A few miles away from my village is small tourist attraction called Pakenham Water Mill which is the oldest surviving flour mill in Suffolk, where once there were many. The Pakenham watermill has been around for almost a thousand years, and for all that time millers on this site have been using the simple technology of water power to produce stone-ground wholemeal flour for local people. The mill is currently owned today by HistoricSuffolk, a team of around fifty dedicated volunteers continues to look after the mill, machinery and grounds for this long tradition. There is a tea room and a little shop too.
The grounds on the day were populated with a tent full of home made cake stalls, a mini bar, and a BBQ area. I was hoping to by some local made bread from the mill, unfortunately they didn’t have any on the day.
The event was billed as starting at eleven, but I wasn’t sure if that was the public entry or arrival time for the cars. I took the time as being the public entry thus allowing us exhibitors to get ourselves organised. I woke up early before the alarm, the the dogs decided that sticking one of their little paws in my mouth would be a good way to let me know that they wanted to go out. I packed the cool bag for the day as well as the factor fifty as it was going to be a hot one with the sun being out for the whole day. I had a gentle cruise to the event just a mere twenty minutes away and pulled into the entrance. Nobody was about, but a minute or so later the rumble of my exhaust must have alerted a marshal to come over and he advised me that I was very early. The event was due to start at eleven, for both the public and the exhibitors. I was shown to a slightly elevated area for the show cars.
I was parked next to an MGB V8 which was owned by one of the volunteers. As he walked away I decided to move my car to another more scenic part of the field to take some pictures before the field got busy, which wouldn’t be for another half hour or so yet.
After my impromptu photo session i moved back to where I was initially told to park. The main hard standing parking area that I parked on last year was this time reserved for the pre war vehicles, the rest of the classic cars were going to be up where I was located. Many of the exhibitors like myself turned up around ten and were swiftly parked up in rows near to me. This is a small local show with only around fifty cars or so, more of a social meet of a local car owners.
The pre war section was well supported, more than I expected to be there.
Throughout the day there were exhibitors coming and going.
There was the steam model guys riding up and down, one of the engines had his lunch packed in the front boiler part, a few jacket potatoes filling the air with an amazing smell which made me hungry.
The sun was brutal, I had the factor fifty slapped on all over the place, but there was no shade. I wasn’t going to complain, far from it. I eventually sat down and had some lunch and a long cool drink watching the world walk buy.
I was greeted by a couple of friends I have known from the car shows in the past and a couple of members from the Bury Retro Car Club. I was taken back to a good few years to my first car show at the Birmingham NEC when I was on the Mustang Owners Club stand. A gentleman approached me and reminded me that he spoken to me way back then at that show. I even let his girlfriend sit in my car on the day he informed me, I had forgotten that little detail. The guy still follows my little ol’ blog and I was very humbled by the fact that he took time out to come and meet me again, we spoke for a little while and that conversation alone made my day. I’m terrible with names, I will admit it. I apologise to anybody in advance if I have forgotten your name when you come to speak to me, I put it down to my old age.
As I was editing (crop and resizing) this batch of photos, I decided to play around a little with the colours; the original, a straight forward black and white, sepia, and a hand tinted cream version. Let me know if these photos are improvement or not. I kinda like the bottom cream tinted one.
Another good day, even if I did unnecessarily sacrifice a Sunday lay in. A pretty well organised day and knowing that the £5 entrance fee has gone to the upkeep of the water mill and not in somebody’s greedy pocket.
This year is the sixtieth year celebration for the launch of the Mustang at the New York Trade Fair in ninteen sixty-four. There have been numerous events around the country to celebrate such an achievement for the iconic Mustang. The Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain (MOCGB) are no exception. The biggest show of the year for many Mustangs owners is the MOCGB National Show, this year it was held at Meldreth, Cambridgeshire on sixteenth June twenty twenty four, on Fathers Day in the UK.
