Category: Photo’s

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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Feltwell Anglo American Car Show 2025

This post is about an absolute first for me around the circumstances that this post came to be. The Feltwell Anglo-American Car Show last weekend was in Norfolk near many of the air bases, including Lakenheath where my car was imported into the UK from the USA.

The weather was promising and I got up not feeling to great, but a car show is a car show and sacrifices have to be made. I packed my bag with lunch, some drinks not forgetting my wallet for fuel on the way home. I started out on my journey around thirty miles away which according to my mate Tom (the TomTom SatNav), I would get there some forty odd minutes later. I arrived without any problems which was a great drive through the wonderful Thetford Forest. Marshalls quickly directed into the field where I parked up under directions, all in a line. The trouble was the lines were two deep and they parked us all facing the same way hood to trunk. People wandering around would see the front of the cars one side and only the back of the cars behind them. Not impressed with that situation, I waited for my marshal to direct other cars into position. With him now busy a good few cars down from me I pulled out and backed into the same spot, this time trunk to trunk with a new Mustang behind me. I parked next to a 2.8i Capri, which seems to be the UK Mustang in many peoples eyes; two doors, long hood, fastback styled.

feeling please that I bucked the trend of parking, I had a drink and thought I would go and take some photos before it got to busy! Now I had a problem, I couldn’t find my phone. After a frantic panic of ten minutes or so emptying the trunk. I remembered that I put the on the tool chest in the garage while I loaded my trunk. It felt like I had lost the extension of my arm, of all the car shows since 2011, I have never been without my phone. In fact I can count on one hand, ever since I have owned cell phones from 1997 with the little pull out aerials, that I have gone out without my phone. How on earth was I going to take photos? Then it came to me, use the dash cam. I use an Akaso EK7000 which is plugged into the cigarette lighter and removed once I’m parked up. Luckily it had been used on the way to the show so was fully charged up. I formatted the SD card to make space for the photo’s.

I have modified the mount a bit with magnets and foam in order to attach to the metal grill on the dash, and not mark it. I took these photos of the dash cam once I got back home.

The dash cam’s photo function isn’t as good as my trusty old Samsung S24 Ultra. It felt funny walking around with a little tiny box to take the pictures. But, it has done the job admirably and you can see what was there. However, as this has a wide angle lens, some of the perspective is a little distorted. I would wander up and down the lines fairly quickly not knowing how long the battery would last.

As this is near the airbases there was a good showing of American muscle. The show was busy and a couple of hundred cars were expected, I think there was a little more than that.

There were a couple of buses that were great and the owners allowed people to get on them.

I have seen this A-Team van before which was signed by the cast.

Another movie car that needs no introduction, not an official licensed car, but still pretty good.

Walking back down line was mine and the rest of the cars.

My car of the show was this little ol’ thing, a Tempo Matador apparently. I don’t why I liked it – i just did.

There was a few motor bikes there.

The most stunning was this steam punk Dr. Watson bike. I heard him say it has taken him ten years so far. the attention to detail with polished copper was amazing.

To fish up there was a quite a few Mustangs, apart from the Eleanor above.

To finish up I have a comparison. Some cars can pull the colour pink off, some can’t do it as well!

The dash cam battery lasted very well to be honest and I needn’t of rushed around. It was a great show with plenty of cars and I spoke to lots of people. Back to the phone, I do make a point of having two phones with me, one just as a backup as using the camera all day can eat the battery. I have a choice of two trusty Nokia phones both from 1999, but both with very different characteristics. My 7110 Matrix and my tiny 8210, both have amazing battery life of days not just hours, and the standby time is weeks. Oh, the games on these were really cool too.

I swap them around now again in my cool bag, so I’m still able to make an emergency call if I need too. Does anybody else carry a spare phone or is it just me?

When i got back home I downloaded the photos to my PC to get a better idea of what they looked like. having to look at the pictures on the back of the camera was difficult to see if they were blurred or poor or not. I was pleasantly surprised to be fair.

Next time out I will make sure the smart phone is packed as well!

