New Year - New Post

There's not been too much going on car-wise to report. That's not to say nothing's been happening elsewhere in my life, I've actually been very busy, I had a long weekend in Yorkshire with M'Girlfriend, Northumberland with M'Girlfriend, Wells with M'Girlfriend. We had days out to museums many & various & it's all been very very lovely. But today I shall report on the Brooklands New Year's Day Meet - that I attended with M'Girlfriend.

Open to anything interesting (at least more interesting than the Cactus), the event is very good except that they charge everyone - even those bringing "exhibits" full entrance fee - which is a bit of a cheek as Brooklands is very expensive to get into & would be deserted on New Year's Day if it weren't for the meet cars.

However, it's a museum, so we would be spending the whole day there & would only leave when even the souvenir shop had shut.

As soon as we cleared the entrance hut the cars were lined up, with Hot Rods to the fore.

A black '40 Ford Pickup & a '33 Ford Tudor. Being British we tend to pronounce this "Chewda" as in Henry VIII, but it's a two door & the four door version was called a Fordor, so I suppose it should be pronounced Twodor.

Still in the subject of UK / US pronunciation, this is a Merc.

Not in fact a Mercedes, but a Mercury - Ford's up-market brand. It's been chopped & lowered, shaved, skirts added etc, so it's not how it left the factory, but it is a thing of beauty.

Borgward it said.

Never heard of a Borgward. It's German & has dollops of Volvo coupe & Karmann Ghia in it's styling.

It would make a spectacular lead sled.

Nice Anglia.

Simple.

Lotus Cortina wheels & lowered a little.

Lancia? it was very very nice & just modified enough.

Nicely modified NSU Prinz.

Not sure I've ever typed those words before.

Outside the main building was a collection of '30s cars - mostly British. This MG was nice

This (what ever it was) was nicer, it just had a better look to it

One of those cars that goes so far off the ugly scale, it comes back to beautiful from the other direction. The saggy windows REALLY shouldn't work, neither should the colours, but somehow they just do

A Bristol.

As with most Bristols, it almost looks really good, but somehow just misses.

Things like the top line of the boot not aligning with the rear window annoy me out of all proportion to the visual effect.

There was a time when these cars simply WOULD NOT be seen next to each other, each of their owners would rather poke wasps up their ar5e. But time mellows.

A GT40 is always welcome at any event, this very retro one was lovely

I wonder how many bog standard '57 Chevys there are left? Not many I'd wager

This one had the "Continental Kit" spare wheel carrier & the owner had wisely moved the exhaust outlets from through the bumper (where it just rusts the steel off the inside of the chrome) to just beneath the bumper

Will there ever be a better looking "family car"?

Looks like it fell off a scrap wagon, sounds like thunder in the mountains. Just superb.

Hmm - Weirdness on wheels. The paler one is a Thunderbird. The mid '50s T'birds were gorgeous, what the hell happened?

Genesis.

The Chevrolet Suburban is now a leviathan SUV & is more guilty than most of starting the appalling obsession for enormous rolling blights on the landscape, but here we see where it all began with a reasonably pretty small (by American standards) estate car.

'33 with a LOT of engine going on. Beautifully engineered too.

And at the other end of the scale ....

Not what it seems at all, this is an Allegro shell dropped over a VW beetle floor pan.

In the words of Dolly Parton "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"

Not many MkII Zodiac soft tops left, or Consul Capris for that matter.

Every thing I said about the yellow one - again.

Might be the same type of Bristol as above? But canary yellow? Really?

Normally referred to as a "Devon" that name only really applies to the four door, which makes this a Dorset (I think - maybe a Somerset).

Whatever, I really liked this, it had been pushed just about as far as you could go without looking ridiculous. Put lairy paint on it & it go right over, but plain old English white pulls it back. Even the '59 Cadillac tail lights look right.

Lincoln Zephyr.

Lincoln was another of Ford's premier brands & in recent years hot rodders have discovered the unloved relic from the '30s & given it a new lease of swoopy life. This one looks like it's about to get some paint, but a big thumbs up to whoever bought it along.

There can't be too many '30s pick-ups left in America surely?

Just enough chrome.

Just the right stance.

Just gorgeous.

This was interesting - & difficult to photograph due the the constant 5 deep crowd around it.

Obviously a real '57 Testa Rossa would be tens of millions & unlikely to appear anywhere without a heavy security blanket.

The owner of this one was saying is was a hand-wheeled aluminium body on a '70s Daytona chassis / mechanics.

Now a Daytona is not a cheap donor car, so I'm guessing that this replica is probably worth more than my house.

The other two were very nice, but the Gulf livery clinches it.

Orange wheels - It's the future.

Reliant made proper cars once.

Now THIS!

I've always had a soft spot for a MkI Zodiac & this is easily one of the nicest.

Drag race style tube chassis, with the bodywork blended round the tubes.

Full roll cage built mm perfect into the interior even including a tube running behind the front seats connecting the door pillar tubes. All with smoothed welds & painted to match the body colour. Workmanship was superb.