This year, I was determined to go to my first MOCGB national show, even though it’s a little bit of a drive for me, about fifty miles away from my door to the event. For the last ten days I had been watching the weather forecast with interest. Rain forecast on the day and all the way up to the days before. My village was expecting rain on the Sunday morning for a couple of hours, seven till ten. But, the event was due a light shower in the morning and no more rain after nine. I was going to go for it with even with the chance of rain, I hatched a plan.
I had set my alarm for six thirty, aiming to leave at seven, with an ultimate plan of getting to the event early before the gates opened at ten missing the rain. I can’t lie, I was worried as the apps were conflicting each other, if it was raining when I woke up I wouldn’t be going. I woke up at four thirty and opened the blinds a little bit so that I could see out the window from the bed what the weather was doing, or more importantly, what it was going to do. I wasn’t sleeping, do I or don’t I go? Constantly refreshing the weather forecast apps (yes more than one) hoping they would show me what I wanted to see, compared to the real time visual outside. It was getting darker as the minutes passed by, so I got up and got ready as quickly as I could, skipping any breakfast to save time. I filled the cool bag up with the drinks and lunch, grabbed the car keys and stepped, or should I say, staggered out the house a little before five thirty. I needed fuel and so did the car. The usual stop of the Shell garage when travelling in this direction opened at six, with only a slight detour to get to it of the main dual carriageway. I pulled into the garage as it was opening up and lights going on, perfect timing. I filled up and grabbed a can of Red Bull on my way to counter to pay. I drank up on the way to the car and would wait for the rush to kick in shortly. I threw the empty can in the trash before I got back into the car and buckled up.
I was back on the main A14 again within a couple of minutes of leaving the garage and could see in my mirrors the dark clouds following in behind me. The journey was a little tense as a few little pockets of rain hit the car, not enough to put the wipers on, just enough to give me the hump a bit, but I was keeping in front of the rain just. What is even worse than rain? A cyclist hogging the road for no reason. A cycling event was taking place early on a Sunday morning, To be fair to them it wasn’t at a peak time during the day. Some of the these dayglow ‘lycra louts’ were riding two or even three abreast on the left lane of a triple lane carriage way. This A14 is perhaps one of the busiest roads within this and the adjoining county. The only good thing was the roads were fairly quiet at the moment, but cars were swapping lanes avoiding them.
Around half seven, I was just a mile away from the event when the rain started, not heavy enough for the roads to start filling up with puddles as these were now minor back roads. Then a few minutes later the rain stopped just as I pulled into the area main concrete car park, more perfect timing. The master plan had worked, I pretty much beat the rain to the event leaving before the rain hit my village and arriving as the rain was leaving the event. The weather apps both now promised no more rain for the rest of the day. We shall see!
I parked up to dry the the car off and went over to speak to the guys who were still setting up the stand with their merchandise.
I was asked if I was going to enter my car for the judging, I said ‘OK’, thinking it was like most other car shows, if they like it, you get a trophy. They told me to move the car round into the judging area just in front of the main parking area which was separated by barriers. As I was so early, I had the choice where to park, so I parked right in front of the main stand, something I didn’t think through at the time.
However, this judging was going to be a whole new level up for me. The sun was making more frequent little appearances as I was giving the car a better wipe over to make it look more presentable. During this once over stage I was handed a form to fill in; the usual stuff, name, Mustang model, reg number etc. Under those main details were categories with sub categories. Exterior; workmanship, body, paint, bumpers, trim, chrome, gaps, door shuts etc, Underside; exhaust, suspension, fuel tank etc. Interior; seats, trunk, mats, carpets, dash, steering wheel, Wheels & Tyres; cleanliness, condition, wear, so on and so on. I can’t remember all the various categories to be honest. Then there was a last column for the judges to put their comments and scores. This was a pretty serious Mustang version for their style concours judging. However, they do allow for some sensible mods for the older cars. That means you start with one hundred points and then judges knock marks off for things that were wrong or dirty etc. The higher the final score the better. The judging was due to start at eleven(ish) where they started at the far end, working left to right as you look out over to the field. I had to work fast and clean the car for a third time but properly all over again. My trunk looked like I had slept in it on the way down there and needed a good tidy up. I cleaned the spare wheel, wiped over the inside of the paintwork with quick detailer. I took out the chair and show board and arranged everything still left in the trunk as neatly as my OCD would allow. I carry everything I need for detailing, such a quick detailer, hard wax, spray wax, tyre finish, glass cleaner, degreaser, engine dressing, rubber treatment, you name it it’s in the trunk. I don’t carry the full bottles as I decant the products into smaller bottles, they last a couple of shows before they need a top up. That way I save space and it’s easier to store more products.