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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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A Tradition Continues

After Christmas or a birthday I like to build something to keep me occupied which has become a bit of tradition. This year was no different, this time I was lucky enough to have an expensive engine model kit to play with. This ‘Techning V8 Engine Kit (DM118)’ kit was something I had been looking at for quite a while, but just couldn’t bring myself to pay the considerable amount of £500 for a model kit. However, that is exactly what I got as a gift from my wife and my better half. Although I’m convinced that it was to keep me out of the way for a few days to be honest!

I have reviewed this Techning V8 Engine Kit with full step by step build and instruction guide here. Or you can just copy and paste this link below into your browser:

https://onemanandhismustang.com/teching-v8-engine-kit-dm118/

It’s a long step by step build guide and review, which has taken me a good number of hours to complete. During my research for a kit like this I was looking around for an accurate review from the average Joe on what the model was actually like. I didn’t want a sponsored review giving a one sided favourable response. For that amount of money I wanted an independent build and review, if you were wondering what such a review looks like – I have done it myself.

There were many steps to this build, but I wont go into them all here, otherwise I may just as well copy the review. What I will do is show the more interesting and technical parts of the build.

The kit itself came in metal tin which weighs in at over 4kg! Inside there was three layers of aluminium anodised parts, a manual and plastic building mat, totalling to a little over six hundred and fifty pieces in total.

For the number of parts supplied you need to take into account that each screw or bolt or Allen bolt is counted as a part. So for a valve set that consists of thirty two valves, each with four parts to make the valve – that’s one hundred and twenty eight parts right there. With a few hundred screws on top of that there is much to actually build with engine parts as such. The supplied tools were OK, which consisted of four Allen keys and small cheap cross headed screwdriver. But, I used a precision screwdriver with various bits to get a more accurate control and feel. As the tweezers and fine needle nosed pliers were metal to metal contact I used some heat shrink tubing on the tips to protect the kit parts.

The pistons needed con rods, piston heads and fitting to the crank at the bottom of the engine block. The supplied little pots of lube is a light grease and is needed where any metal to metal contact is made.

The valves needed to be assembled and inserted into the block, all with independent, valve seals, springs and tappets and their own up and down motion. All of them need to be free moving so that the overhead cams can open and close the valves a millimetre or two.

Once the valves are in place a cam seat is required to partially cover the valve stems and allow the mounting of the twin over head cams. There will be two timing chains, so to make them work their are pairs which need to staggered via spacers on each side of the engine block.

The exhausts are fitted to each side of the engine and then the heads are bolted to the top of the engine block.

The back of the kit holds a large flywheel and and starter motor which drives the kit. The front of the kit has a cover even has a proper timing mark.

The timing chains was a bit of a mission to get right, as the bottom crank sprocket and the cams all needed to be correctly aligned via their ‘dots’ before the tensioning guides are fitted and adjusted into place.

There are belt tensioning guides, alternator, water pump, belt guides and crank pullies, oil filter and intake manifold all need to be installed.

There is a nice touch of a couple of rubber belts that are located on the front pullies and need to be installed in the correction orientations and tensioned to enable the passive pullies be turned when the kit runs.

The electrics are controlled by a box which allows for on/off/on via the battery or a powered connection.

The kit takes around two hours to charge with a running time of one and half hours (allegedly). The finished kit looks amazing even when it’s not running.

I created a video of the model working which I will at some point upload to YouTube, hence it has my branding on it ready. With the kit running you can see the pistons moving through the side of the engine block, the valves operating, the water pump moving and the pullies rotating.

This is a seriously expensive model and I would seriously cast a luxury item. In fact that I have paid considerably less for a proper running full sized road legal car. Once they were due for an MOT I just took to them to a scrap yard then bought another. I fact one of my cars was nicknamed ‘Bellamy’ after the famous botanist ‘David Bellamy‘ He was a lovely bloke and spoke of the ‘undergrowth’ or ‘wildlife’. That car had plenty of mould and growths in places that there shouldn’t have things growing on it. It had a full length soft sun roof that leaked like a sieve. But, at that time of my life I was just grateful to have a car, and I use the term ‘car’ in the loosest of terms!

I enjoyed spending a good few hours building that kit across a few days, it took about ten hours in total and almost as long to write about it. I was a surprised to see the gift from my wife and surprised she got it for me as there are a few cheap plastic knock offs of this kit. She did confess that she had seen it pop up on a few feeds when she used my PC that I use here to create my blog. She did really well by getting the right one and especially not paying the full price for it, hence that’s why she got it.

