Tag: thetford forest

Feltwell Anglo American Car Show (part 1)

After last week’s cancelled show I finally got a to one Saturday at Feltwell, which is about eleven miles from the wonderful Thetford Forest which I travelled through to get there. This is the third year for the show of its type, due to the popularity last couple of years, it has been moved to a larger field for a bit more space. I got up to bright sunshine and checked the website and Facebook and nothing anywhere to say it was cancelled. I had a choice of two shows, Fast & Loud which was an afternoon show in centre of Bury St. Edmunds or this Feltwell show about forty miles away. I decided against the Fast & Loud show as the last one I visited was full of two or three year old Ford Focus’ that have had eBay spending spree for go faster parts. Invariably the obligatory sound system with a sub the size of dustbin lid and an exhaust made out of the dustbin itself. All fitted to make them sound the ‘part’ with popping and banging to se who can BBQ their balls standing at the back of the cars! Not my scene all that, so it was a no brainer to take the drive through the beautiful Thetford Forest. On the other hand, if there was nothing else on and it was a nice day – I would have gone as it was only for three hours.

I loaded the car up and and travelled out the bottom of our village to join onto the A14 for the first part of the journey. I joined the dual carriageway just in front of a light blue ’67 Fastback. We travelled in convoy for a number of miles where I turned of to go the scenic route to the show, and because my SatNav told me to turn off.

After around twenty minutes I got to the edges of Thetford and rescued some images from the dash cam. Nothing in front of me, nothing behind me and I just cruised along at a gentle 50mph with the window down. so far this has been one of my favourite drives to any car show yet. Stunning.

Just short of an hour I arrived at the show, marshals efficiently directing the show cars onto the field, and visitor cars into the parking area.

I ended up parking near a Corvette and then a group of newer Mustangs pulled up next to me all in a line.

The thing with this show was I had to drive past Lakenheath air base. This is where the owner of my car bought if over from the states in the first place. When he finished his tours he left it here for somebody to buy, neglect it until I bought it.

My car had come home to its old stomping grounds!

This area has many airbases nearby and lots of USA spec cars owned by service men and women, turned up for the show. I got the cleaning stuff out and gave the car a quick wipe over to get the road dust of the car. By the time I had finished the car that were going to turn were here as we had to be in place by quarter to ten. I ended up taking the best part of two hundred and fifty photos on the day so I decided to split the post into two. The photos started at the front run and I worked my way towards the back of the field.

There are some more amazing cars to come in part 2’s post. The best part of this show? apart from there being lots of Mustangs, there were so many cars that I hadn’t seen before so I managed to spend lots of time looking around them.

Look out for next weeks post.

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A New Venue

I know this post is a bit late from the day but I just haven’t had time to get round to it all. So apologies and I have reprimanded myself quite severely. Anyway, the new venue was a generously sized field at Barnham Common in the lovely area of Thetford Forest. The best of which is the drive through that beautiful forest area to get there. Considering the previous shows have been a wash out with rain, this was Father’s Day and the weather apps said only a few percent chance of rain. Awesome I was going. I arrived fairly early and was expecting the Bury Retro Car Club to be there so I could park up with the guys, considering I missed out at the previous show in Elveden. Pullin’ into the field there was not many people there, in fact some of the stall traders also turning up to get ready. I was directed to park pretty much where I liked near the other lines of cars. I found a nice Ford Orion and parked next to him and I was pleased to say that a Ford Granada parked the other side of me. A Ford sandwich with USA muscle for the filler.

Checked app – no rain forcast. I started a wander around before it got to busy.

About twenty minutes later the car club turned up and parked a line down form me.

A good mixture of cars on the day.

UK Fords

USA Muscle

Later on the sky clouded and thought felt it, surely not. A few drops to start with then it stopped, not enough to bead on the car. However, half hour later, nowhere to hide except to sit in the car – it happened.

It only lasted for a few minutes, but it was enough. once it stopped it had to dry the car, the first of a few times that day. then the sun came out as quickly the rain feel. that was the pattern for the day. A rain shower for a couple of minutes then sun. I still manged to get sunburn on my face, don’t know how. But I was pleased with the beading though from my new quick detailer from Chemical Guys which I reviewed here.

Around the field spirits were high still and nobody seemed upset about the rain. The entertainment for the kids was great with bird handling and few live shows even.

But an hour after the start of the show to the public this old lady came in. Next year this traction engine will be a century old. I think this was the favourite of the show for me.