I got to talking to some others who had now now pulled up and started cleaning their cars too, they were cleaning door hinges to remove excess grease, cleaning their exhausts, even inside the exhausts tips too. I was now cleaning everything with a full on hot flush going on and looking like I had literally just got out of that messy trunk. I managed to ruin a couple of good microfibre cloths while multi step cleaning of various areas. I only take good cloths with me to shows and not the more general ‘work’ cloths, that will now change going forward – just in case. Time was running out, but I did as much as I could for a couple of short hours. The judges eventually got to my car.
There was nothing more I could do except now go for a wander around the field to look at all the other amazing Mustangs; classic, modern, resto mod and everything in between. With these first few pics I was trying to take in the scale of the show. This first pic I took was earlier in the morning, before the majority of the other cars arrived. I think as the sun came out and stayed out, those that were in two minds to come or not, then decided to go to the show a little later on in the morning.
Due to the now accurate weather forecast a few promised cars didn’t make it to the show unfortunately. However there was some stunning cars here, something for everybody.
There is no particular order to these cars I just wandered up and down the lines. The sun was becoming more prominent and longer lasting spells as the day wore on. I spoke to my wife who informed me that it poured down in our village about half an hour after I left.
There was a few non Mustangs that gate crashed the show but still Fords such as Falcons and the odd truck.
Amongst the Mustangs there was some other really nice non Ford American muscle arrive and a lonely VW;
Adam and Lance from Mustang Maniac attended with their 1973 Convertible and GT350 respectively.
There was some stalls around the outside, selling their wares, food, a bar with a break out area with support for the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity too.
After I got back to the car it was time to check out some more of the other cars that had be judged and then a well earned sit down, something to eat and chat to lots of nice people.
At around three in the afternoon the winning trophies were to announced and given out.
There were different categories Concours 1964.5 – 1968, Concours 1969 – 1993, Concours 1994 – 2016, Triple Six motorcycles Choice of Show, Father’s Day award (chosen by the kids), Best modified and Mustang Maniac’s Choice of Show.
The proceedings started with the the 1964.5 to 1968 category reading out in reverse order the points awarded; 3rd was announced, 2nd was announced then with 96 points my name was called out, I had won! There were pictures taken at the time of all the winners, but to be honest – I looked a mess from the morning’s charging around, I never really recovered from it, so I look a bit rough and have seen thge photo’s. 🤦♂️ I was asked a few questions and I answered, the MC got my first name wrong as well, “Matt” instead of “Mart”! I didn’t care to be honest, I was trying to take it all in.
I took the trophy back to the car which was only a few paces away and put it pride of place on the air intake.
The rest of the trophies were given out to the other very deserving winners. Shortly after that there was the raffle which went on for ages as some people had already left meaning that their unclaimed winning ticket were redrawn.
As I was in the middle of the main area I couldn’t leave until the area had cleared and it was safe for me to drive out. That oversight was my own fault for parking where I did. The area cleared eventually and I left just after four. Although I left at the end of the show, I maintained a silly grin on my face all the way home which must have looked strange if you saw me in the car.
To win this type of trophy on an important anniversary for the Mustang means so much to me. Thanks to the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain for putting on a great show and for being very well organised.
When I got home I cleaned the car before covering it up in the garage and took a last photo.
