The biggest car show I attend and my favourite took place last weekend at Helmingham Hall, or to give the show it’s full title ‘Festival of Classic and Sports Cars’. The show was booked up for 1,200 cars with the expected foot fall of 8,000 people. I think it was a little more than that as it was properly wedged with people all day. This show my mate Craig was coming with me and we made a time to leave my house at eight in the morning, an early start for Craig. We loaded the car up and set off bang on time and took a leisurely drive to the event. My ticket was Tollemache 110 which means we have nice parking spot in from of the hall and lunchtime tea and cake. We parked up and we got a waft of bacon. That prompted a mission to go find some breakfast, we didn’t have to travel far to find a hotdog stall, we got a couple which was £7 each or the best part of $10 dollars! That’s just a a rip off I’m afraid, but demand will command the price. I paid it so I can’t complain, but it was a good start to the day for sure. We booked our time for tea and cake and caught up with another friend Lee and his daughter who had an MX5 who was also on the Tollmache area and was going to do a run down the main driveway and back again for crowd entertainment which is always popular part of the day.
The event is split into two fields, to the left of the hall is the club stands, and to the right is the privateers on display. We decided to check out the club stands first. This was taken early before the public were allowed in and shows the hall and some of the cars for the Tollemache. The fields are brown and no green grass as half of the UK is now in ‘drought’ conditions with hosepipe bans everywhere. The dry fields is a nightmare for dust in the air but I somehow coped with the stress of the dust!
Due to number of cars I have taken pictures of many cars together to save umpteen scrawling pages, I decided to split the show into two parts with around one hundred and seventy photos on each post, just to make it easier on the eye. With the sun being so bright I tried to get the best pics I could without glare.
Of course there was a Mustang stand, but not a single old school classic Mustang on their stand sadly.
More American Muscle.
The first few pics here are of a genuine Lamborghini Countach, this is relevant for a couple of cars a little bit later on.
We finished the field as the announcements for the driveway run were announced. Lee was due to be up first but a unmarked police car went first, yes I did make a note of the number plate! Here we have Lee in his car being interviewed before he set off and made his return back up the drive.
I’m not quite sure what Lee has done to his car, but it sounds like a flat four boxer engine or even a V8. Regardless it sounded pretty good with a pop and bang overrun compared to most MX5s.
I only have a my Samsung phone so the zoom is a little pixelated on the way back up the drive (sorry Lee), but a few action shots of him anyway.
The start of the driveway run was perfect timing as we were now at the top of the drive and near my car. We watched the cars, me from the top and Craig wandered a bit further down to get some head on shots. After the runs, I needed to put more sun screen on as I was getting hot and get a cold drink was needed. Craig, Lee and his daughter wandered of to get some food which allowed this poor ol’ timer to sit his ass down and take that well earned drink and rest! Craig got back looking pleased with himself holding a nice pot of noodles. We ate our food while we people watched for half an hour or so before we went for our tea and cake in the courtyard.
The area for the refreshments is in a quiet little courtyard with a dozen or so table spaced out for little peace and quiet from the ‘car’nage (see what I did there) of people walking around. We found some shaded area and enjoyed our cakes, mine was a Cherry Madeira and Craig had a full on triple chocolate job. As I don’t drink tea or coffee, as I don’t like the taste of either, Craig had my tea as well.
Part two will be tomorrow at the same time where I name my car of the show, and have some great shots of my car. The second field walk around to look at the privateers.