set up their equipment and I asked them if I could take some photos of them, taking photos of my car. They thought it would be a good idea as they didn’t have any shots like that. I have since shared those ‘Behind The Scenes’ photos with them so that they could use them as well for their own media channels. It will be so easy to tell the difference between the Pro shots compared to my amateur Galaxy S24 Ultra photos. The pro photos have luscious rich colours, the blacks are black and are much crisper. We discussed what I wanted and what they had in mind too. I wanted some ‘moody’ looking shots, the rest I would leave up to them. I kept out the way as much as possible while Matthew and Henry got to work. As they were moving around to different locations I asked a few questions (well a lot to be honest) about their techniques and equipment, trying to learn about car photography.

Where Matthew went, I followed like a lost sheep and tried to replicate their photos.

Here are some initial shots of Matthew and Henry doing the distance shots.

Matthew moved to take some more shots between the trees to frame the car.

After the video sequencing for the outside shots were completed, we opened the doors and hood for some engine and interior shots.

Then here was my efforts to replicate what Matthew had taken above.

During the static shoot there was a couple of tractors that passed by, one pass ended up in the video.

After an hour or so and they were happy with their footage, we decided to go to the next location to take the rolling road shots with a drone and moving shots inside the car. I gave them a lift back down the track to the main car parking area where Henry picked up his car. We met back up a couple of minutes later back at the original meeting point for the shoot.

The guys discussed who would drive first, what shots they wanted and how they were going to do it. I sat there watching them rehearse the runs. They managed to do something fancy with the seat belts so they didn’t fall out while going along.

We didn’t have to travel on the main roads to get to the fairly well hidden and out of the way road where we could film the rolling shots. Matthew drove for the video shots with Henry in the back. Then they swapped over for Matthew to take some stills of the rolling car.

Here I took some photos of them taking photos of me. We drove up and down the mile long road a few times. Their hand signals directed me closer, further away, hold station, move over a little, speed up, slow down or give it some gas etc.

For the drone shots Matthew sat with me in the car speaking with Henry on his phone taking the directions on how he wanted the car, faster, slower, over a bit etc. While Matthew was directing me in the car, he also took a few action photos as we turned around and positioned up ready for the next run.

The completed video is below. I would like to post it to YouTube, but I suspect that I may get a copyright strike due to the sound track used. Not that I’m complaining as it’s a classic song.

That just leaves me with the pleasure of sharing their contact details with you as they worked hard on this little project. Matthew’s website is currently under construction, but it will be live soon. I can thoroughly recommend their services:

Henry Smith

Website: www.indivisuals.co.uk

Instagram: @indivisuals.uk

Email: indivisualsuk@gmail.com

Matthew Filby

Website: www.filbyvisuals.co.uk

Instagram: @filbyvisuals

Email: matthew@filbyvisuals.co.uk

It was an absolute pleasure to be with the guys for the day. Very professional and knowledgeable about what they wanted and what I was after. Give the guys a look up and tell them that Mart from onemanandhismustang.com sent you!

My good mood was tested to the limit as some road works for a road closure (that wasn’t there when I left) directed me down a country lane. On its own that’s no so bad, but when some stupid, selfish moron driving a beat up Land Rover comes full pelt towards you, its not so good. I had to brake to avoid him by going up a slightly muddy bank. He of course didn’t budge, didn’t give a rats arse. He knew I would bottle out of the head to head. I expressed my displeasure quite vocally and indicated with various hand gestures that he could also move over. He didn’t care about his wreck of a car with dents all over it, where as I do care about my pride and joy. My rage subsided after a few minutes and settled back down to the rest of my drive. I got home and looked at my once very clean car, which I now suspected it would be dirty, I wasn’t wrong. The front left tyre was the dirtiest it has ever been, the rear wasn’t so bad. I spent a good while cleaning the tyres all round, and then started to clean the paint before I put the car away ready for the next show. I couldn’t just clean one wheel as it may look different to the rest and it would certainly trigger my car detailing OCD issues.

They were soon back to normal.