I took the trophy in and placed it on the mantlepiece for the wife to admire with me. She liked it for a while, then I got the “OK, that can go in the garage with the others now”. It’s still there (for now), as I think my wife has given me one week’s grace as I’m so proud of it! I deliberately don’t post when I have won any of my other trophies or prizes as it can sound conceited, but on this occasion I hope you will forgive me.
This is the last of the three posts for the Pageant. I will start this post with the all the random Mustangs that were around the field. There was even a ’67 fastback in Acapulco blue as well.
The guy that owns this fastback has the UK reg plate ‘JJZ109’ which of course is the Bullitt number plate (or reg plate). This car is often seen with a black charger at the same in car shows. The owner has decided that he wants this car to look even more like the movie ‘hero’ car and has started to rough it up a bit. The damage here is intentional. We must remember that it’s the guys car and we shouldn’t judge, I’m not sure it’s something I would personally have done to such a nice car.
In the main tent there was a selection of cars from movie sets, the guide in the tent was telling me that one of these cars is said to have come from “Downton Abby” TV series here in the UK. It’s a series that I never watched, as it’s not my thing. So I tried to Google the cars, but my searches haven’t found the car(s), again I’m happy to be corrected on this.
Leaving the tent to go onto the other side of the field there was the main club stands. I mingled around them to get most of them in shot.
I mentioned there was an unusual engine at the show. This is it, a Merlin engine from a WWII Spitfire plane.
The engine fired up a few times throughout the day and it drowned all the noise out from the field. I couldn’t get near the engine as it was constantly busy. The sound, just deafening and mesmerising at the same time.
I was back at the Mustang Maniac stand and there was a steady flow of people wanting to speak to Adam and ask about the cars, especially the ’73 red convertible that he had up for sale. I got my chilled drink and set up my camping chair for a well earned sit down.
The sun cream was slapped on and I enjoyed sitting down people watching f or the rest of the day. Before I left for home I had a secret weapon – a can of Red Bull sugar free. I finished the can and got into the car around half four in the afternoon and set of for home. I wanted to be fully alert as I suspected I might be tired on the way home. The slogan that ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ wasn’t quite true as I had to endure the lunatics driving on the M25 back home again. To fly home would have been nice, but I wouldn’t have enjoyed my car. Once I got back onto the main dual carriageways again getting away from the London area things start to calm down and I could relax a little on the way home. I even got the odd wave from kids in cars and the odd motor cyclist too. As I drove into my road I could open the garage door ready to drive the car straight into the garage. I didn’t cover the car as I would have to clean the car on the Sunday. Why the rush and not clean it as I always do before garaging? It started to rain. I managed to get the car in the garage with just a few spots of water on the car. By the time I got the trunk unloaded, closed the garage door behind me and got into the house, the rain came down like a tap. Literally a minute later on the road and the car would have got soaked. As far as I was concerned it was a great day out at a very busy and popular car show, great company, and I spoke to many really nice people about my car too. I couldn’t of asked for more, apart from my bed as the Red Bull had worn of and I was pretty tired to say the least. On Sunday the sun was out for a couple of hours where I managed to clean the car, cover it up and plug in the trickle charger back in ready for the next adventure.
Driving a classic car can be tiring for long distances, just ask any owner. We are constantly looking out for people who want to wreck our cars through their stupidity or their inconsiderate actions. We are looking for pot holes, lose gravel in the road for stone chips, debris in the road, keeping a good distance from the car in front etc. the concentration can be intense!
As I finished my last post I mentioned that part 2 will show my favourite car of the show and here it is; the mighty DE Tomaso Pantera. I had a long chat with the owner who was telling me about the 351 Windsor engine in the middle which tends to set the neighbours car alarms off when he starts it up in the morning. Not many of these cars around now and this was a fine example, just beautiful. Another poster car for many teenage kids.
Moving on down the lines of cars I was working way towards the stalls on the right hand side of the field as you drive in.
