Culford Car show 2023 (part 1)

One of the bigger car shows in the area is held at Culford School which is independent school with boarding options. The school will take all ages as long as you have the money and its not cheap with prices in the tens of thousands – per year. The grounds are impressive with lots of space to hold a car show, although the cars were not allowed to be parked at the front of the school this year. The entry to the event requires cars arrive before eight thirty in the morning, with the show ending at three thirty in the afternoon. So an early start was on the cards, but not to early as the venue was only about twenty minutes away for me. The only trouble was on the way there I realised that I had left my wallet at home, my plan for for a bacon roll went out the window. My excuse was that it was to early to think straight.

I took around three hundred photos on the day so my phone ran out of battery, probably because I didn’t put it on charge the night before. My excuse was it was to late in the night when I went to bed and I wasn’t thinking straight. But, I did already pack my portable power bank the night before in the cool bag pocket, perhaps I should of done that with my wallet. Some of the photos were taken in the morning, then after some lunch with an hour or so charge on the phone got me some power so I could take the rest of the photos. I had about two hundred and sixty of photos that didn’t have people walking in front of the cars or looking directly at the camera with stupid looks on their faces. To save a huge scrolling post, I thought I would split across two posts.

For something a little different for my car show posts in the future, I had an idea to pick my favourite car of the show. There’s no criteria, no pre conceptions, no categories and no prizes, just bragging rights that the car that caught my eye was the best there in my opinion, apart from my own of course.

I arrived at eight twenty(ish) with virtually no queue to get in, but it was little stop start in the grounds as the cars were being directed to the locations.

I asked where the Bury Retro Car Club was and was directed to the stand and parked up. The club had booked plenty of spaces and had two rows. I parked up trunk to trunk with a friend of mine who has a number of cars, this time he bought his ’65 Coupe. I got out had a quick chat and started to wipe over the car and remove the road dust. The weather was a bit windy and stayed blustery all day, although the wind was supposed to have died the night before, with no rain forecast.

I will start with the car club cars, as that was where I was standing.

I wandered up the lines and and back down each side.

There was a nice selection of UK ‘Fast Fords’ on show, most of these cars ended up in a ditch, wrapped around a tree or they just couldn’t be given away. Now they are commanding some pretty strong money.

There was an area of super cars including this 1,400bhp GT-R with a parachute.

There was a couple of Fiat Dino there. Contrary to popular belief they are not Ferraris by brand, although designed by Pininfarina and built by Ferrari. The brand Dino was Ferrari’s lower cost sports car that had the mid engined V6. The V12 engines were reserved for the prestige Ferraris’s of the time. this was Enzo Ferrari not wanting to diminish the Ferraris brand. Enzo didn’t want to produce the car but he relented to fight with the Lamborghini Miura at the time. These cars are now accepted as Ferrari although they are not badged as such.

There was a good turn out of proper Ferraris in one corner of the field.

It was about this time that the phone needed a recharge so I headed back to my car for some refreshments. I will post up the second part in few days with ‘Mart’s Car Of The Show’ to be revealed.

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Stonham Barns

Thanks to everybody who sent me messages from my last post(s) about the number of cars within the posts. The consensus was ‘the more the merrier’ so here is a fairly large post in one go. I have been a little busy with car shows and trying to catch up with posting about the shows, I can’t complain as this time last year I had only a couple visits to car shows. This post is about Stonham Barns which took place on the 15^th August 2021. A free for all show where anything goes age wise and there is usually a good mix of cars and some car part stalls as well.

The weather was supposed to be dry, it didn’t look great, but at least it was dry. I left a bit later than normal and thought it would still give me plenty of time to get in. Wrong, I hit a queue to get in, I normally try to get to the shows early to avoid this very scenario.

