PICS! Bromley Pageant of Motoring 2013 (belatedly)

[luckyseven]

So here we go, late with my homework again... soz. I suck, I know it. Been working like a dawg lately and just had no time to sort through the 500 or so photos I burned out on the day. Fortunately, weeding out was made a lot easier by throwing away all the ones where some ignorant fool blundered right into frame at the last minute... anyway, usual disclaimers apply. If I'm referring to someone you've never heard of, don't panic, they're probably not on this forum (I intend to explore the outer limits of laziness via the cut'n'paste function). Also, this isn't meant to be some sort of motoring gospel according to Moi, nor even an authoritative and accurate discourse on marque identity and design. It's just a bit of fun, read it in a tone of self-depreciating irony and don't take me too seriously, I'm only the piano player. Right.



Every year I swear I'm not going to go to the Bromley Pageant again. There's much not to like about it... the ridiculous mud track and un-mown precipitous field that pass as public parking... the cynical way exhibitors seem to be priced out of the show (your car gets in for free if you're showing, but you have to pay. Eh?)... the fact it claims to be the largest one-day car show in Europe, but there are four people selling entrance tickets, resulting in half-hour queues. Seriously? Come on... it has the most ignorant general public in the entire known universe, who will not only blunder into your carefully-composed and setup photograph but then see what you're doing and still stand right in the &%£#@ing way and have a chat with Ethel and Mabel about the price of Hobnobs in Aldis these days...


....then I realise it's only an hour away, there are fairground rides for the kids, a display arena with loads of cool vehicles from all genres displaying, hundreds of club and marque stands, brownie points from the wife for a family day out that pleases all of us, opportunity to see lots of rare and esoteric oddities...

...and so off we went.

First thing to arouse me... sorry, arouse my interest, was right inside the entrance gate (once we'd queued for the requisite half-hour to get to one of the three ticket sellers. Well, it was partially my fault, I did let an older couple go in front so that cost us another couple of minutes. It was cos they were downwind of my cigarette, so it seemed only fair not to blow smoke over them. The old boy was very pleasant, said smoke made him feel sick and then proceeded to explain about how he'd smoked forty a day himself for forty years, but didn't miss it at all now. Like, really? Sanctimonious much? Being the kindly, positive soul I am, I let them in front rather than suggest since I was actually in one of the few places in this thought-controlled legislative sledgehammer of a country where I could actually still legally smoke perhaps he might like to just &%$#@ing do one if he didn't like it. But I digress...) a pretty unusual example of GM's American muscle;



An Oldsmobile Toronado. No, that's not a misspelling. They made it up to sound cool and fast and stuff.



Funky ol' thing ain't it? Lots of firsts on this, first GM subframed car, first front-wheel drive mainstream American car since the '37 Cord, first Hy-Vo driven separate torque convertor setup, first front torsion bar suspension for GM. Oh, and first car to have wheelarches for thirty-inch wheels... but only thirteen inch wheels



The dash is a masterpiece of sideways thinking. I like the vertical scrolling speedo. All good stuff, different just for the sake of it. Which you gotta respect



Funky. Not something you often see. You quite often see one of these, and that's a good thing. Jensen owners club always represent well here, so here's an Interceptor picked at random from several purely cos I liked the colour



There was a very bizarre and eclectic selection just inside the gate, seemed to just be random one-offs that had parked up there. Which meant you could see things like this



I think this is an Austin A70 Hereford, van bodied? I stand...well, sit... to be corrected on that one, my knowledge of Austins from the days of black and white is sketchy I'm afraid. Funky as hell, whatever it is, and for sale should you need an incredibly slow delivery van



And then next door is this;



....I could tell you what it is, but I suspect that's somewhat unnecessary, lol. Marvellous panel pinstriping, makes it look like it's made of 1970's SPAM FROM. But in a good way



Everyone loves a nicely-presented RS Turbo don't they?



