My wanderings around the show was about halfway round now. It was now around lunch time and the public was still coming into the show. I did spot that some of the cars arriving were also classics which were being parking up in the public areas, and getting their own attention amidst the see of Euro wind tunnel designed boxes. This car show is always fully booked and you need to get in early, or at least be a member of a car club.

My car of the show is this beautifully stored Willys Jeep, not for the paint job or rarity. The owners attention to detail was evident throughout. I wanted to drive it home and that is what matters to me for picking my car of the show.

The rest of the show needed to be explored, but first the collection of Mustangs:

There was a Lotus restorers there with some amazing cars.

I eventually got back to my car and the urge for food was greater than ever due to the many other food stalls now fired up. There was the more generic ‘craft’ style stalls there as well.

The show was due to finish at three thirty in the afternoon with show cars being allowed to move at three.

With my issue of having not a lot of fuel I was watching where the public were leaving, and where I could cut into the queue as near the exit as possible. Again this was round the back of the school on a single track so the wait was around ten minutes to get out. I made the point of leaving just after three in order to miss the traffic jam. Eventually I got to the roads and headed back home. I did arrive home with the fuel gauge showing empty. I suspect there was more in the tank, but you can’t be sure in these old cars. I didn’t want to be held up just in case. I do carry a spare fuel can in the trunk. However, it’s not full as the hot weather can make the fuel expand and the fuel has a shelf life anyway. I will need to get some fuel before the show, so that will be via a Jerry can, enough to get me to the petrol station and fill up properly.

The weather? It was mostly cloudy with the odd breakthrough of sun. Not enough for the factor fifty, but at least there was no rain.

A great show as always, well organised but they do need to sort out the entry and access delays.

This year the Rotary Classic Car Show at Culford was held on 14th July 2024 and is one of the biggest in the East Anglia area with over six hundred cars on show. I really enjoy this show and is always booked up well in advance for both entrants as well as stall holders. The setting is located in a private school grounds and only takes about thirty minutes for me to get there. In fact it took longer to drive down the access road than it did to arrive at the venue. There were delays getting to the display area as there a speed bumps and some low riders were having trouble getting over them. As I didn’t see many at the show for a few cars that had issues they could have driven over the grass at the sides of the path. In fact my car’s long headers do hang pretty low, so I too have to be careful and always take speed humps slowly. The ground was dry and wouldn’t have damaged the grounds. The drive to the main display field is always a pleasant experience.

Eventually I was pointed to the Bury Retro Car Club stand where I parked up and got out to chat to few friends who were there before me. After the exchange of banter I got back to the car to give it a little wipe over before I started my wanderings round the show.

First things first the car club was parked near some food stands and I thought I would treat myself to a nice sausage roll. That would have been fine if I had remembered to bring my wallet. This was a problem in itself as I also needed to get some fuel on the way home as the fuel gauge was now lower than it’s usually allowed to get. As there wasn’t going to be a fuel stop now the drive home was going to be a steady gentle drive home. The weather was promising to be dry all day although the cloud cover was coming over with patches of sun.

The plan was to start on one side and work across the field, I started with the club stand itself:

The only thing I will group in part 2 will be the Mustangs that were at the show. In order to save huge amounts of photos, I tried to take a more multi car shots without loosing the details of the cars.

At the end of the first row there was a Ferrari stand with some beautiful examples on show.

A modern an increasingly rare car that I still have a very, very big soft spot for them.

The public was getting very busy and I managed to grab these couple of shots before the general public came in as the event opened at ten o’clock.

There is much more to come from this show in part 2.