Tag: Lakenheath

Anglo American Feltwell 2026

Advertisements

Last weekend’s car show was on a Saturday and not a Sunday which made a pleasant change. It meant that I could write up about the show in my own time on the Sunday. Especially useful excuse when the wife wants me to cut the grass or do some DIY, I can’t keep my readers waiting now can I? The show was in the next county from from me, about a fifty minutes drive through some beautiful countryside of Thetford Forest. The show is listed as Anglo American Feltwell Classic Car Show which is always well attended. I managed to get to this show a couple of years ago and was surprised by the heavy American classics there. Feltwell is surrounded by some US airbases, two of the big bases are Mildenhall and Lakenheath, the smaller one is Feltwell itself. I like driving round this part of the country as the American cars from the bases are used on a daily basis and seen out and about. It always feels like home around Lakenheath as its where the serviceman was stationed that owned my car bought when he brought it to the UK with him. I was expecting plenty of American muscle and I wasn’t wrong.

I arrived at the location an hour or so after setting off with a couple mishaps on the way. The first being a water mains was leaking and running down an incline of a road. My nice clean car was now getting splattered with dirty water. To those behind me, it must have looked as though I was intoxicated trying to drive around the little streams trying to mitigate the dirt sticking to the car. The second issue was me missing the entrance to the show. It was ‘sign posted’ (I use that in the loosest of terms), by the odd bit of A4 paper stuck on the odd lamp post. I saw a few cars pulling into the turning in my mirrors and pulled over into into a layby. When there was a gap in the traffic I started the six point turn in the middle of the road. No sooner had I started my manoeuvres a dozen cars or so in each direction came into view, I couldn’t write it. Yep, I was that person who held everybody up! Once I turned around in what seemed like minutes, I pulled into the narrow lane and was directed onto the field. The marshal told me that they were going to keep all the Mustangs together, that was the theory but it didn’t work out that way.

The weather was holding out, with periods of sunshine and the odd cloud. I got straight to work on cleaning the car, when a couple of friends caught up with me (also fellow Mustang owners), and asked me if I needed therapy as my car had gotten dirty. I did say that I needed to lay down in a darkened room to get over the trauma though.

By the time I had finished cleaning, the show which started at ten was getting busy. Time for my wander round for the photo’s and started at the back of the field and worked my way up and down the lines.

At the end of the first line there was a nice Ford truck with a Mustang on a trailer. It didn’t get moved off the trailer, so I don’t know if it had been picked up or being delivered, but it made for a few nice shots.

Moving onto the second row of cars, many more were still coming into the show, even though it had now opened to the public.

This slammed Lincoln was getting some interest from the younger public.

The guy who owned this Thunderbird also owned a couple of other cars, namely the white Studebaker from the first batch of photos of this post.

The next row was where the Mustangs started, they were also scattered around the field, but I collated all the Mustangs here. The first one I think has an identity crisis and was trying to identify as number of Mustangs according to the grill. The limited edition Bullitt Mustangs were out in force and was parked either side of me.

Lot’s of great newer American muscle cars here too but they didn’t look out of place with the classics.

There was bunch of trucks together, I’m not sure if it was by organisation or not, but it was interesting to see how they have grown in size up to the massive orange Dodge Ram (which was also for sale at £120,000).

The rest of the cars from the lines in no particular order.

There was a number of motorbikes coming in and out throughout the day, mostly Harley Davdisons.

After my wandering up and down the lines I took a well earned break for a spot of lunch and got the chair out for some serious people watching. I was going to get a burger, but when I saw the price of £8 and heard the not so pleasant comments about them, I decided against it.

Although it has to be said the beer tent did look tempting for an ice cold beer, but I won’t drink and drive.

During my rest up watching the world go by, then I spotted them, two plod. They were wandering around the car show looking at the cars.

I heard one of them ask one guy about his number plate to which the guy said “no it’s just my show plate”. I can’t say for sure why they were there, perhaps they wanted to look at the lovely cars, or was it something more sinister? Surely they had better things to do? Everybody was on best behaviour, no revving up engines or leaving the show sideways. The plod walked past the front of my car and looked at my reg plate, I was expecting some sort of comment, although I’m allowed black plates with silver numbers. Perhaps they thought my plate was a show plate as well and didn’t bother. Regardless of what they were up to, I wouldn’t have engaged with them.

