vintage – One Man And His Mustang

The second show of the year today, but I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. One weather app said rain, the other two said cold and overcast at 17^o. My wife was saying to me that I was mad at seven thirty this morning, I almost agreed with her. But, like a true trooper I powered through it. The cool bag was packed with a light lunch, but mostly drinks. The first stop this morning was going to be fuel at the Shell petrol station for a bit of open wallet surgery via a fill up of some V-Power. The guy in the next pump also had a classic Talbot Lotus was getting a fill up, we were having a chat taking our minds of the money on the display updating faster than a hundred meter stop watch. I asked “are you going to the Stonham Barns show?” He replied with no “me and a few mates were just going for a drive and some lunch”. That is awesome, enjoying his car with his mates and have a lunch looking at classic cars. The show at Stonham Barns has become a bit of local show. The show started at ten, but I got there at eight forty and there was only about tenor so other display cars there. My logic was to get in before the carnage waiting to get in. As it turned out I didn’t need to worry, I wasn’t that busy a show all day. I was directed into the main arena and direct to park next to a 1965 Mustang finished in vintage Burgundy metallic. The panels on our cars are the same, but there are some obvious exterior trim and interior changes between the two years.

I gave the car it’s customary quick detail to remove any road dust, During my ritual therapeutic dust off, the wind must have been just right as I got a waft of cooking, bacon! The burger fan was calling, my wallet was tucked in the jacket pocket while on the way, a purposeful stride with my nose leading the way. I ordered the sausage, as that looked even better than the bacon, to enhance my culinary delight I added cheese and some onions topped with a line of tomato sauce. I took a seat to enjoy my well deserved breakfast after my car cleaning. A crow flew down and was hopping around near the table, it was rewarded with small bit of the roll that I shared with it. At the price I just paid, it wasn’t going to get a lot. A sucker for wild life I relented and shared more with my new found friend. The more I gave, the bolder it got almost taking the bread out of my hand. The funny part was it hopped on the other side of the table and gave me the eye for more, that also worked and got more breakfast with me. I was trying to take a photo, and hold the roll at the same time, I think I did OK considering.

After the rather awesome roll I chatted with a few human friends I have seen for the first time this year. Then it was off to take some photos of the other cars. The show didn’t have a huge amount of cars which was a shame, but the quality of cars on show was great except for a few Walmart wagons that were allowed in, which was surprising as the info said pre ’70s.

As I was walking around the outer part of the arena more cars were coming in to park in the centre and started a couple of new rows.

Outside the arena was also getting busier as the arena was now full, I found a few of the finned beauties. I’m a bit partial to a fin it has to be said, they’re just mobile works of art.

Wandering back up the field there was only really another line.

This Pontiac caught my eye and almost got my personal winning vote.

That just leaves my winning vote; Mart’s Car of The Show. The artwork on the back of this was Ford was amazing, I hate to think how long and how much this was. The emblem on the cowl clinched it for me though!

A grey overcast day, it wasn’t full of cars, but it was pleasant with a lot of cars I hadn’t seen before and a few I had. The show was not really a family day, this was more of a true petrol head day out and spoke to lots of lovely people. I left just after two as a few other were starting to leave as well. A good show, no queue to get in and everything was very calm and civilised. My madness of getting up paid of as I enjoyed the show, even though I walking around with my jacket on. For change on the way there and and on the way home there was morons on the road that were near me and I had relaxing and gentle cruise home.

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Many moons ago….

When I left school I took a four-year apprenticeship in Lithographic Proofing, that was hand feed pre-production runs of no more than twelve copies. Sadly that trade died with the onslaught of computers. As a result of my proud trade that took me years to master, I have seen the usual adverts for hair products, cigarettes, perfume, vinyl record sleeves, video cases, jewellery, auction houses promotional posters, books and various posters. Some of them never went to press but most did. The advantage is that I still have some of those posters for Rolls Royce, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Dean, Ayrton Senna, Mac Trucks, Ford etc. I mention the background history for a reason, I have always loved rare posters and photos and kept what interested me especially the cars stuff as I have always been a petrol head since I can remember. Why, I’m not sure, I was aways considered the black sheep of the family because of it as everybody else liked football (soccer). From those early days I had my bedroom wall covered in the posters of cars and some I put in frames. A few days ago I wasn’t feeling too good, so I was hunting around on the net for images of rare Mustangs. Yeah, I found some good pics, but what caught my eye was these old adverts that Ford came up with for their Mustangs. I’m not sure with all the politically correct brigade out there now that they could get away with some of them today. What struck me was the way that the times have changed, “featuring all vinyl interiors” and the like. I just had to share these, due to the age and perhaps not so good scans of them they are difficult to read, but you get the idea though. I did try and get better copies but without much luck. Perhaps a little self-indulgent on my part, but hopefully they can be appreciated for what they are, a little piece of history of a great car. I wonder if anybody can remember these adverts at the time and maybe had them on their walls. I am also looking to do my garage up with some old vintage metal signs, you know the sort, Champion, Michelin, Ford, Shell, Esso etc, I just have to keep my eyes open in the antique shops, but I havn’t had much luck so far. I hope you like them as much aa I do.

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