After twenty minutes or so I eventually got in and had a cyclist who cut across the front of my car causing me to brake while he was going to the car boot sale which was in the adjacent field. As I had my window down this lycra clad clown started with “Am I holding you up?” I responded with an equally sarcastic; “Causing me to brake and avoid you then yes you are.” He started with some rambling rubbish which I couldn’t hear (I was so upset about that – not), as my engine was purring away. He did shout “nice penis extension” at me as he prepared to ride off. The cars were moving in front of me again, but I did pause to instantaneously shout back to him; “At least I don’t dress up to make myself look like a pr!ck”. The other people wandering into the car boot show started to laugh at him. I didn’t give him time to respond and moved away with a few revs on to drown him out. I enjoyed that, so funny 🤣 Classic Car Owner 1 – Cocky Cyclist 0.

Still chuckling away to myself I drove into the field and was directed around to the Bury Retro Car Club stand and parked up. Here we are all lined up.

It was a busy day with lots of cars and plenty to look at. So in no particular or I just wandered up and down the lines.

The weather was cloudy and sunny at alternating intervals all day, which is fine by me.

American, British, Japanese and German all together. The little Audi in this set was amazing and I just loved it.

I’m not sure what this truck is in the first picture but it was massive, and I liked it.

This Ford Escort isn’t my cup of tea, but the guy had spent plenty of time on it that’s for sure.

The white Vauxhall Cavalier in the first picture used to be a firm favourite with Sales Reps, almost disposable. Yet here we are 25 odd years later and it’s in a classic car show!

This proper old school Ford was just beautiful.

The weather started to turn with a little drizzle which didn’t last that long or even dampen the atmosphere.

I spent quite a long time speaking to this guy who only had the car for a little while. It came with a box full of sales receipts and invoices and not to mention a few boxes of spares too. I was surprised to see an I6 under the hood, but he says it cruises great and is such a smooth ride.

I reckon that the Custom, Galaxy and the Chevy must have been the biggest cars there.

I’ve lucky enough to drive the a Harley Truck, it was like sitting in my favourite chair at home, such a nice place to be.

A few fast Fords, 60’s Lotus Cortina and a Sierra Cosworth.

You just beat the fins on these American master pieces.

The stalls weren’t that bad either. I’m not sure what was going on with the screw on aftermarket exhaust tips, they are mounted horizontally as a rule, but like they say – rules are meant to be broken. I’m not that rule was though!

I eventually got back to my car for a well earned sit down and a sandwich. The Cortina GT parked up next to me was a nice example and the owners were thinking of selling it and had a few interested people ask about it.

And to finish up with some dogs I managed to grab a few pictures of.

A great show with lots of nice people to talk to. The weather held of and the drive home was nice and relaxed with no signs of self entitled cyclists to ruin my journey home.

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At Last

The first car show of 2020 (for me anyway), which took place last Sunday 16^th 2020 at Stonham Barns in Suffolk. It took me about twenty five minutes to get there at a gentle pace. I arrived at about nine fifteen and the sky was grey. Forecast was forty six percent chance of rain, I figured it was worth the gamble, I had to go. I parked up with the Bury Retro Car Club whom had a club stand on the tarmac and not grass which is always nice. As I always do when I park up, I wiped the little ol’ lady down with some quick detailer, paying particular attention to the windscreen with glass cleaner. I think the glass had collected more than its fair share of insects for the short trip.

I decided to go and get some photos before the promised rain was due to arrive just after lunch time. With no particular order some cars that took my interest as I wondered around. the sun even showed it’s face for a few minutes now and then.

A while ago I did a little article on the Ford Capri being the UK Mustang here, these photos show the comparison next to each other which was rather nice.

There seems to be a growing trend in the UK for half cars to be the trailer:

More Mustangs including this red ’69 done to concours standards.

VW were out in force and the patina on the beetles was a little extreme, when it’s flaking off.

The rest of the cars I liked:

There was a number of stalls there too, nothing to fancy just the usual auto jumble, which was on the grass just behind the club stand.

Bury Retro Car Club stand:

I thought mu car was quite a long car, when compared next to a stretched Caddy – It’s tiny. The front of the cars lined up more or less level.