A great day in fact although the rain has been 100% for every show. This time it didn’t seem to bad.

Next time sunshine? We can only hope I guess. 🙂

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One Way Or Another

This weekend I had been waiting for months, the simple reason is got to see my female idol singing live again.

Once more I have those tickets in my hand and I wanna get there soon as I can. The venue is Thetford Forest in Suffolk. car park opens at 5pm and the and the gates open at 6pm. Pre flight checks were completed at noon, how to get there, what I can and can’t take in with me, weather wasn’t looking good though, thunder and lightning at home and we are going to an open air venue, epic – not. So I got my wax jacket out and my old long wax jacket for the wife to ware. There was no way the rain was gonna dampen my spirits. I estimated forty minutes drive to get there for opening of car parks and the  venue address added to my TomTom. In my head I had accepted that I will be the last out of the joint as I would be parked in the corner of some field but hey, bovvered? Nope, as I would be sitting with tinnitus to the sounds of Atomic ringing in my ears. T minus one  hour before the departure I’m pacing up and down ready to go. Then it started, the words everyman dreads “I’m just going to wash my hair”. Now two things here – first “just going” does not mean the same thing to a mans ears as it does in a woman’s mind. To a man “Just going” is measured by the time it takes a man to go to the gents and back again to finish the bear he has left on the bar. Second – “Wash my hair” usually means an approximate fifteen stage process, starting with washing the bath out, getting two towels out, arranging of the shampoo bottles, pre wash, main wash, repeat wash what ever next wash, conditioner, leave on, wash off, repeat and God knows what else goes on in the mean time. The fact is that it’s due to persistently rain, so even if Vidal Sassoon was make the hair look stunning, the impending downpour of a few gallons of water throughout the evening is going to ruin any hairdo. The self-imposed departure time has come and gone, we are at stage three maybe seven of the hair process, who knows? The power shower is strangely quiet for a few minutes. Progress. I have got the rubber boots in the car the TomTom is plugged in. Tickets check (again) – yep! The hair dryer fires up, not any normal hair dryer, oh no, this one that is capable of causing a tornado with its own name when on full power. Then the hair straighteners, curling tongs, soft brush, hard brush curling brush what ever brush. Now we are goin’ be “late”, bearing in mind they were due on stage at 9pm. Re-calculations mean I now have to drive just a bit faster, and a then a little bit faster for every agonising moment that ticks by. Eventually the wife emerges – yep she looks great and then I ask her to try the coat on. Then I got the look, you know the one that women save just for their men. I tried hard not to laugh, but it was what we needed to stay dry I explained, as you were not allowed to take umbrellas. We jump in the car and off we go. Driving through Thetford Forest is a lovely drive and the deer are always running about so you can’t drive fast I am careful to look out for these graceful creatures. Eventually we are directed into the entrance where we are told to follow the car in front. Great except the young lady in front now had a convoy of around twenty cars following her. I think she must have been on some sort of “medication” as we were going in one field and out the other, a metallic conga of cars through the fields. Yeah like I need this. We eventually park up and walk in to the queue of people waiting to get in. We charged, (OK I charged and pulled my not to impressed wife along with me), to the front. Now we only had to wait three and half hours for the start and we were standing up. The sun was out no need for the coats at the moment. Time dragged until the Lightening Seeds played their acoustic set for forty odd minutes. Then the words “Please Stand By” flashed up on the video wall. Here we go! Blondie walked on stage and Debbie Harry got a massive cheer. It was a brilliant gig and Debbie was on top form and still looks as good as she did all those years ago. I took loads of photos and a few were blurred due to the dancing (by me), the video I took of Atomic I will upload to YouTube on my channel as soon as I can get round to it. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the gig. Not car related I know but this is a special occasion! In case you’re wondering:

Was I last out of the car park? As good as!

Did it rain – Nope!

Was the wife right saying she needed to wash her hair if she was going out? Yeah!

Blondie’s opening song? One Way Or Another 🙂

The car:

Today was all about rubbing down the front valance again and more filler so nothing much to get excited about. I could take pictures of the work but it will look like it did after the first and second fillers. the only difference is that it is evening out the high and low spots which you can’t really see on a camera. The valance is getting to a point where I can put a primer on to protect it. I will post pictures once I get to that point. I have removed the air-con mounting bracket and sprayed that satin black. Again I will post the pictures once it has had its second coat.

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