Looking forward to more builds, although I have a the full sized Mustang that needs a couple of little bits that I need to do on it. I will be sharing that with you all before the car show gets underway.

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No Car, Car Show

It’s a rare occasion for me to attend a car show without my car, all be it an unintentional car show. I had arranged a little family day out at Lowestoft and was looking forward to the day. We arrived after a half an hours drive and managed to find somewhere to park near the sea front, the best part was that it was free to park. We got our stuff from the back of my daily driver and walked towards the sea front, looking for the arcade game Daytona 500. It’s an old game now, but there history and years of friendly rivalry to see who will win on this game. We found a nice arcade and started on the 2p coin pusher game to try and win something for the little guy, nothing doing there, it more about the fun of trying to win. It’s not like it was when I was a younger (here we go rant), where you could be on these games for hours with just a couple of quid to “feed the machine”, which was the saying we had at the time. You used to be able to ‘win’ a plastic car or key ring as a bonus, now you are lucky to win a couple of coins after feeding the machine a good few quid. To be fair it’s brilliant fun and cheap to keep the little ones occupied, with a sense of achievement when the tinkle of pennies hit the collection tray. We eventually found the Sega Daytona 500 which is the same as this picture, sometimes they are four in a row.

The mission was best out of three, and let’s just say the dirty tactics by ‘J’ running me of the track worked for him today (as it did in the past) and he took the first win with ease. Rematch, I got a disastrous start and it took me a couple of laps to catch up with him, rather than playing fair I decided to run him of the track too, revenge is best served cold. With that suspect manoeuvre I romped home with a mirror image win to ‘J’s. The decider was going to be tough, dirty tactics were going to come into play I just knew it as the tension rose as the music and voice over counted us in. Again he got the better of me, only just this time on the start, I slipped in behind him and dived up the inside and sat there. The other cars on the outside were in ‘J’s way and I managed to box him in to slow him down while I made sharp exit of the turn and disappeared. The taunts to my left seemed to spur him on, I made a mistake on the last lap due to my gloating and just kissed the wall knocking a considerable amount of speed off. I managed to get going and could see ‘J’ closing me down fast with a stunning couple of laps from him to get back in with a shout. I kept the racing and tried to mash the gas peddle through the bottom of the floor. The drag race with ‘J’ carrying corner exit speed and me trying to draft the cars in front. Victory was mine as I scrapped over the line by a car length or so, half a lap more ‘J’ would have won. The taunts started again after the win as you would expect. It will be short lived win as I suspect the next rematch will be be more dodgy driving again, from both sides!

After feeding more of the machines and the pockets of the arcade owners we decided to go for something to eat. We walked for a few minutes and found a nice Weatherspoons and ordered our food and drink via the app. We enjoyed the food and walked a little further up the sea front towards a fun fair. We spend some time there with some great photos and memories made. We had a great day and decided to call it a day and walked back towards the car. We walked back near to the beach itself where we wandered into a car show with around twenty or so cars on display. It did feel strange to look around cars without mine being there somewhere. We wandered around spoke to a couple of people. The Fords were out in force, a few first gen Mustangs.

There was this fourth gen SN95 Mustang which had been rat rodded with a gun welded to the hood! The funny thing was there was a side exhaust in front of the fake up pipes Mad Max style. I don’t understand why he did it that way.

A Ford Cougar caught my eye. I do love the fact these had the hidden headlights behind the matching grill.

My favourite of this little car show was this beautiful ’57 Thunderbird. I would love one of these, sadly I can’t get in them.

I had a look around online to find out about this show, I didn’t find anything. If anybody knows about it please let me know. So that was it, just a little splattering of classic cars on the sea front as the Sun was starting to set for the afternoon. It was good to see some cars at a show that I hadn’t seen before. We all walked back to the car and had a relaxed drive home, trying to keep the little one awake was a mission on its own.

A fantastic day out with the family and classic cars, what more could I ask for? I’m looking forward to the next outing, although the weather is turning to Winter rather quickly. I had a great night’s sleep due to the intake of the sea air, or is it just me that sleeps well after being by the sea?