Tim Greening let me borrow his video from his YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/c/AutoAddictuk/ Thanks Tim 🙂

You can just about catch a glimpse of me chillin out and chatting cars just behind my car.

I took a few pics while sitting in my chair of the new wax I have been using. I did notice the clarity of the shine while sitting there.

I thought I would play around with the colours a bit on this one, black & white with a little hind of car colour.

I left at three in the afternoon an hour before it was due to shut, the wife had text me to say there was thunderstorms at home. I wanted to get home before the car got soaked.

The clouds were blackening up as I did a very quick wipe over before I covered the car up in the garage. As I got out the car in the garage the heavens opened and it chucked it down. That’s what I call perfect timing, literally thirty seconds from rain.

For once I went to a car show and it didn’t rain, I was well chuffed. What could be better than than? I know – a pic of me in the review view mirror of the Jag XJ6 next to mine! I didn’t move the chair to take this pic I just happened to look up and there I was.

I needed that car show. I just had to get out and catch up with friends again, grab some fresh air and look at cars, lots of cars. I had two offers to buy my car during the day, one which was some bloke takin the p!$$ or trying to wind me up I’m not sure which, the other guy gave me his card just in case I wanted to sell, after asking me some good questions about the history of the car.

There are two more scheduled car shows this year that I have booked in to attend. Will the rain hold off for me so I can get to them? I hope so, with all the rain I got caught in last year, it’s the least mother nature could do for us considering the pandemic we have endured so far.

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Festival Of Wheels 2019

The weekend just gone was one of those weekends where everything clashes for car shows. There was the Festival of Wheels in Ipswich on both Saturday and Sunday. Then on the Sunday is perhaps my favourite car show Helmingham Hall. The decision was made a long time ago to split the shows over the two days. The weather was looking good, so I set off on the Saturday morning with plenty of time in hand to allow me at least one hour before the general public was allowed in at ten. I drove up to the gates and straight in, no fuss no hassle. I was directed to the reserved area for the Bury Retro Car Club, just like last year I was the first to arrive from the club.

About half an hour later, two other cars from the club parked in a different place leaving me on my own, no problems as that left plenty of space for me. This show is aimed at the family day out more so than a dedicated car show itself. Some of the cars were good and I took a selection of photos those that interested me.

This little picnic van was quite cool and towed by an old school lorry.

I found a supercar, but to be honest I was a little disappointed with the Mclaren’s interior. I’m sure it’s amazing to drive but even so, I would want a little bit more, or is it just me?

Choice of the Mclaren or something else? I would rather of had this old school Ferrari 328.

I’m not too sure what to make of this with the fake intake trumpets! Each to their own I guess.

There was an interior section where a few nice cars were on show including a couple of drag strip cars, one of which was a Bentley.

Right at the other end of the field area was a Land Rover assault course, which didn’t look that challenging for the vehicle’s prowess and monster truck with seats in the back for ten or so people for a ride.

Not a bad day out for the family, although the variation of cars wasn’t great. There was a section that was more like a Wal-Mart car park, which I didn’t bother taking photos of. The simple reason was that there were cars with speakers bigger than their wheels and revving up to the max to make their exhausts pop and bang as much as possible. Giving the genuine car show enthusiast a bad name, which a little soap box of mine.

However, I enjoyed the day and met up with a mate of mine I wasn’t aware of he was going. We had a wander around to look at the stalls which again were not that car related to be honest, things like sweets, hats, summer dresses and toys. Helmingham Hall was in another league. That post will be up very shortly. 😃

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Elveden Car Show 2019 (part 1)

This was my fourth car show of year and was in a beautiful little village in Suffolk called Elveden, the best bit was that this show was to be held within their Walled Garden. This was my first trip here and wasn’t to sure what to expect. The sun was promised all day and most importantly no rain! Make a note here – that all four apps I use said “No Rain”. I had a beautiful drive to the show some back roads with very picturesque fields and open spaces. Window open, engine throaty burble and countryside. This was going to be a nice day.