And this is a very nicely presented one, perfect in chrome and alloy and Samco blue all surrounded by Essex Stiletto White perfection



Moggy! Convertible Moggies always look a bit like they were modified in a shed by a man with elbow patches on his cardigan and a selection of awls arranged on the wall in perfect order, with outlines drawn round them. Possibly it was. Mind you, elbow patches are back in now anyway. Who'd have thought. Coming next... pipes and handlebar moustaches make a comeback



In actual fact, that image is pretty much a microcosm for the whole of Austin in my world. Enamel? Why would we enamel an emblem when good old fashioned paint will do just as well for a fraction the price? Thrift, lad, that's the way to build cars. Thrift! None of this how-d'yer-do opulence and newfangled comfortableness and that



Club Scuderia seems to be, perhaps not surprisingly, all about Ferraris



Modern Fezzas tend to only excite me in the abstract, that is; the details, the engineering, the ability, the statistics, all these things get me moist. But overall, the actual cars themselves? Not so much. No cohesion in design whatsoever, just a random collection of lines and swoops. Thus I often find I have loads of photos of small details on the car and none of the actual car. That's why I started with the F430, even though it's hideous



....cut it up into little pieces like this it becomes as aesthetically appealing as it's stat sheet is technically overwhelming



I think we need a return to the days when car design was the work of one man, usually an egomaniac high on their own importance to the level of delusional insanity. Only then are truly genius and iconic cars drawn up. All this drawn by committee, emasculated by bean counter, desecrated by elf and safe tea legislation neutering of car artistry has to stop. NOW! Here's a 599 as if to illustrate the point...



See? Nice in the detail, though, innit? Not saying I wouldn't have one, like, you understand... especially like the way the wing vent is modelled on the RX-7. Lol



Carboceramic brakes redefine the cliche archetype of "reassuringly expensive"



For some unaccountable reason I prefer the spider F430 to the Hardtop. I guess maybe because if a car is going to be made to appeal to menopausal bankers trying to compensate for... well for pretty much everything except the money, really... they might as well go the whole hog and not even pretend it's supposed to be driven like a sportscar



Maybe I'm just a twisted old cynic. OK, I am a twisted old cynic. It doesn't make me wrong though. Anyway, this is nicer. This calmed me down a bit



But this, now this is what Ferraris look like. Real ones, not the ephemeral status-defining tinsel of today



As far as I'm concerned, there are three sorts of Fezza. One is the GTO, Lusso, 275 sorta thing that was around before me and therefore I'm aware of how massively cool and iconic they are but are somewhat isolated by the ludicrous rarity and expense. Then there's the modern ones, since say the F40, which as we've established are nasty, largely irrelevant overpriced willy-enhancers for people with more money than charm or imagination. Then there are the ones that used to make you WIN at Top Trumps when I was a kid. And those, clearly, are close to being the coolest things on the planet. This 308GTB is pretty much some kind of acme and is the shape Ferraris will always be in my murky brain, just like Velociraptors are the exact shape any kid will doodle if told to draw a dinosaur



Even better from a distance with a bit of zany skew thrown in. Just to prove I'm, like, a bit crazy, man. Or actually quite bad at photoz, not sure which



Strangely, there was a blue-collar American interloper amongst all the Ferraris. This Ford GT kinda proves my point about hollisitic controlled design, really. If the best Ford can do in the 21st Century is emulate a fifty year old shape, then there's definitely a case for the Campaign for One-Man Car Design.



Startling how much more humongous this new iteration is than a "real" original one. Guess that's true for all cars though, my old MkI Golf is now smaller than a new Polo. Well, it would be, we scrapped it years ago, but you know what I mean.

[luckyseven]

The Renault/Alpine owners club managed a fantastic turnout considering how rare a lot of their cars actually are. They're a mainstay of the show year after year, much credit to them



And it does help that the cars tend to look bloody fantastic as well. Definitely one of those cars where just lows, wheels and a clean make it look stunning



This blue one was the pick of the GTAs for me, not just for it's overall presence...



...but also because it rocked these amazoid Gotti rims which feature a mega-cool rotor shape to the hub. These had me wondering about getting five-to-three stud spaces made up so I could find a set for the RX-7. Then I realised I'd probably never find a set...



