Hedingham Castle Car Show

This car show is held at the oldest event that I attend. The castle itself is located in Essex and was built in the year 1140 by Aubrey II. There are many event types hosted here such as jousting, weddings, holidays, outdoor cinema, concerts etc. the one I’m most interested in is the annual car show. This year the sun was out and due to stay out all day. The event is held approx. thirty miles away from me and would take forty seven minutes to get there, mainly due to the minor roads and a town to navigate through. The gates open to the public at eleven, so all participants had to arrive by ten fifteen and be parked up by ten forty five. IT was a car show day and I was going to get a lay-in on a Sunday, win win for me! A really relaxing for two thirds of the drive until I got to Sudbury where a complete idiot, (which wasn’t what I called him), decided that he wanted to turn right after being in the left hand only lane. He chopped across the front of me so hard I had to brake hard and swerve out of the way. Obviously he knew I would back out the way as I wouldn’t want to damage my car. So if you are the driver of the red Mazda CX-5 who chopped in front of me with a car full of kids who might be reading this, may I suggest you take a couple of refresher driving lessons, or please come and find me at a car show where I might accept your apology and discuss your total disregard for other road users. I just seem to attract these morons for some reason. Anyway, the last part of the journey was around some winding country roads with some amazing views. I even had a classic Jaguar behind me, who left plenty of space between us and seemed to be enjoying his drive too.

I pulled into the venue and was told where my parking allocation would be at the ‘lake’ area.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked at a car show with various other vintage cars in the background, surrounded by trees and event attendees.

The field was filling up and lots of cars were already in their lines. I gave the car the mandatory wipe over and started my walk up and down the field.

A blue 1966 Ford Mustang prominently displayed at a car show with various vintage cars and attendees in the background.

Some beautiful Corvettes were parked in the line I was in.

Where I was parked us were two Mustangs right behind me.

A real soft spot of mine is the beautiful Thunderbird, which was for sale.

I still crave these Audi Quattro, my modern day classic choice.

The Lotus stand was well represented.

I had now completed the field and started to walk up the slight hill towards the castle and the next display of cars.

A busy car show at Hedingham Castle with attendees walking among various classic cars and lush greenery.

At the top was the little bridge to get to the castle and the field. There was the usual food and drink stalls along with a three piece band to add a little light entertainment.

This field was mainly club stands with newish cars from MG which I didn’t take that many photo’s of. But the other privateers were worth the time to look around.

I walked back to the car for a well earned sit down in the chair and slap on some factor fifty sunscreen. My mate Craig had caught up with me and joined me for a sit down and chat. I was so hot sitting by the back of my car, we moved to the line of trees for some shade and discussed cars from the show.

A vibrant car show featuring various classic and vintage cars displayed on a grassy area with people mingling in the background.

My car of the show was this rather nice 1959 El Camino, I think its the rear fins that did it for me.

The show was due to close at four, about half an hour before that the cars started to leave. I decided that as it was hot I would join them for the journey home. The journey was amazing and there was hardly anybody on the roads near me which means I could just meander my way home unstressed.

A great day out again and a welcome return back to Hedingham Castle.

Share my Content

Helmingham Hall Car Show 2025 (part 1)

Early February this year I decided to try something different to attend my favourite car show, Helmingham Hall. Normally the entrance fee is £12 per car (driver and one passenger) for this show. There is an alternative which what they call ‘The Tollemache 110’ option. This is for a limited number of cars. One hundred and ten cars max are allowed to park at the front of the Hall, but it comes at cost, quite a lot of cost actually. The plus side is that that you get a tea or coffee, slice of cake for the driver and one passenger plus a commemorative plaque of the day. To pay three times as much entry fee is a gamble, especially when the weather is unknown. Back then I paid the money and hoped the sunshine on the day. My rule is still based on if it rains or I know that it will rain, the car doesn’t come out the garage. So it’s a lot of money to pay and not turn up.

This a show where my good friend Craig joins me for the day, one it’s nice to have company at a car show, secondly he has a great camera and takes much better photos than me. We were swapping messages all week before the show debating the weather, it was going to rain! I have a total of five weather apps I use just for car shows. Four of the five said that there would be light rain at mid afternoon around three for an hour or so, the other one said all rain all afternoon. I decided on this occasion that as it was only light rain while I was there, and not driving there or home, this would be would be acceptable. Craig Turned up at twenty to eight in the morning on a Sunday which felt like the middle of the night. We had chairs, food, coats and camera equipment all neatly packed into the trunk. Craig filmed the car backing out the garage, which I was quite pleased with.