I took rather a lot of photos during the day and decided to split them over a couple of days so it’s not photo overload. The main area was for the general public cars, I spotted that the Bury Retro Car Club was there in the club area. I explained to an official walking around that I wanted to join them as I belonged to the club. He said that I had to stay there within the public exhibition area, apparently “Health & Safety wouldn’t allow me to move.” 🙁 I couldn’t be bothered to argue with him, which was down to the fact I was enjoying the nice weather and chilling with the cars. The second walled enclosed grass area was similar sized to the main area, but they had more room to spread out due to less cars in there.

Anyway, in no particular order I wondered up and down the rows of some gorgeous cars and chatted to some very nice owners, and few of them ladies which was a pleasant change.

A rare Crayford Cortina took my eye and was great condition.

My car getting a little attention from the public. 🙂

There was a woman just standing behind my car saying “I’m in love.” I heard her as I walked back from the other area and stood next to her. I chatted for a minute or so unaware that I was the owner. She said I want to find the owner and ask if she if she could sit in it. I said to her “I don’t think he would mind”, and I opened the door. She said ‘you can’t do that’ and looked a little worried. I just smiled and said “Don’t worry, it’s mine, and do you still want to sit in it?” With that she handed the reigns for her toddler to her eldest son next to her and sat in my car. She sat there for a minute just staring at the dash. Then she wanted to know what all about the car, so I told her the story. She said that I had made her day, while her children took lots of photo’s of her in the car. I had some as well, but she explained for personal reasons, if I wouldn’t post them on any social media. I agreed of course and she explained to me why. So for that lovely lady, consider your requests granted, but I also have to say it was my favourite part of the day.

Tomorrow I will post ‘part 2’ where we will have the club stands, Hot Rods and some super cars too.

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One Week Later

Back to back car shows where the prior show in Lavenham was rained away, then just seven days later was the weekend of the popular ‘Cars By The Lake’ in Fornham St. Mary, just outside Bury St Edmunds which was being promised nice weather, unlike the previous show. Sunday morning of the show I got up and checked the weather, it was sunny, I checked the app – it said sunny, lastly I asked the wife who said ‘It’s going to be a hot day’. I packed my day’s food, extra drinks, some suntan cream and loaded it all into the car and set of for the half hour drive. This big farm field has a carp lake in the middle of it, hence the name for the show.

I arrived at the road to the main gate and there was a queue already a dozen or so deep, the driveway to the field itself must have held fifty more cars itself. So I just had to sit and wait to get to the front. I was directed to the Bury Retro Car Club stand where they had reserved me a space, and yes I was the last one to the stand.

The club had a dozen or so cars, much more than some of the bigger clubs also at the show. They even had a fully functioning Crown Vic police car next to me. Working lights, siren, speed guns, cameras and bars at the windows.

I had a stream of people talking to me for the first couple of hours while I was gently cleaning the dust of my car, which was really nice. Eventually I managed to sneak of to have a look at the other cars. There was huge variety of cars from pre war to super cars.

Super cars were scattered around from Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren. Oh and an old Jordan F1 race car.

There was a nice selection of American classics, perhaps my favourite pic is this one of the old school Mustangs and the new model.

I would still have the old Mustang any day, or maybe tempted by the AC Cobra or GT40 kit cars.

The remaining cars and bikes that took my liking in no particular order, except for the silver Aston Martin that was just gorgeous.

Last year they had over five thousand visitors on the day, I don’t think it was far of that this year, it was busy with a lovely atmosphere too.

An old friend of mine had his Alvis there at the show too, there is no paint job as the outside is just covered with the original leather covering.

The bar was doing well, the food stalls had lots of business and the children’s play area was big hit too. What a difference a week can make. I hate to admit it, but the wife was correct again, who needs Google when I have her? 😉

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Cars On The Green

Over the weekend I attended perhaps my favourite car show, Cars on the Green in Bury St Edmunds. Sunday morning I looked out the window and there was a tiny few specs of rain. Now I don’t take the car out in the wet in case it shrinks in the water. So I waited for a while before I made the decision to go. I arrived some twenty minutes later and I almost had to put the wipers on and was uttering the odd colourful blue words at the rain. It must have done the trick as the sun showed itself as I pulled in to the show.