There was a an old School bus (I think), which had been converted to a motorhome. I would loved to have had a look inside, but it was all closed up unfortunately. I would love to be enlightened what these vehicles are under the yellow exterior and can you even buy them?
I was at the end of the individual entries of cars and at the main tent and funfair. The was a display of radio controlled models that were on an oval track which were just smashing into each other demolition derby style.
I spotted this dog who was totally at home on this tyre and was getting lots of attention.
There was plenty of stalls for auto parts as well as the usual car boot or yard sale items. There was a live band playing regular sets throughout the day, but we didn’t get much chance to hear them from where I was with Mustang Maniac.
After this section as the for sale stalls it was time to move over to the other side of the filed which I will bring in ‘part 3’. There will be an unusual engine and the block of Mustangs collated from various parts of the field.
On the 25th of May I attended the Enfield Pageant of Motoring as a guest of Mustang Maniac. The weather looked promising and was going to be a very welcome change from the usual rain over the weekend. The Saturday was going to be the better day with some showers on the Sunday. So the Saturday I got rudely awoken by the alarm at five in the morning, or should I say middle of the night? I sort of stumbled out of bed, woke the wife and then the very short process of waking the dogs from their deep sleep to then being ‘off on one’ wanting to go out right there and then. I eventually got ready and and loaded up the cool bag with lunch, snacks and drinks. I had previously uncovered the car in the garage, disconnected the trickle charger and already put in the the postcode into the SatNav, I just needed to plug it in and turn on from ‘sleep mode’ to resume the directions. The dash cam also sprung into life as the engine fired into life. I sent a text to Adam to say that I was now leaving just a little before six.
The journey there was interrupted by a obligatory stop at the Shell VPower station for a little top up of five gallons. I didn’t fancy having to pay London prices on top of the already premium cost of the VPower fuel. I got back on the road and thoroughly enjoyed my drive, that is until I got to the outer London car park also known as the M25. Then within a space of two miles it seemed as though it was the film set of Mad Max Fury Road where everybody was trying to kill each other. I did my best to avoid the carnage as best as I could, I was traumatised by the time I got off the motorway. There was speed cameras what seemed like on every gantry and the lamp posts when I got the motorway some short ten minutes later. I got to the Pageant at around seven forty and drove up to the Mustang Maniac plot. A total of seventy seventy three miles to get there.
Adam and Lance were there unloading the Falcon and the electric (road worthy) buggy he had there for the weekend.
We had a quick discussion on how we were going to park and I took the corner spot. I then had a little drive of the Falcon to park that up too.
I think Adam felt sorry for me as he kindly bought me and Lance an all you can eat full English breakfast at the carvery just before you enter the show ground. You can trust me when I say that they didn’t make any profit from us as we certainly die honour the ‘all we could eat’ offer. In fact I was so full after the breakfast and ‘free refills’ of soda that I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. I think my veins were pumping pure cholesterol rather than blood, but it was very nice I must say.
On the day I took just over three hundred photos. Some of those photos I have shared with Mustang Maniac for their blog. I try to keep my posts to around a hundred or so photos to keep the loading times down and not make it a scroll fest and getting bored. So I aim to post these three posts in fairly quick succession.
The walk back was welcome to stretch of the legs and helped walk some of the breakfast down. There was some more cars turning up on the stand and we even had a Pontiac ‘ringer’ park with us.
Adam relaxing after the breakfast and sitting with his much loved vintage flat bed.
Directly behind the the Mustang Maniac pitch was the Afro Classic Register who were providing us with entertaining music throughout the day via some more than capable in-car sound systems.
To take the pics I started in their direction heading towards the back of the field. This part of the field where individual entry cars were lined up in rows. I wandered up and down the rows taking pics of the interesting cars, rather than the six year old everyday cars that were parking up.
This is the end of the batch of rows and is an ideal time to stop ready for the ‘part 2’ of the show. I came across my car of the show at the start of the next post.