The sun was out and we had a journey of two halves, first to the petrol station where we met up with Craigs other friend who was also going in in Mazda MX5. He followed us to the event which was only around twenty minutes later. It would have been quicker if it wasn’t for the driver in an Austin Healy in front of us thinking he was driving a Sherman tank down a cycle lane. We dived of to some back roads to avoid him and save my sanity. It was longer by a couple of minutes, but it did mean that we had a clear road driving at our own pace. We pulled into the event where we were directed down the main driveway to park out the front of the Hall. We was directed to a great slot next to the path which leads to the main entrance for the Hall. The only down side was that the ground wasn’t level where I parked as it was on a little slope, a small price to pay for a good location.

A classic blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on the lush green lawn in front of a historic brick building. People are seen socializing in the background, and another car is partially visible.

Once you have parked up, you can collect your show plaque and place it by your car, just a little A-frame with a A4 printed history of your car. The boards can be seen lined up in the above pic, Craig found our board and placed it at the front of the car. He decided to take some photos before the world and his mate were allowed into the show at ten. Even so, it was still busy.

Due to the sheer number of photos, I took over six hundred pics of the one thousand two hundred cars that turned up. For that reason, I will split this show over three posts. Hopefully it will avoid readers getting cramp in their hands scrolling through the all the pics in one go. Like I said Craig’s pics are so much better than mine so here a few to start with. The rest of his pics will also be spread out over the next couple of posts.

A blue Ford Mustang parked in front of Helmingham Hall, showcasing the historic building's brick architecture and entrance, with several classic cars visible in the background.

Close-up view of a classic blue Ford Mustang's headlight and grille, with a historic building in the background.

In the main archway there there was a table looked after by a woman who took your preferred afternoon spot for tea and cake. We decided at around one in the afternoon would be good. More on this a little later.

We started in the T110 area to the left of the house as you walked out, by now the general public were being let in and it got busy very quickly.

The real thing in White and a replica in red, the ever beautiful Countach.

Then the timeless Ferrari Dino, with a fury passenger.

We the main field was split into years, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000s. Due to sheer number of cars the lines did get a little mixed up. But we started just behind the vendor stalls where the oldest cars were and then worked out way to the far side of the field to the more modern stuff. Well that was the theory, but it didn’t work out practically though.

At the bottom of the field is a large pond getting on for a lake.

Wide view of a car show at Helmingham Hall, showcasing vintage cars and attendees enjoying the day near a large pond surrounded by greenery.

Working but up the next rows.

Nearer the top was an area for Hotrods.

After this was the second half of the field and John Grose of Ipswich stand who had a mixture of cars, including a rare Mustang.

Share my Content

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.

Share my Content

Helmingham Hall Car Show 2024 – (Part 2)

After lots of walking around the club stand field and watching the exhibition runs, we wandered over to the privateer field. There was a Ford main dealer showing some cars and some food stalls. We decided to go back to my car for a regroup and something to eat and drink as the smell of the food had made me hungry. There was a brass band hiding under a tree near the main dealers who were playing movie themes and other popular tunes while the audience were eating hotdogs and their burgers. There was no order to these photo’s, except for the rows were arranged by decades. We just wandered up and down the rows taking photo’s of the cars we liked. There was lot of modern cars there which looked just like a Tesco car park, so we sort of ignored those. A four of five year old Jaguar or Toyota doesn’t make a classic car show for me. But, there was some fantastic cars parked up, including some regular cars that I recognised from other shows.

A couple of my all time favourites, The Audi Coupe for the daily and the Aston Vantage for the weekend.

We were working our way back to our car’s location and ready for another quick refreshment before the next and final walk around.

This old Ford even had candles for a light.

My car of the show was this quite rare Porsche Carrera GT.

WE got back to the car and sat around for a while just chatting and people watching. Then we felt it, a few drop of rain and the sky looking a little greyer than earlier. We had a great day wandering around and decided to go before the rain started. A few others had the same idea as us and we got out without any hold ups.

Craig took this photo as we wandered back to the car.

I took this just before we left.

We left and the rain wasn’t quite enough to warrant the wipers, and the steady drive home on the main roads made the rain evaporate quickly enough and the roads were fairly dry. I wiped the car over quickly during a dry spell and managed to get the car in the dry with the dehumidifier on to dry out any damp bits on the car.

Thanks to Craig for his photos and the good company as ever. I hope I didn’t bore you with so many photos over the last two posts.