Marts Car of The Show:

This was it, a beautiful Oldsmobile Holiday. It caught my eye from a distance where I initially thought it was Chevy Bel Air. I was hoping to chat with the owner, but I didn’t catch them sadly. The car was immaculate and a seriously loved car by the looks of it.

The show was due to finish at four, but a number of cars started to leave around lunch. I got talking to few nice people and with a guy who was telling me about buying his Mustang from new in the ’60s, I love those stories. At two in the afternoon I made the decision to leave as the sun was coming out less frequently and the clouds were getting darker.

The journey home was amazing and peaceful, apart from my exhaust note through the forest on the way home. The water leak I drove through on the way here had stopped and dried up on the road where it had previously been running down. I arrived home and wiped the car down straight away to put it away. The house was quiet apart from the energetic greetings of the dogs. I plonked myself on the sofa and looked at the photo’s I had taken for this post to do a bit of quality control. Before I knew it, I had nodded off for an hour, I was only woken up by the sound of the dogs having a mental at the wife as she returned home from her hair appointment. What a great way to end the day after a great show.

Share my Content

Feltwell Anglo American Car Show (part 2)

Advertisements

Carrying on from last weeks post where I only got halfway round the Feltwell Anglo American Car Show, I will continue with some more great cars. The weather was super sunny with a few clouds coming over later in the afternoon, and made it tricky to take some photos of the cars especially with the polished chrome and glossy paint jobs.

I’m not sure if the Anglo American theme extends to some Japanese fast cars or some German campers that had infiltrated the ranks! However, it was good to see them as they are getting rarer to find.

This Lada was getting some looks, it’s not the best of cars when it was unleashed on the public, but this was different as it was on air ride. He kindly let some kid in the car to bounce the car’s suspension, after a minute or so of some frantic movements there was a large bang and the car slammed down on the rear suspension. It turned out a pipe had broken and was haemorrhaging hydraulic fluid badly. The owner just said “Oh well, Looks like I’m in for bumpy ride home”.

Moving on to the rest of the rows of cars;

These are the longest cars I think I have seen apart from the stretched limos and hearses.

I don’t much about these Rocket 88’s, but it was an amazing car and I would have been happy to drive around in a pink one. Happy to be educated if anybody knows.

Then we come back to the Normal sized cars.

This MG ZT had a Mustang engine in it, but I think the owner was confused if it was an MG or Mustang, it looked a little odd to be honest with the classic Mustang emblems on it.

A nice selection of trikes all parked up with an accompanying Meatloaf sound track, so I stayed there for a couple of great songs.

I loved this Thunderbird, but in this light blue colour it looked like giant Hot Wheels car, or is it my imagination. Cracking car though.

The replica AC Cobra had the hood up and couldn’t wait to see under the hood. I was disappointed as it wasn’t a Ford block. In fact I would liken it opening a copy of Play Boy expecting to see some artistic photos of lovely ladies, only to find pictures of a building site. The disappointment was real, but It did sound nice.

The biggest engine of the day:

After I had looked all around I wandered back to my car for some lunch and get the hood up and assume the position in my chair.

I had a fantastic time and around three o’clock I decided to leave before before the queues started to form. To help with the traffic flow I was direct out a different way to the way I came in, the SatNav complained a bit, but I followed her directions. I’m glad I did because I drove right past the gates where My car would have driven through a few times over the years that she was stationed here with her owner.

The journey wasn’t as scenic as the journey to get to the show, but I will take an open road anytime! The fence on the right is part of the Lakenheath airbase itself.

I arrived home and spent fair amount of time getting the stubborn pollen of the car that had settled on the car while in the field. My hay fever was playing me big time as a result, but it was all worth it for such a good day. I will absolutely make sure I attend this show again. Well run show, great cars and the first show of the season. Will the other shows come close to this one? I hope so.