I've probably shared my (low) opinion of French cars in general before, so I won't weigh us down with it here (partly cos I'm still waiting for the pro-Ferrari hatemail to flood in) but even a Francophobe such as myself goes a bit gooey for a nicely presented little A110



Just a jolly nice, endearing (and ferociously capable) little bug-eyed sweetheart. Ahhh



Here's a pretty rare, and surprisingly, another cool French thing. I think I may end up severely undermining my own irrational French hatred by the end of this thread, I seem to recall repeatedly finding cool French things, actually *blush*. Anyway, have a Renault Caravelle



I'll hide behind the fact it was designed by Frua at Ghia, so it's sorta Italian. This was a car based on the Dauphine platform to give Renault a slice of the Beetle/Karmann Ghia market. Rear-engined Gallic frippery. Cute little car. Grudgingly



Triumph Stag OC is another Brommers mainstay, almost in over-reaction to the much-repeated urban legend of Stags being less reliable than Stuart Hall's witness statement, they flock to the show in droves, entire hunting packs of them swarming into the showground. Then they park up, radiating smugness from their perfectly thermostatically-regulated running temperature gauges as if to say "Unreliable, you say? Reeeeeeeeally?"



And I tell you what, the club's organisational skills are beyond bloody awesome! The accuracy of the parking in nicely staggered rows (did y'see what I did there? STAGgered rows? Oh, never mind) boggles the mind. I know if we ever tried this on FDUK for example, it would end in bent bumpers, much stress, and a line as wobbly as Gazza on his way to the chicken shop with his fishing rod. It'd be like herding cats. However, you could stand in the centre of this ... well, stand... and see nothing but perfectly-ordered Stag noses as far as the eye could see. Simply awesome. Note sulky teenager left in car by owner, lol.



This bloke screwed it up just slightly by having a Stag-and-a-half, though



As always, anyone in a large club like this who opens up their bonnet must figure they have something special to show off, so it's always worth poking ones camera in



Yep, works for me



Ford Corsairs. Now, there's an odd thing. Part of the bizarre Consul four-car range of the sixties, it was a tiny little T'bird thing with funny faux-rocket/aerodynamic styling redolent of the most famous Yank boulevard bruiser, yet with weeny Kent straight-fours or Essex v-4 lumps



Strange but true, a Kent-engined Corsair set 13 world speed records in '64 including lapping Monza at an average of 100mph for 15000 miles! Remarkable. This gold 'vert had me looking twice. Can you spot why, lol?



Yeah, that's not an identical car parked a long way off, it's an identical car in the back seat! How good is that?



Dear Santa, when I grow up, I want my gear lever to be as long as this one. maybe if I keep tugging on it...



I still love a nice 'Rod. Still no idea about IDing them though. Errrm, when in doubt, say it's a Ford



This one's a Ford...



Nice to see a pickup being rodded. They somehow suit so much better to the patinated, distressed look.



Not often you see hearses being loved enough to take part in shows, and it's weird when you think about it. After all, they were often based on top-of-the-range vehicles and the extra fittings were usually of the highest quality. This Daimler stood head and shoulders above many of the cars here today. Literally... it was bloody massive!



You can't buy patination like this. Original vehicle construction plate still on firewall



The only time when wheel trims are acceptable is when they're cool mooneyes style tings or when they have nice embossed logos on and you can use them to take distorted weirdness photos of other stuff reflecting in them

[luckyseven]

This year marks 100 years of Aston Martin



The firm was started by Messrs bamford and Martin, but because Martin already campaigned one of their cars up the Aston Hillclimb, they decided to name the company in that motif. Their first car was a Coventry-simplex engine in an Issota-Franchini chassis. I wonder what they'd make of these sleek beasts



I'm a bit fickle when it comes to Astons. Well, why not, I'm positively capricious about everything else, lol. I always feel they never quite got the early DB-series quite 100%. For instance, I love the lower glasshouse of the DB4 than the later cars



...but the fins aren't quite right. Although I much prefer the boat-tail boot-rump relationship to the more awkward boot on the DB5



And I'm not too sure about the faired-in headlights.



Hmmm. I think the Kamm tail of the DB6



....coupled with the lower glasshouse of the '4 would make my perfect Brown-era Aston. I feel the ultimate combination is out there somewhere, just maybe not all on the same car! I also realise this is the inane witterings of a lone nut, and I don't expect anyone to give any credence to them by actually agreeing. And it goes without saying, I'd make do with any single one of the utterly gorgeous cars. I'm just sayin, like...



I'm still vacillating on the idea of de-bumpering, too. I think on, like a MkIII Cortina it probably looks the bomb. On a DB6... not so much



Who the hell am I trying to kid? I'd have any one of them. Hell, I'd be happy with Prince Charles' old 1/10-scale kiddies pedal car.