Again, huge thanks to Henry and Matthew for such a great day.

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Classics At Glemham 2024

As I write this post I didn’t realise that this going to be my last show of the year. There were a couple of others that I was scheduled to go to after this one, but the weather was predicted to be raining, as my car doesn’t get wet (if I can help it), I didn’t attend sadly. The weather app was correct and the rains did arrive on those days, shame as this year was a really good year for lots of shows. Glemham Hall, or ‘Classics at Glemham’ as its called, is another well supported car show with a huge variety of cars. Many of which are not that old, so I didn’t take to many of those, just the cars that grabbed my attention.

The weather was looking a bit grey to start with, and a few spots of fine rain. I stood in the garage door way to asses the situation, do I or don’t I? the other side of the village I could see clearer skies and the direction I would have to travel looked better. The car was loaded up, I got in and backed out promising myself that if it rained on the way, I would turn back. I had a thirty one mile drive across country, or stick to the main roads for a forty four mile journey. The backroads aren’t bad, but they can be busy if you get stuck behind some farm equipment with nowhere to really overtake. The main roads were quiet and not much traffic. There was a few spits of rain on the screen, but nothing more than that and the roads remained dry.

The sat nave was being a bit of pain and needed resetting a could of times, but luckily the roads were fairly straight forward. There wasn’t much of a queue and drove in fairly slowly to the field. The first thing to cross my mind was that they could of cut the grass. The cars were arranged by year and club stands. Parking up was regimented and left a little bit of room to the car next to me. The sun was now starting to shine as I grabbed some refreshments, and opened the hood.

I spent a few minutes with the car before taking to the rows of cars for a few pictures. The plan of action was to work counter clockwise and end up back at the car. The far end of the field I spotted a few friends and had a quick chat with them.

The Lotus stand was interesting with a few different engines on stands to have a good look at.

The paint job on this E-Type was just spectacular, the photos don’t do it justice. On the inside it wasn’t as pristine, but still a nice place to be.

I don’t know if I’m being a car snob or not, but why put a Chevy in a Ford Cobra kit car? I appreciate it will go very well, but…..

This Corvette got my vote for best car, it was just immaculate.

I have said in the past this Countach was my poster car (in white) as a teenager, it’s not often you see one opened up all over like this. I actually got to see the trunk which was just about big enough for a book of matches, with that terrible lack of luggage space in mind, I still want one!!!

Eventually I got back to the car for a well earned rest and refreshments.

I think that the threat of rain on the day kept a few people away, it nearly kept me away. That could well be the main reason that it wasn’t as busy as other years. Still a great show with lots to see.

I left a little early to miss the rush, as it’s always a bit of a nightmare to get out from here with the narrow roads. The trip home was relaxing and enjoyable taking the long way round again. Well, there was one teenager in a Vauxhall Corsa, windows down, an aftermarket loud exhaust the size of my filler cap, over took me coming of a round about onto a dual carriageway. He was making loads of noise and not getting very far, all show and no go! I’m not sure what came over me when I decided to give mine some gas and pull up along side him with a rumbling V8. He glanced over and dropped a gear (I think), to try and pull away, he didn’t. I just laughed and let him go with a point proven; a fifty eight year old car still kept up with that hunk of junk.

Once I got home the car got a quick wipe over to get the field dust of the car before I put it back in the garage and covered it up.

That’s it, car show season 2024 is over me and my Mustang and a bit gutted to say the least. I have made new friends, meet old friends and been to new venues. I shall look forward to meeting more friends next year.

Don’t worry, (not that you were), as there will be more updates on my little ol’ blog. There will be a special post for something amazing in a couple of weeks time. There will be more car detailing reviews with a requested review and things that I wanted to try. A couple of little things I want to do on the car which I will post about when I get round to them over the winter and the weather is kind, there’s no rush at this time of year.

Like all classic cars – they are never finished!

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Stonham Barns Classic Car Show (Part 2)

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.

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Stonham Barns Classic Car Show (Part 1)

A more general purpose classic car show was hosted at Stonham Barns on 18^th 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.