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Bristol
Hotrods were invited to the The Haynes International Motor Museum for one of
their 'Live Action Days' on the 5th of August 2007.
On top of the chance
to look around the Museum, the day included parades of museum cars, karting,
drifting displays, power tool drag racing and plenty of other
activities.
The Silverline Top Alcohol dragster was also there, so this was
a great opportunity to promote hot rodding and drag racing to the wider
public.
After meeting up in Bristol on a bright sunny morning, the rods
made their way down to Sparkford, near Yeovilton, meeting up with a few more
cars en route. |
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| Contingents from
the Apple County, Surf Coast Cruisers and Blue Ridge Runners clubs were also
present, and the rods and customs were allocated a prime display area directly
in front of the Museum entrance. |
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| Part of the
Bristol line-up: Spence, Phil, Bob, Ian. |
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| Oily Neil's Pop,
and right, the 'Cornish Cream' Pop, up from Cornwall. |
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| Bob Wellstead's
'40 Ford pickup in one of its first public appearances. Bob displayed the truck
for half the day - then disappeared... |
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...static shows
aren't for everyone, so what do you do for a change? Why, nip home and pick up
your other rod. Bob returned a little later with his clean '36
3-window.
Bob loves those 'not-quite black-but-almost' colours. |
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Somerset or
So-Cal?
John and Lorr's Roadster. |
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| John's and
Spence's roadsters |
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| Mel's hi-mileage
roadster |
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| The presence of
Ivor's awesome V8 trike commanded the M/C parking slot. |
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| John and Lesley
Cable's super low Fordson came down from Weston. Lesley sold her motorcycle to
help take ownership of the car, so now they're putting some miles
on it! |
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| Spencer's
'Anniversary of the Deuce' Roadster, Ian's Pop. |
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| Surf Coast
Cruisers check out the cars. |
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| Phil's '32 with
a new front axle setup, and Paul Stamp's Mercury custom. |
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| Ian Walker's
'29 A Sedan |
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| In the
Museum |
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In the middle of
a scorching day, the best place to spend some time was in the air-conditioned
exhibition halls.
One of the first halls in the Museum is almost
overwhelmingly full of red sports cars, and they're not all Ferraris.
Silverline promo girl adds a dash of colour.. |
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| Somehow a museum
didn't seem the right place for a rod, which was looking slightly sorry for
itself. It would be nice to see Gary Belcher's V12 'T' back on the
road again. |
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Silverline
sponsored power tool drag racing was held throughout the day.
Mains
powered modified power hand tools run a 75 foot wooden track, some in around
2.7 seconds. |
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Powerful but
compact, the angle grinder seems to be the power plant of choice. But below,
the modified electric plane powered 'Plane Crazy' gets a hole shot on the FWD
angle grinder powered machine. |
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Into the next
exhibition hall, where most rodders could be seen appreciating this selection
of cars. Not pictured are many more dozens of modern, classic and vintage cars
and bikes, race cars, Bugattis, and a good collection of Speedway bikes and
memorabilia. |
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| '55 Chevy, and a
coffin-nosed Cord. |
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| Auburn
boat-tailed speedster, and a Lincoln-Zephyr |
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Back outside, the
Haynes event organising girl came by to tell us they'd like us to appear with
our cars on the demo track a little later. Following the parade of Museum
vehicles, we're invited for a few laps around the track in front of the
spectators. |
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Reluctantly
pressed into service as official spokesman, Spence is interviewed at the Mini
Moke-mounted mobile PA system.
I'm sure there's a caption competition in
here somewhere.. |
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Mid afternoon;
the rods are called up to take a few laps of the Haynes demo track in front of
the large spectator bank. The Haynes girl decides to join in, and hops on the
back of Ivor's trike. He tells her she needs to hold on tight, as it
accelerates fairly briskly. Needless to say, Ivor spends the next few laps
accelerating briskly. |
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| The parade run
in front of the crowd was a bit of a novelty for most drivers, but I believe
they fully enjoyed it. |
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The
Dave Wilson Racing
Silverline Top Alcohol Dragster team was in attendance, with four times FIA
Champion driver, Dave 'Grumpy' Wilson. The team made a couple of static
fire-ups during the day, and with around 3,000 horsepower on tap, the warm up
sessions needed no PA announcement to attract the amazed onlookers. |
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The demo track
consists mostly of corners, but it does have a short length of straight right
below the spectator bank.
The unprepped track surface certainly
seemed to offer the right conditions for an impressive demonstration
burnout! |
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Events like these
certainly attract plenty of petrol heads - but it should be remembered
that a lot of the visitors are unaware of the world of hot rods and drag
racing. From what I heard on the day, the rods and customs were universally
admired and appreciated, and visitors went away impressed by the
displays - so this type of exposure can only be good.
In the cafe
queue, a teenager near me was asking his Dad what a hot rod was.. poor,
underpriveleged youth! I hope that by the end of the day, he had learned,
and will remember! |
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Ian |
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Aug 07 |
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Thanks to Phil
Mitchell, Andy House and Darren West of
Power Race
Graphics for additional photos. |
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