And up front a "big block" 7 1/2+ Litre V8

Model B 3-window coupe. Lovely.

If you're going to waft down to the south of France, is there anything better?

Probably yes, but it is pretty damn stylish.

I do like a big Healy

V8 Pilot. '30s American styling on a '50s British Ford.

Why didn't Ford do this??

It's a Consul Capri made Lotus.

No, there never was such a thing, but will you just look at it?

That is a fantastic looking car!

Been Busy

 

Yes I know I've been absent for a while. Truth is the Stylus has barely left the garage since it's return from Wales & it's now SORNed, so that's it until spring 2024.

Part of the reason for the lack of blog action is that there's now a lady in my life & that tends to alter one's perspective on what's important, but predictably (for me) she's not your "normal" woman & is every bit as interested in cars & planes as I am, so I've been visiting museums with her, which has been brilliant.

Last weekend for instance we went to the Bubble Car & Micro Car museum somewhere near East Kirkby Airfield (where we went a few weeks back to see their Lancaster & Mosquito taxiing). It's only a small museum - but then it only needs to be as the exhibits are tiny.

There are a few odd things about the cars - OK, there's lots of odd things - but one of the things I find odd is the tiny tiny wheels, especially when the styling is - shall we say "compromised" anyway, tiny tiny wheels aren't helping the look.

The Messerschmitts & Heinkels get away with it as they're not trying to look like cars as such, but some of the others would've benefitted from having 12s, this Bond for example.

Some of the car's backs didn't match the front, like this one ......

Utilitarian front......

Swoopy back.

Having said that, some were really quite nice, I liked this, though the name "Meadows Frisky Family Three" might put some off.

This NSU was probably the best styled car there (in my opinion)

I could live with that shape - not sure I could live with the performance though

But it does knock most modern cars into a cocked hat styling wise.

So all in all an interesting afternoon, interesting to see what happens when you design a car from a completely different point of view.

The museum also has cabinets full of what I suppose must now be called "Historical artefacts" or to put it another way "Stuff my parents had". ordinary things, hair driers, cameras, curtains, if you're my age it all looked horribly familiar.

RogueRunners Wales '23 - Day 3

 

Day three again saw us heading off to breakfast, but a few of us took a little longer & I ended up leading the second group. I noticed the first lot head out in a different direction, so thought nothing of it when my SatNav took me the same way. Except no breakfast came in sight! The twit (me) had loaded the wrong route - the one without the breakfast stop. Eventually I pulled over & we re-organised ourselves, deciding to to go on to the very pleasant Dyffryn café where the décor was nicer, the breakfast was cheaper & the staff were better looking (or so I was told - can't say I noticed myself).

By now the weather was on the turn, the hoods were up & the cars were getting muddy. We were now in two distinct groups about an hour apart as we wove through the centre of Wales where the scourge of the new speed limits had been more reasonably applied. Elan valley was as ever very nice, as was the cake in the Two Hoots café at Devil's Bridge. I'm not sure the same could be said for the entertainment or the wasp infestation though.

By & by we reached our destination, the Roast Ox, where the welcome was warm & we settled in to wait for our compatriots. Occasional raspy engine notes sent me to the window, camera in hand, but there must've been a local rally on as interesting old cars appeared & disappeared from & to seemingly random directions, no two cars arrived & left by the same roads, so who knows what was going on. Certainly not the drivers.

Eventually our brethren arrived through the rain as I was starting to feel the effects of what would turn out to be Covid. But not knowing this at the time I sat with everyone & had a very very nice tea - I am deeply sorry to those I unknowingly infected.

Where Was I? RRW '23 Day 2

 Oh yes - Wales.

It's all got a little hazy because I bought a souvenir back with me - Covid.

I probably picked it up in the Premier Inn in Cardiff, at least I knew of no-one who was poorly before I went to Wales & at least four of us had it when we came back. But on with the story, we got up bright & early on the Saturday & drove off to the breakfast venue through the countryside on 20mph roads (long story), having eaten we headed out on a pleasant run through the Welsh lanes & at some point we called in for our usual coffee & cake stop at the Ffestiniog railway but the café was closed for an event. We weren't feeling any love coming from Wales by now.

We carried on around Snowdonia (or whatever it's called this week), the trip was notable for a couple of things, there were a few car clubs about, we saw a bunch of Celicas parked up near Betws-Y-Coed & a bunch of supercars - more of which later. Also Neil saw Harlech Castle, which he managed to miss altogether last year. Big Grey thing it was - the size of a large building. We carried on down the coast as far as Barmouth before turning inland, once again I stopped & took a few pictures of my travelling companions going past & eventually we arrived at the very pleasant Conwy Falls Café for more refreshments.

After that we headed back to Mold & back to the hotel, but on the way we found a nice spot & Neil launched his drone, which made a few nice scenic passes & then we drove off under it, which looked really good in the footage. After that we wended our way along some spectacular roads which hadn't been festooned with signage & cameras (yet) & arrived back at the hotel with a little more time to prepare before tea than we had yesterday.

