Hedingham Castle

This car show took place in 2^nd August 2021 on the outskirts of Colchester which is the oldest town in the UK. This was a new show for me and I was looking forward to it especially as I hadn’t been there before.

The weather apps said there was a round thirty percent chance of rain later in the day. When I got up the sky looked grey but felt dry, so I decided to go for it. I got the car out and set up the Sat Nav for a scenic route and set off for an unknown journey.

When I got to the castle there was a board outside that said “closed to visitors no entry”, I was not impressed. I couldn’t see any cars inside and and also couldn’t see any cars arriving.

I backed out onto the road to drive around and look to see what was going on. I saw a guy walking his dog and asked him if he knew anything about it. Lucky for me he did. He said that they put the sign up to stop castle visitors but the car show was on. So I drove back again and past the sign. A very slight curve and I saw the marshals and a few cars parked up. I was directed to the field that was on a bit of a slope and wet. I was having trouble trying to get traction where they parked me and said I could move over a little on the flatter part of the field. I was grateful for her consideration and said thanks, but I mentioned if it rains I would have trouble getting out.

The plus side is that I had a great view of the castle from below.

I got out to speak to the guys next to me a couple of nice guys I knew who were walking over to me who are also in the Bury Retro Car Club that I’m a member of. About ten minutes later the head marshal came over to tell me that a car club had cancelled (around 125 cars) and would not be coming due to the potential weather, would I like to move?

I said yes and pointed to the main walkway which was on a path where my two friends had just come from. She agreed I was allowed to move and parked up near them with a fantastic backdrop.

Then it happened, a few spots of drizzle! Rain wasn’t due for another three hours or so. As I stood looking up to the sky another friend who owns a newer Mustang pulled next to me.

The area where I was parked is such a nice place with walk ways and a large pond.

I decided to walk around and take some pictures before it started to rain.

I was quite taken with this truck and would be my a project I would like to do next.

Walking up the slight incline the was a little bridge over to the castle on the left.

I reckon my car would have looked good under these arches but it wasn’t being allowed from what I could see, a real shame though.

Towards the top of the incline there was a house with a few big luxury cars.

Turning to the left you walk over the bridge to the castle which was planted in the middle of a large green and the cars were parked around the outside, mainly clubs from what I could see.

Towards the back of the Alfa Romeo there was a drop and an opening where you could look down on where I was parked.

With a little bit of zoom.

By the time I got back to the car there was a few new cars arrived, this brand new 2021 Mustang Mach1. Why this is even in a car show i don’t know, I can see this in any Ford car showroom that stocks them.

A little further down I had a childhood flashback, my first bike, ‘Raleigh Chopper’. This are now holding stupid silly money like £1,000 for the early models.

The rain started to fall and I found a nice shaded area under a tree where I could keep dry. Obviously I had to close the hood.

When the rain stopped the hood went back up along with the show board.

There was the occasional spells of sun but more frequent and longer rain showers. With that in mind I decided to leave, I was only there for a few hours in the end. The drive home was getting wetter by the minute, it was a good choice to leave I’m sad to say.

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Lavenham Car Show August 29th 2021

One of my favourite car shows of the year as it’s a beautiful drive out to the sleepy little village, and it’s just a nice environment. Not over flowing with modern cars, and a real family type day out. This year there was a lot of Jags on show, I mean a lot, MK1 and MK2. I reckon the Jag Owners club turn of some sort turned up en masse.

I got up early as usual and thoroughly enjoyed the drive through the country lanes, until some idiot in a Renault (white) van wanted to sit right up my rear. It did bother me a bit as I wanted to relax and enjoy the country side, so I ignored him. I was in good mood and didn’t care about the rest of the world that morning.

I pulled into the venue and was told where to park. The same spot as last year on the end near the entrance. Where I quite like to be and can watch the cars come in 🙂

I spent a fair amount of time checking the App that no rain was forecast, but it was little nippy in the slight breeze when the sun was hiding behind some clouds. This was taken about half hour before the public was allowed in, so not all the cars were in place.

I wasn’t very hungry until I got the delicious waft of bacon and sausage baps being cooked around ten in the mornin’ just the gates were opened to the public, not a coincidence I’m sure. As I didn’t have my wallet with me, being the absent minded fool, I had left it in the garage. I went hungry, apart from the little packed lunch I took with me. Cheese and ham sarnie just doesn’t cut it, but the ham was as close as I was going to get to bacon on that day!

Parked up next to in the American stand was a Pontiac station wagon, the owner was saying that there is only one other in the country!

I decided to go for a walk about half hour after I had wiped the car over. So in no particular order, but I walked clockwise around the circular shaped format of the cars.

This lovely car was tucked in a corner,

There was a limited Super car section, where the Lambo and DeLorean combo were together again. The Ferrari was a replica of course.

I’m not into motorbikes as they scare the hell out of me, but this Subaru flat four based trike was amazing.

When i had finished doing my rounds I got back to my car and found that it was hoods up time. Not to be outdone I had to do the same.

I left about half hour before the end so I could drive home at my own pace. Another beautiful trip home, not cars trying to get in my trunk and I was in my own little world just listening to the beating heart of a Ford Small block V8. Is there anything better to end the day than that? To cap it all – it didn’t rain either.

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T Park Lock

I was going to post all about my second to last car show, but I have some exciting news where I have teamed up with Mustang Maniac which I can share with you today. (I have been given permission to use their photos and video.)

Mustang Maniac has developed a replacement standard “T handle” shift lock for the early Mustangs ’64 to ’73.

It’s called the “T Park Lock”

The handle is designed to be a direct replacement part of the original T handle, but will retain that all important stock look. The lock works by putting the shifter into ‘Park’ and simply pressing in the button on the right of the handle. This locks the black button on the left from being depressed and so you can’t move the gear stick into any drivable position and the gearbox stays locked in ‘park’. Simple, but effective. Anything we can do to slow or prevent our precious cars being stolen is worth it. For a relatively small amount it think it’s a must have purchase to be honest.

With the lock in place nobody will really notice any difference from the stock T handle.

When the handle is unlocked the barrel will spring out and stop. With the lock disengaged the chrome of the handle continues on to the lock barrel itself.

When you have unlocked and removed the key (optional to remove the key), you just shift as normal, if you do press the button in while going along, you can still shift to neutral when convenient to unlock again. Or if you prefer drive with the key in the lock simply unlock again when you need to.

The lock comes supplied with two keys and as are unique to that lock, none of the that one key fits all the locks the same!

To fit the lock it’s a two minute job, remove the old handle, replace it with this one and tighten into place. For added security you can place a small drop of glue onto the grub screw to stop it being removed via the allen key. No garage fees to fit, or maintenance. Fit and click.

I have personally been using the prototype of the product for the last few months and it works flawlessly. To see it in action the Mustang Maniac guys put up a video of the lock in action.

I will be selling these and can be purchased here.

You can also see the link under my “For Sale” heading in the top menu bar.

OR copy and paste this link into your browser: T Park Lock – One Man And His Mustang

If you need any further details, help or questions, just leave a comment or contact me.

Park up & Lock up!

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Stonham Barns

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

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

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

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