There are numerous types of hub caps for wheels these days. My Magnum 500s are no exception, mine are 1969 15″ x 7″ version. They aren’t period correct for the car, as my car had steel wheels originally and full faced hub caps, the original wheel I still have in my trunk. I always wanted chrome wheels with a classic five spoke in each corner, for me the only option was the Magnum 500s. Not a cheap hobby, but for me they are worth every single penny.
The centre of the Magnums can be 2″ or 2 1/8″ centre hole. You would need to make sure what hole you have in order for the centre hub caps to fit properly. I happen to have the 2″ opening on my wheels.
The Scott Drake centres I have look great and haven’t been a problem, that is until a couple of weeks ago. I was driving to a show and I could hear a new metallic clattering from the left front of the car. It was driving me mad to thinking what and where it was coming from on the way there. I parked up at the show and spend a little while under the front to see if I could see anything out of place, I couldn’t see anything. I spent all day thinking about what it was, I checked under the car again before I left, nothing out of place. I drove home with my window fully open driving on the back roads even slower than I normally drive. My head was hanging out the car window like a dog sniffing the air, listening for the pesky noise. It was still there, but not getting worse. When I got home and pulled the car into the garage, got changed into some old garage clothes and had another look to see anything was wrong, nothing. I jacked the car up and banged the tyre – there it was, the noise. I tapped the centre hub cap and it was loose. It was the last thing I was expecting to be honest, but relieved.
I gave the cap a little pull to see just how loose it was, in case it would fly off driving along. I was not impressed, it had a lot of play and I suspected it would come off sooner or later. There is no way I could go to car show with a centre cap missing either. The wheel would need to come off to remove the cap and backing plate. It wouldn’t have looked that bad without the cap at a show as my wheel bearing cap is clean anyway, but my OCD just wouldn’t allow it. I was also worried about it flying up and damaging my car. These centre caps are fairly substantial in weight as they are metal and not plastic.
With the wheel off and I undone the very loose screws which confirmed that it wouldn’t have been long before it came off. I turned over the cap there are six studs that are lightly soldered to the backing plate, this is then in turn secured via four screw holes in the inner plate to the wheel.
I had a bright idea to try and resolder the plate back in place, being mindful of the plastic centre on the other side. I tried and failed miserably, the heat transferred around the backing plate quicker than I expected and the other solders popped open as well. I marked up with arrows the two studs I tried to repair. You can see the others now under the the distorted backing plate. It was worth a shot.
With the plate now completely loose (broken) the actual centre could be lifted out. The problem started with a broken post (circled below) which had weekend the fitting and thus worked it loose with the wheel’s vibrations from our pot hole riddled roads, or should I say circular road trenches? Not only had the heat travelled around the backing plate to pop the other solders, in bottom right pic below you can also see the plastic had started to melt, craze and discolour too. I messed it up good and proper.
So I couldn’t go to a car show like that. I went to Mustang Maniac instead to get a replacement one, link here for the hub cap if you want them.
Refitting the centre cap is literally a five minute job, but there is a little technique to it.
To fit or change them the wheel needs to be removed, I’m not going to tell how to do that, apart from, loosen the lug nuts on the ground before jacking up. Once jacked fully remove the lug nuts and wheel. The cap itself is in two main parts; the outer facing pretty bit, and the retaining inner plate held in place by four screws and locking washers.
Align the hub cap to the centre hole and put the retaining plate on the inside of the wheel. I aligned my ‘Pony’ to sit the right way up under the “B F Goodrich” white letters, Yes my OCD again rearing its ugly head again.
A magnetic screw driver is your best friend for this step. place the inner plate to the outer cap and lightly hold in place with two screws.
Once it held roughly in place add a drop of thread locker screw onto the two spare screws. Leave enough play to align the cap up properly, making the final adjustments before fully tightening up.
Once you have those two screws in place remove the first two and again add thread locker to the remaining two screws and replace.
