Blatter: Holidays I

Well, the Stylus hasn't been out much, it has been to a local meet & up to Peterborough & so far the fuel pump has remained mercifully quiet. The only thing approaching a mod is an attempt to improve the video interest by raising the cameras to roll bar height, A thing is currently on the printer, getting printed.

But I have not been sitting idle, my girlfriend & I have been to Shuttleworth airshows & the HotRod Supernationals, archaeological sites & 1940s events & we are recently back from the New Forest where we had that week of glorious weather in September. So you'll be wanting some photos?

I'll start at Shuttleworth on the weekend of the HotRod Supernats & here we have the world's oldest airworthy aircraft, with the world's oldest airworthy engine. It's a Bleriot IX - the same type that was the first aeroplane to cross the English Chanel. It doesn't fly often as the conditions need to be just right, but it does still fly.

Because the Supernats were on, there was HotRod royalty in the car park, this is "Revenge", built in the late '70s. Absolutely outrageous, but also incredibly cool, there's the rear suspension from a Mclaren F1 car under the back & 800bhp of supercharged V8 round the front, the detailed engineering is exquisite & it raised the bar for UK HotRods so high, that it's never been surpassed.

Of particular interest to my girlfriend was the visiting Fairey Swordfish - a particular favourite of hers (she clearly has a soft spot for slow ungainly things). It was over from the Navy Wings collection at NAS Yeovilton for a few days. The engine actually has 100bhp less than Revenge & it's probably no faster.

The very next day we were back at Old Warden for the Supernats proper.

You'll know I'm fond of a 100e. I was particularly fond of this one as the builder had eschewed the "usual" Pinto engine in favour of a V6 & had avoided the temptation to mess with the body - there's something about a 100e, the more you do to the body, the worse they look. a bit of de-chroming & a little lowering is all they need.

There were a few 1940 Willys Coupes there, all done drag strip style as Willy's tend to be

Just nice, nothing wild, just a good usable car.

I've seen this Zephyr / Zodiac before & it's an absolute thug. Huge V8, with a proper tube chassis, cage etc, but all painted & upholstered, beautiful workmanship. It's like a cage fighter in a Saville Row suit.

Really liked this old Jag too the body mods were so well done it was really hard to tell where it had been changed, really impressive.

Same car from the front, I'm fairly sure that's not the original grille, but it looks perfect.

My family were there, my brother's Prefect (3ltr V6) on one of it's first outings after a full re-build following a 25 year lay up & my nephew's 100e (2ltr Pinto), again recently back from some work. No, I didn't take the Stylus - maybe next time.