Share my Content

Ringshall Car Show ’24

Last weekend was going to be a new show for me that I had seen on a few fliers at a previous show. The weather apps all said there would be no rain but there would be one hundred percent cloud coverage. I had no reason to doubt the apps as they had been correct for the last few shows. The show was due to start at nine thirty and finish at one in the afternoon.

I walked out the house and the air was damp, but not raining. I waited a while whilst I uncovered the car and put the cool bag in the trunk. I backed the car out and started my thirty minute journey to the show. As I got onto the main road the air thickened and a few misty drops of rain hit the care. Do I turn round or go back home? I had a couple of miles to travel before I reached a round about to make the decision. The dampness stopped and I decided to carry on.

Just before the village I came round a corner, there it was; PC plod with a camera at a quarter to nine on Sunday morning. The car was hidden down the side out of the way and he was standing by a tree. Honestly there are murderers, terrorists, muggers and weirdos out there which get away scot-free, but a motorist is easy pickings to raise money easily, every time. Nothing better to do than stand in a sleepy village looking for somebody doing the terrible crime of 31mph in a 30mph. It just annoys me, when you get yobs speeding around the towns and doing donuts causing a disturbance, they do nothing. Anyway, ten minutes later I arrived at a village hall and was directed onto a field.

The field itself was a couple of football pitches side by side, yet they parked as on the very left hand side and right at the back of the field. I couldn’t see any reason to park us around the edges to be honest. It would have been better to have us lined up nearer the village hall to save walking across a desolate field.

I parked up and got out spoke to the guys next to me and we had a good chat about the rain forecast, there wasn’t going to be any according to our apps. Yeah right, almost on que the dampness turned into a very light misty light dampness more so than rain. Instead of breaking out the factor fifty, I got the fleece from the trunk. Throughout the next few hours it was the same, the misty rain and then a dry spell. I found a couple of friends and we caught up for a chat. I told them I needed counselling as I was stressing over the rain or potential rain about to come. The sky showed some brighter clouds were moving our way. I decided to stay as the dry spells were warm and the light breeze was drying the rain of the car. The down side was that the rain was leaving little spots on the chrome. The Woolly Mammoth was out and used for drying a couple of times.

There was about fifty or so cars that turned up and left over the morning’s few hours. There were some nice cars and a few three of four year old Jaguars or Mercedes as well, I ignored those as they can be seen at every supermarket car park.

There was an old Gypsy caravan this was the first time I had seen inside one. I don’t know if it was original or not, but it was quite cool.

There was a nice Trans Am in gold, which wasn’t the common black and ‘Smokey & The Bandit’ livery. This for me was my favourite car of the day.

After a wander around I sat down at the rear of the car and got to speaking with a number of nice people.

There was a young guy who’s twelfth birthday was on the show day. His family asked him what he wanted to do for the day and he chose to go to the car show. As a treat I let him sit in the car for a few pictures. A couple of stalls on the field and a few inside the village hall were aimed at the general public and not car people of petrol heads. The turn out would have been better I’m sure with a better weather for sure. I had to finish up with this picture of an adoring dog waiting for its owner to move on and explore more of the hedgerows.

I left the show just before twelve thirty as the rain had stopped, which gave me a window to drive home in the dry. Once I got back to the house the quick detailer was out and I removed the rain spots from the car before I put her away in the garage. The dehumidifier was checked and on to remove any hidden moisture on the car.

Potential for a good show, and I would attend again next year, as long as it don’t rain.

Share my Content

Rickinghall Car Show ’24

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Share my Content

Spring Break Kustom Kulture ’24 (part 2)

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

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

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

Working back up the lines again more really nice cars.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Share my Content

Spring Break Kustom Kulture ’24 (part 1)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Share my Content

2021 Off To A Bad Start

Over the course of the Holidays and various forms of tiered forms of lock down that nobody really adhered to, I took my Mustang out. Now to be within to rules I took the car out to place where I could exercise after parking the car up. It just so happens that the car was parked in a pretty good place to take some photos while I was out exercising. There was nobody about, the odd car now and again going past, that was about it.