There was some great cars there and it’s always a nice atmosphere at this show. I was on the Bury Retro Car Club stand (patch of grass) shared with some great people from the club too. I took up station under a tree unfortunately, which was leaking sap like water through a cheese grater. So much so, that as I was sending a message to my wife I could feel the sap on the phone screen.

I always give the car a quick spray with some ‘quick detailer’ to take off the dust from the road just so the car looks her best while on show. With the sap falling like it was, I decided not to touch the paint in case I damaged it. Yes, I always carry (a lot) cleaning products, but in the location where I was it would have pointless to try to keep clean. So with a heavy heart I let the car get dirty, well what I call dirty anyway. 🙁

The public was allowed into the show from ten in the morning onwards, it was great to see lots of Dads on Father’s Day with their little ones for the day. I think I may have spotted the odd spouse or two who was, erm – not into cars should we say! I started my slow stroll around the massive venue and took some pictures of the cars that caught my eye. I tried to limit myself for the number of pictures otherwise it’s just picture overload. I will start with some UK cars which are starting to command some quite serious money now.

Then some good old American Muscle.

The Cars on the Green show is classed show for all cars, classics, modern, vans, trucks, modified and new, all of which were well represented. On a side note I have spotted over the last few shows that I have attended, there are a few almost new cars creeping into the classic car events. Now I am petrol head and love cars, so if somebody wants to show their car then fine with me. But, what is the point of taking a two-year old Volvo (example car), that is plain standard stock and parking it next to a genuine classic car. Perhaps that is such a controversial thing to say, and I certainly don’t want to offend anybody. I can sort of understand it, the car show scene is full of great people who always seem to help each other out when another car is in trouble.

Perhaps when the organisers of the events say “classic car show” the cars should be at least fifteen years old? What do you think? That way I can get to see more of the old cars that I personally go to see. I really hope that I haven’t upset anybody with that statement, it wasn’t my intention to do so. Perhaps I need to wind my neck in?

Back to this show, there was a couple of live bands and singers, fairground rides for the children, plenty of food stands and stalls for all things cars and couple of random ones as well nothing to do with cars. Lots of people turned up for the day along with a number of seriously well-behaved dogs too.

Perhaps my favourite pic? This one, where the Land Rover stand had an electric toy version of their vehicles for sale. This little lady just loved it and the guys all to their credit let her stay in it for a while. Well done guys, I think they made that little girl’s day.

After my walk around I sat back in the comfy chair and watched the world go by and had some great conversations with people I have been talking to via email; hi Simon!

I can’t wait for this weekend as it might be two shows, Saturday and the Sunday.

If it doesn’t rain of course.

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Last Car Show?

The car show season seems to be coming to an end and the Autumn is creeping up on us quickly. This latest car show at Fornham was a few miles outside the main town of Bury St Edmunds. I had arranged to meet up with the Bury Retro Car Club at the local Tesco’s to get my pass for the show. As his is always a popular show entry is only via pre booked tickets. If you turn up without a ticket you will have to wait to see if there is a space to let you in or not, as that happened to me last year. I arrived at the supermarket and found an impromptu meet in the car park with cars arriving all the time to meet up with their friends and clubs. With plenty of people wandering around looking at the cars before the main show.

Out club being no exception, we left in convoy and arrived at the ground and parked up to our allocated spaces.

After everything had settled down a bit I had a chance to wander around and take in the view of some great cars.

I got to speak with a lovely family about their car that they had inherited from their Uncle who had sadly passed away after an illness. It turns out this fastback was originally an export model and the vin number seems to confirm that. The car has a huge provenance of paperwork where receipts for spark plugs had all been filed away and documented. This car has all its original panels on it. The reason for the different trunk was that there was a dent in it which was removed but just not got round to repainting it again before he passed. We were talking for ages and the more I heard about this car the more I wanted to know. The car has all sorts of additional locks on it and alarms as the uncle was paranoid about it getting stolen. I can see his point here I must say.