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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 10th 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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Avoid Relocation Woes

Moving Your Prized Mustang: A Complete Guide to Auto Transport and Relocation

Wanting to travel with your prized Mustang everywhere is natural. Once you’ve driven one, it’s hard to go back to any other vehicle.

But what do you do in scenarios where you can’t take a week to travel across the USA and need your vehicle on the other coast?

Or what if you’re going to move internationally?

In today’s article, we’ll dive into how to relocate your prized Mustang so you not only get your vehicle to your new destination ASAP but you get it there safe and sound.

Read on below.

1. Plan Your Move Ahead of Time

Transport companies are like airlines: the closer you are to the shipping date, the higher the price is going to be. If possible, always plan far ahead of time so that you can get a better discount on transporting your Mustang.

You can also consider leaving your vehicle in storage until you’re prepared to arrive at your final destination. If you’re moving countries, then having it stay in storage can be a good idea so you can have your Mustang ready to roll. Remember, overseas vehicle transportation can take months depending on the time of year and type of shipping you decide on.

2. Find a Suitable Transport Company

Not all transport companies are the same, and not all vehicles are shipped in the same fashion. When it comes to shipping Mustangs, ideally you’d like to go with someone who has experience shipping classics, like A1 Auto Transport classic car transportation services.

What’s important is that you find a transport company that has a footprint online, so you know that you aren’t handing off your vehicle to some random company. You can get free quotes beforehand, so there is never any commitment until you find a price that you’re happy with.

Always ask for a total quote so that you can know ahead of time what it’s going to be. Shadier companies will often do bait-and-switch pricing, causing the price to be increased by 25% or even more on arrival. It’s important to verify the amount of insurance coverage you’ll have, as some Mustangs can cost quite a bit and you do NOT want to risk insurance that doesn’t fully cover the vehicle.

3. Decide on the Type of Shipping

When shipping your Mustang domestically, you have two options: open and closed trailers. An open trailer is one that you likely have seen many times driving up and down the interstates. They can haul up to 12 vehicles at once and are economical as they can load many vehicles simultaneously.

Closed or “enclosed” trailers are best for protecting your expensive Mustangs during longer journeys. No one will know what is inside, which will prevent any damage or theft from eager onlookers. If you’re shipping a vehicle that doesn’t work, then you’ll have to go with an enclosed trailer rather than an open trailer, as the vehicles have to be driven on and off the trailer.

4. Prepare the Mustang for Transport

Once you’ve decided on your transport company and the type of shipping, you’ll want to prepare your Mustang. The first step is to clean the outside and the inside. You may ask, “Why do I need to clean it before?” The reason is that you want to take photos of the vehicle before you hand it off.

Ideally, you’d like to have these photos signed by the transport company so that if a claim is needed later on, you’ll have definitive proof that the vehicle was in good shape. It protects you from receiving the vehicle damaged and dealing with an unwilling insurance company that claims the Mustang was damaged before transport.

Remove any loose objects from the inside, and if your Mustang is a convertible, put up the cover so the interior doesn’t get wet. Do NOT leave any valuable objects inside the vehicle as these items will not be covered by insurance.

Transport companies require you to have the gas tank lowered to a certain amount, typically around 1/4 of the capacity. If you don’t know how to remove the gas from the gas tank, you can ask your transport company for guidance.

5. Pick Up Your Mustang

Once you and the transport company have done a final check on the vehicle, all that’s left is to pick up your Mustang on arrival. You typically will have to meet the driver at a designated location, but you can have it delivered right to your door for an additional cost.

Before you sign off that everything is OK, do a walk-around and double- and triple-check all is OK before signing any documents. Once everything is signed off, all that’s left to do is enjoy your Mustang in all its glory.

Conclusion

Transporting a Mustang is like transporting any other vehicle, but considering how expensive some classics can be, it’s always best to have it transported as safely and securely as possible. Always go with vetted transport companies and ensure that you’re not handing off your vehicle to a random fly-by-night entity.

As long as you’re doing your homework beforehand, you’ll have your Mustang at your final destination, ready to go. Consider even leaving it in storage if necessary ahead of time, so it’ll be in your target location once you’re ready to go.

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