The garage was opened and the dust cover removed and placed on top of my tool chests. Excited to see the car after a number of weeks I got in and started the car, well tried to start it. The car was turning over fine but it didn’t fire up. I opened the hood and had a general look round under there. Fuel filter, yep fuel in there. I took the air filter off and checked the carb was squirting fuel, yep it was. After putting the bits back on I jumped in the car thinking it was just standing time issues. Turning the key the car started to turn over again, still but no fire up. Now I could smell fuel quite strongly, so I decided to leave it for a few minutes with the hood up to evaporate the fuel a bit. As it was getting late in the afternoon it was worth one more try before I give up and look at it properly another day. Third time lucky? She again spun over the crank slowed down and “BANG”. The backfire sounded like a grenade going off in my garage which made my ears ring, timing was obviously out to ignite at the wrong time. The car was running now a few seconds of really rough idle then it settled down to a smoother choke running. I backed the car out OK and drove of fine. However, there is a lot more to this story a little later…

The pictures:

I parked up and took some pictures before my little walk somewhere different. It just so happened where I was parked up would make a good backdrop. I took over 200 pics that afternoon, but this little selection are my favourites so far. I even done a black and white variation on a few of them. The pictures are variations on angles and lighting etc.

The next couple of photos I tried to start of with colour on the right and gradually fade it to black and white on the left. I played with the contrast to make the bottom one more antique and faded too. It sort of works I think, let me know if I hashed it or smashed it! I may even do some sepia variables as well.

The Journey Home.

I got back into the care and started the car, eventually after a few seconds it did start, but it was unusual to take that long. The drive back was about ten minutes and were not right. I got a few hiccups under mild acceleration from a standstill and the odd flat spot on a 40mph straight. I can’t deny that I was a bit worried. The car was parked up in the garage and covered her up with a nagging feeling in the back of my mind.

Next day I went out to the garage to just start her up. Turn of the key and the car spun over, then over and over. I tried to start her a number of times and smell of fuel was quite strong. I had a problem that was evident.

I sent Adam a text at Mustang Maniac to ask for a little advice when he had a moment. Adam being the kind soul that he is told me to get to my tools and he would call me back in a few minutes when I was ready. To his word he called me and talked me through some tests to look at with him over the phone. We swapped out the new coil with an older one that I had with the same result of spinning over with no fire up. We swapped over the coil HT lead to the distributor after testing with my multi-meter Ohm settings. Nothing. We then earthed out the coil HT to the engine to see if a spark jumped over to the engine. How did I manage that? Simple I talked sweetly to my wife who came out for a couple of minutes to turn the car over for me.

The diagnosis was narrowed down to the Pertronix ignition sensor which has gone to the great scrap yard in the sky! I needed a new one, it was a simple as that. Adam said he would get one out to me via mail ASAP as their location was in a high tier restriction for Covid reasons.

The next day my courier turned up with the part. I took a drink along with the part into the garage, unlocked the tool chests and settled down for a few hours. The distributor cap was removed and the single screw was removed the Pertronix sensor. The downside was the wiring loom had to be cut open to expose the wires for the sensor. The fitting of the Pertronix sensor can be found here.

I done a rough fit without the neatness of wiring loom and connected up ready for the start up. I got in the car and turned the key. The car fired almost instantly and run smoothly all the way to the choke coming off. I let the car cool down and got back to routing the wires back into the loom and neaten it all back up again. A couple of hours later the work was finished and up to my own self imposed high standards. The aftermarket part is now looking like part of the stock loom again and I’m happy. I need to take the car out for trip to make sure everything is still as it was. But, as we are in a current national lockdown that is out of the question right now.

All that remains is for me to thank Adam at Mustang Maniac for his time, even though he was officially “Closed” over the holiday season. I needed the part and I paid for the next day courier service from his WebShop. I was offered the multiple choices of delivery and the costs options. Normally I would drive and pick it up, and it’s also a good excuse to catch up for a chat with some friends. There is a an advantage of being a loyal customer and personal friend with a Mustang parts supplier, who will help go out of their way for you when you need the help.

Since I refitted the new part, I have been on a number of forums about the Pertronix Ignitor series. It seems that I was a lucky boy after all in the fact I got home at all. Most of the time these units are absolutely fine and last forever and a day. But, if you get a bad unit they just stop dead. You could go down the road, pull out of a junction and it stops dead in the middle of the road as one person reported and that’s it. The same symptoms I had – no restart. I had issues where I had a cut out which progressively got worse to the point it didn’t start again. Now I intend to get an old school set of points and condenser to carry with me as an emergency get me home kit. If the points burn out after a few miles due to the hot coil 45,000 volts with 0.6ohms I won’t mind. As long as I get home they are cheap enough to replace again.

My 2021 didn’t start very well, in more ways than one. It could have been much worse of course, I’m just lucky it was a simple problem to replace. Onwards and upwards I guess.