Tomorrow we'd be heading south To the very nice Roast Ox.

RogueRunners Wales '23 Days 0 & 1

The first thing to note about RRW 23 was the timing - the previous weekend had seen temperatures of 30c across Britain. The weekend we went to Wales it tipped with rain - not constantly, but quite a lot. Also it was the weekend when "all of Wales" went onto 20mph speed limits. The implementation of this was chaotic at best.

As I understand it, the word from the Welsh gov't was "put a 20 in the towns unless it's a major road with lots of traffic" - which undermines the "safety" argument - isn't that exactly where you would want the 20?

In the middle slice of Wales this seemed to have been done with a descent dollop of good sense, 30 limits on the approach, 20 limits in the built up areas where the pedestrians were, but in the north, there were times when we were driving between fields for miles on a 20 limit & in the south, south of the Black Mountain (which has it's own ridiculous speed limit issues) there is ribbon development of a number of towns on a major A road for about 10, maybe 15 miles - a 20 limit has been slapped on the entire thing.

Add to that the signage - which was appalling for "Safety" signs...

20 one side - 30 the other? I noticed 3 examples of this as well as "20" painted on the road between signs saying "30", "20" signs followed by "30" on the small repeater signs. "20", "30" & "40" signs within a few dozen yards. It was a mess & I can't see any prosecutions sticking until they sort it out. I tried to keep the cameras on in case any NIPs come through.

But - on to the road trip.

We assembled at the Cardiff North Premier Inn which has a whizzy new QR code check in system - which doesn't work, so then you use the alternative "booking Ref" method & it keeps asking if you want another guest in the room with you (what are you offering? - got any photos?), then it demands your phone No. - why? I'm checking in! Then it demands your country of residence in spite of the fact that it presented me with my address & post code. But the biggest issue was that I had to put in my car reg to get free parking - on the check in terminal? No, there was no mention of it there, there's a separate terminal five yards away. The only people in the place to help with this were the bar staff - who had other things to be getting on with.

The following day we set off on the trip proper, but the Cardiff area is pretty car - hostile & just north of it is the Heads Of The Valley road which is STILL being built. They seem to have told TomTom that the new road is open because the SatNav was desperately trying to show my position on it in spite of the fact it clearly wasn't open - in some places it wasn't built! But escape we did & made out way up to the Black Mountain road, one of the best driving roads in the UK, so naturally the authorities have seen fit to slap a 40 limit on the entire length of it with average speed cameras. In previous years there's been quite a buzz with bikers in large numbers at the cafe's at both ends & ice-cream sellers in the car parks at the top.

This year it was pretty much deserted, no bikes parked up in the village cafes at the south end, no ice-cream sellers at all & the café at the north end had about a dozen bikers sitting round looking miserable. So well done, you've made it safer by making it unused, but you've also done a bunch of Welsh people out of a decent income as well. Scotland has many challenging roads, they linked them into the NC500 & the local communities are reaping the benefit. 

Strangely the limit over the mountain is 40 where it's wide & open with good sight lines, as soon as you're off the mountain (heading north) it's a 50 limit on a winding road past people's houses & drives. I can't help thinking they've got that the wrong way round.

We wended our way north through the Welsh heartland taking in the Elan Valley which is always a good drive & eventually arrived at our hotel in Mold. Maybe it was tainted by out experiences earlier in the day, but the Beaufort Park Hotel seemed pretty down-at-heel. Last year is was saved by the helpful & attentive staff, this year they seemed surly & lacking humour.

So, Day 1 a little disappointing then, but were we downhearted? Well yes, obviously 😄

Not Been Here For a while

I'm afraid my attention has been focused on other things, it's been mas busy at work & the Stylus has only been out of the garage once in the last three weeks, to my Brother's house & that was mostly to give it a run out. So what have I
been doing? Quite a lot of sleeping after busy days at work, quite a lot of tidying up & finishing off the bathroom in preparation for my son & his family coming south for a week, starting to build my road bike back up again after having the frame refurbished, going out visiting Brooklands & the excellent Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop (yes, that's actually a place) with a friend - doesn't sound a lot down I come to write it down, but I've hardly set foot in the garage because of it.

There's a bit of a story across the two places, here we have a Sopwith Schneider (replica) in the Brooklands "Aircraft Factory" & as the name implies it was built for (& won) the Schneider Cup before the first world war.

When fitted with wheels rather than floats, it became the Sopwith Baby (because it was small) & when fitted with a machine gun on the outbreak of war, it became the Sopwith Pup -  here's on in the Museum of Army Flying.

Fast forward 50 years & the Sopwith company became Hawker & they were flying this, The P1127, which became the Kestrel, which became the Harrier - The Finest Aeroplane Ever Flown, as we say at work.

One of which - this very airframe in fact, won the Transatlantic Air Race in 1969.