I hope to catch up with them all again soon.

This may well be the last show of the year for me that I have scheduled, and the others I have made a note on depends very much on the weather.

In the future I am to limit my pictures to no more than fifty of a car show or at least split it up into parts if it’s a particularly worthy show.

My Reviews:

I have writing a few reviews for the car detailing products which I have bought with my own hard-earned money.

The first is the Chemical Gus detailer which can be found here. or cut & paste below. https://onemanandhismustang.com/chemical-guys-extreme-slick-synthetic-detailer/

The Meguair’ MT320 Dual Action polisher can be found here. or cut & paste below. https://onemanandhismustang.com/meguiars-mt320-dual-action-polisher/

The DoDo Juice Lug Nut cleaner can be found here. or cut & paste below. https://onemanandhismustang.com/dodo-juice-nutt-plug-wheel-nut-cleaner/

The EZ Car Care Wheel Armour can be found here. or cut & paste below. https://onemanandhismustang.com/ez-car-care-wheel-armour/

I have also added a little logo to the right hand side menu bar. This is for the McAfee Secure website notification. In other words it’s regularly scanned for viruses and phishing etc. Although this aimed at retailers, it can’t hurt to be safe with all these hackers out there! So you can browse knowing full well that this site is safe and I have paid for the service from McAfee. I am trying to see how the plugin works with my WordPress plan so I will keep you updated on that.

Finally:

My thoughts go out to you ALL in the USA and Barbados who are being battered by the recent hurricanes causing untold damage. I hope it’s all over soon and you can start to get back on with your lives again.

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Making Up For It

Another car show yesterday, and this one was at the same place of the worst car show I had ever been to. Last April I was at Stonham Barns in Suffolk and there was just a handful of cars there. So what made me go back? Well the car club I belong to is Bury Retro Car Club, were at the last show I attended with them and they told me they were going to be having a club stand at Stonham with a limited number of cars. So I agreed to be there to support the club at least. The day arrived and the weather was good so I had nothing to lose, even if it was just for a drive out in the car. I was going to be half an hour early for the gates opening, as I got closer to the event I was caught in a traffic jam of classic cars. Things were looking up and the cars were moving at a steady pace to get in. At the gate I was waved through after showing my car pass and directed around the field to the top of the field to a prime location for the club. Excellent organisation by the guys who arranged this show. I said my greetings to the club guys and had a pleasant chat before I had a wander around the show. The club had managed a gazebo with a nice selection of chairs too. The cars all looked great with classics, to sports cars and a Spider Van which was hand painted by a graffiti artist.

The field was segregated into many various clubs and sections.

The American car section with a few familiar cars.

Various clubs around the field, I spotted a light blue ’66 Mustang with a rare white vinyl roof, owned by a friend of mine David.

Perhaps my favourite of the show? For some reason I could see me in this truck. What an amazing machine, first time I had seen one up close, the classic Freightliner!

My final set of pics was around a great little story; an American guy called Larry was showing his grandson my car, and telling him about the Mustangs he used to own. My ears pricked up and I went over to talk to him. It turns out that he was stationed in RAF Lakenheath which was also where my car was imported to from Virginia. His grandson was called Harry and showed an interest in my car. I asked the little guy if he wanted to sit in it and he looked to his grandad for approval, who agreed. I took a couple of photos of the little guy ‘driving’ and looking happy in my car. I asked permission if it was OK to post the pics and gave Larry one of my blog business cards so he knew where to check out my blog and see himself on the internet! I hope Harry will get a Mustang just like his grandad one day too. 🙂

So it looks like I have been proved wrong about Stonham Barns who put on a good show after all, and I am well chuffed to see a good turn out for them, and they have made up for the poor show last time I was there. I have since found out that this event was organised by different people, so maybe that’s why this one was a success with around a thousand odd cars wedged into a large field.

Sorry for the large post, but I hope you liked it.