Share my Content

Back To Base

Advertisements

Yesterday was a car show that I was quite looking forward to for a couple of reasons. The first was that I was going to meet up with Lance and Paul in their Coupes so it would be an unofficial Mustang Maniac day out as it were. The second was that my car was imported into the UK from the USA and was home here to my car before she was sold, then neglected. RAF Lakenheath is the venue in Suffolk located not far away from Mildenhall Airbase. The area has a heavy American presence and as I love the Americans I couldn’t wait to get there. In fact I would love to live in America. There are always lots of American cars driving around the area, more so the modern cars than the classics.

Yesterday “we” was being composed of Lance and his fiancée Sam, Paul had brought along his son Mason, and billy no mates me, had all arranged to meet up at a McDonald’s just a few short miles away from the base itself. Lance and Paul are not far from each other and came up together and caught up with me there. We all parked up together and enjoyed a quick bite of breakfast.

Mine obviously the the blue one, Paul with his red ’66 Coupe and Lance with his ’65 Coupe. it made a great sight and already attracted a few glances with the odd photo before we got to the air base. After a quick freshen up we all started up our cars, all three of us had Flowmaster exhausts who all accidentally might have given a few more revs than normal. OMG! it sounded awesome and three grown up kids had a smile as big as the grill on their cars. A few short miles later we pulled into Lakenheath and there we waited, and waited some more.

This was going to be the first Wings & Wheels event, as last years was cancelled due to a known IS sympathiser vermin was seen cruising up and down stopping by the base boundaries. This year no such happenings, but the security was tight. Armed guards were checking registrations against the previously provided photo IDs. There was an undercover area where cars were called into a shed and we had to open the doors, hood and truck and then stand in an office/cabin that had the windows blacked out so you couldn’t see what was going on to your car. We were then allowed to go free and had to wait for a sufficient number of cars to be escorted around the base to an allocated area where the cars were going to be for the afternoon. The area was fenced off and more security checking in the visitors. We were not allowed to leave before five thirty in the evening where you would be again escorted from the base to the exit. During my drive around the base I wondered where my car was driven and stored while the original US owner lived and worked here. My car was back home, technically back on USA soil, all be it for a few hours, also where she was first shipped over to in the UK.

We got parked up in make shift parking spaces and I cleaned my car while the others gave be some verbal “encouragement” to hurry up and get on with it. Paul had to park in the row behind us which was more of luck than anything else so at least we were together of sorts. Lance was next to me and we were in turn next to a load of newish BMW’s that are common on the road as tarmac is.

We hand a wander around and pretty much saw everything we needed to see within an hour or so. Many of the promised cars didn’t turn up and there was a lot of empty spaces in our oversized pen, i would say around no more than two hundred cars and that would be generous, most of those newer cars. There was some lovely local food offering all things American, hotdogs, sausages and took both Dollars and Pounds as payment.

I hate to say it but the show wasn’t that good. There was plenty of stuff for the kids to do with lots of fun fair rides and they had obviously gone out of their way to make it work. The fact we couldn’t explore, which I do fully understand for security reasons, but the lack of things going on made it a very long afternoon to be honest. No vendors, no trade stalls for the adults unless you were hungry that is. The “Wings” representation was promised to be a Spitfire which suddenly appeared at half two and then was gone, later the Vulcan bomber was promised at half five. Alas the later never happened and I was pretty sad about that. A number of the fabulous aircraft were parked up around the perimeter and again guarded.

The heavens opened just after the Spitfire flew over and it was tropical downpour. There was a rush to the cars to sit back in them as there was no other shelter. We watched as some poor people with their old classic convertibles struggled to get the cars covered up for the first minute or so.

The rain didn’t last long and we then all tentatively emerged to dry the pride and joys. Perhaps that’s why there was a shortage of cars because of the weather forecast which said – light showers, not torrential rain. As it was an airfield the sun soon dried up the water within a short space of time and the wind helped dry the cars too. A few cars left early under escort and that allowed Paul to move his car the other side to Lance so the Three Amigos were together in the evening sun.

At five thirty what seemed like the entire car park joined a que to leave the event. Only a few die-hard enthusiasts remained. It was a great day with the guys & and Sam where we had a laugh. Not so sure that I will be there again next year though.

If you spot some of these photo’s also on the Mustang Maniac blog, that’s because we shared the best of the photo’s.

Share my Content