After the
glorious weather we had during last years Haynes outing I was hoping this years
run would top it. With plenty of advertising on our site, and plenty on the
NSRA events page, inquiries had come from Cornwall, London, and Devon -
and a good local turn out was expected. What was not expected at this time of
year was the constant rain - and with more forecasted it was going to be
interesting to see who would turn up.
Two meeting
places had been arranged, so I left home at 8.40 am to make my way to
MacDonald's, Longwell Green. Going down with us would be our Australian friends
Linda and Dennis Campbell, both avid long-time rodders (their '32 can be seen
on our visitors page). Dennis had been in touch and wanted to do the trip
whilst over here visiting family. A couple of weeks earlier I had taken them
both on a day-long garage tour to show them what was being built locally.
It was not
raining, but it was not looking good, and it had rained most of the previous
night. Waiting in MacDonald's car park were Colin, Jeff, Phil, Claire, Chris,
Lin and Dennis. This gave us three model B's, a Fordson, and a twin turbo'd
Minor. Then around the corner came Dave in his open topped A roadster. Once
Dennis had set his eyes on this car he bagged the passengers seat. Lin got in
with me and we headed off for meet number two, this side of Shepton Mallet.
Less than five minutes into the journey the clouds opened up, and my thoughts
went out for the two roadster occupants.
Just past
Keynsham Nigel with his Vauxhall joined our convoy and we kept moving until we
reached the second organized stop. John was the lonesome rodder here so the
little Fordson joined up and we aimed towards Sparkford. It seemed the forecast
had indeed put people off, but Rich from Newquay phoned up and said he would
give it half an hour and if the rain kept off he would make the long trip up in
his new roadster. He wanted to put some miles on it before the hotrod drags,
but had no roof for it yet.
We drove on past
the Bath and West show ground, through Castle Cary, arriving at Haynes at about
10.10 am. Looking around I noticed that three cars were missing. After a good
ten minute wait, around the corner came Colin and Rich - but no Jeff.
Going through Castle Cary the Minor had hit a patch of diesel and had implanted
itself on a low wall causing wing and suspension damage. So Jeff was left
waiting for a breakdown truck to relay him back to Gloucester.
Already at Haynes
were the Apple County boys: Mel, Beavis, Johnathan, Nick and Steve - so we
now had an Impala, A sedan, B roadster, 37 Ford and 34 Sportster present as
well. As previously arranged, Nick with his '56 Chevy and Barry with his Consul
were also waiting for us.
Due to the
weather the organizers had expected a poorer turn out, so we were parked in a
different spot to the previous year. In fact we were with a display of police
cars - which made for some good picture opportunities.
Each exhibitor
and all passengers were given free museum passes, but first we had to do a few
laps of the museum's circuit for the paying public to see our rides. This we
were asked to repeat later on in the day, and of course this resulted in a few
burn outs!
With so many exhibits to view inside the building and the
supercars on show, this alone makes the trip worth while. Oh, I forgot to
mention the drifting cars performing on the circuit most of the day, and for a
fee you could be a passenger in one. I think except for Jeff we all had a good
time, and thankfully the rain kept off for the remainder of the day.
Phil
The original Moon
Eyes?
'Chopped'
Mini
Plenty of 'auto
nostalgia' in addition to the cars..
Lining up before
our demonstration laps.
Just added this
link to a YouTube video of the Haynes day out, sent in by Phil Thomas.