Make any final adjustments and then tighten the screws firmly. Mount the wheel back onto the spindle or axle (depending where the wheel came from).
Replace the lug nuts by hand first and spin on with fingers to make sure they are not cross threaded. Tighten up to a snug fit on the studs with enough force to pull the wheel into place. Lower the car back down and tighten fully with a torque wrench in a star pattern. My lugs are tightened to 80ft/lb for these wheels and nuts combination.
Difference? None as it was a like for like swap out. It only took a total of half an hour to remove the wheel, replace the cap, align it (optional) and refit the wheel.
That’s it, dead simple. There are many designs out there for centres caps depending on your taste for colour or design. There are specific caps for Shelby, Cobra, or GT350 of course. My car is none of the later sort after models, so I wouldn’t try and pretend that it’s something it’s not.
As much as like the black Tri-Bar Mustang logo (above left), I just wanted something a bit more subtle that doesn’t distract the eyes from the chrome and the white letters on the tyres. The blue caps also looked nice, but it wasn’t the right shade of my car’s blue and may have looked a little out of place. The chrome and black theme just works for me. I also cleaned the white letters on that wheel after fitting it and realised that the wheel now made the other wheels look dirty. So I then spent another half hour on each wheel cleaning those white letters too, it’s all part of the joy of chrome and white letters or white wall tyres.
I could now go to the car show which was the Enfield Pageant of Motoring with Mustang Maniac. That was a large show and I will be splitting the write up over a couple of posts to save your scroll fatigue through all the photos I took on the day.
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.
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.
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.
The first car show of the weekend was held at West Suffolk College in Bury St Edmunds, about ten miles away from me. The weather was going to be perfect for me, temperature was low to mid twenties with light cloud cover, according to my app of course. I was looking forward to a car show on a Saturday as well as on a Sunday. The added bonus that I got out of doing some gardening that my wife had got lined up for me. I did sort of feel guilty, for all of about thirty seconds until I started the car up that is.
Cars had to be in place by nine thirty ready for ten when the public was allowed in. I got there about five minutes before the so called cut of point. However, I needn’t of worried as cars were still arriving well after ten. The Bury Retro Car Club had reserved a number of spaces so parking was guaranteed.
I had attended this show a few years back, but hadn’t been since due to the lack of variation of cars. This is a show that was to have a bit of everything; trucks, rat rods, hot rods, low riders, new cars and a few year old cars. I started from one end of the large car park to the other.
There was a stand from the college who participate in motor racing who support mental health and wellbeing called ‘Driven Minds’ which is a great cause, click here for their link. Alongside them was an ambulance stand that was doing well with the younger children being allowed to turn the sirens on every so often. I thought I had taken a photo of them, but I must have deleted it while reviewing the pics, my bad! The show was called ‘West and Loud’, but the flyers were shown as ‘We stand Loud’, a clever way to move a couple of letters to make the title read something meaningful, see the top left below pic.
The lower part of the car park was pretty much your every day daily driver cars and not much to report there, go to any supermarket and you will see plenty of them. There was a couple of rare cars mixed in among them, such as the patina brown Granada, Capri and the Rover SDI.
This Nissan import model I have never seen before.
Towards the main entrance was an area where the Japanese cars were lurking.
There was area for some motorbikes and one had some stunning artwork painted on it.
I got back to the club stand where just a few meters away was the BBQ stall now in full smoke mode selling all sorts of fantastic smelling foods. Temptation was very strong.
Sadly not as many of the club members turned up as expected.
There was a couple more cars still turning up whilst on my walk about.
The show was scheduled to finish at two in the afternoon, about half hour before that the majority of cars started to leave. The journey home was via a petrol station, leisurely and thoroughly enjoyable, apart from the open wallet surgery performed after filling up. The car was parked straight into the garage and left uncovered as it would be out again early in the morning for the next show.
All in all, a good show with some nice cars that I hadn’t seen before. I had some great conversations with some lovely people, and even let a few people sit in my car too.