The Aston OC is yet another mainstay of the Bromley show, sorta title sponsor or something. A bit like Big Macs being the official burger of the Olympic Village, only less preposterous and distasteful. This DB4 cabin is much nicer than anything from the Golden Arches, clearly. Except maybe a soss an hegg muffin....no, dammit, even better than that



I've always had a soft spot for the V8 Astons, perhaps a bit like you always prefer the Dr Who you grew up with out of all of them. This is an early one, before they bulked up from pumping iron and got steroid winkie shrinkage. Almost delicate...



...and about as skittish on her spraddle legs as a young faun, lol



This is younger brother, beefed up on protein shakes and flexing the guns.



The Volante in white really shows off the brutal yet still somehow elegant lines, I think



and at the other end of the spectrum, a totally different style of Aston V8 and in a matt black wrap. Looks hard.



And this, too is an Aston Martin. It's old. I'm afraid I can't tell you more about it because they all buggered off on their arena parade laps just as I was about to dive in and ask stupid questions



There's always an extensive autojumble and trade stall village at Bromley, which is great. I generally stock up on my years' supply of gaffer tape and suchlike. Ada found an uber-rare Japanese RX-7 accessories catalogue here one year, and there are always cool diecasts and stuff to rummage through. Loads of automobilia stands, too



Betty Boop always depresses me a bit, I can't help but think of her in the Roger Rabbit style of a washed-up old showgirl, frayed and grubby and slightly used. Sunken from her glorious teenage rebel origins as a flimsy ray of hope in the grey Depression days, a brighter harbinger from the Flapper times of glamour and light, now trading on past glories and faded beauty. Poor old thing. Here, have the excellent very early Fleischmann cartoon of her in Minnie the Moocher, complete with the incomparable Cab Calloway as a ghostly singing walrus. Oh yes. This was produced using a very early form of motion capture called Rotoscope.



Awesome, innit? Disturbing, too, I think. Especially the vampire cat babies and the ghosts dancing in the electric chair. Betty was often claimed to be modelled on the actress Clara Bow, but in actual fact was originally drawn as a dog (yep, her droopy ears became those trademark loop earrings and her little black Poodle nose that famous cupid's-bow mouth) and was more finally based on a caricature of singer Helen Kane, who unsuccessfully sued Paramount for infringing her singing style and harmfully caricaturing her. Betty herself was forced to cover up from her sex-symbol carefree early days by the National Legion Of Decency and the Puritanical edict of the Production Code of 1934. After that, she no longer flashed her garters and cleavage so freely. For a while, at least...

I wonder what she's up to now? Probably on the game, soaked in gin to forget and crack to face the day. Sad times. The Wanderers, meanwhile, is an excellent film set in 1963 New York and tells the tale of a right of passage of a group of Italian-American gangmates, set against a backdrop of changing times and external turmoil... actually, I better get back to the cars, I can sense some people drifting away at the back there. Suffice to say, if you haven't seen it... why not? Rectify that immediately, it's an awesomely good film and contains the best anti-skinhead insult ever of "pricks with ears". Sadly, I didn't get to rescue Betty and take her home, the wife was giving me disapproving looks.


THUMP!



Right, you're back in the room. Sorry, digressed a bit there into early cinema themes, it won't happen again. back to earth with a bump, and you can't get anchored much more solidly than by a Hummer H2! Conrad loved the amount of shiny surfaces on it, here he is showing the big beast no respect at all

[luckyseven]

Considering what a niche market and tiny production volume Panther Westwinds were serving, it was a pleasant surprise how many were at the show. Always nice to see a nice Panther, Surrey's finest (although now Korean I believe, having gone bust, been bought out by Young Kim, built the alleged MR2-competitor Solo, gone bust again, and been amalgamated into SsangYong. Strange but true). Anyway, I'm not sure I should forgive the original Panther for miss-spelling Laser in so cavalier a fashion. "Lazer"? Oh, really? It's an acronym, you fools, so what would you suggest the "Z" stands for? "Ztimulated", is it? Grrrrr...



anyway, that needn't matter because I think this is a Kallista, not a "Lazer" as evidenced by the Vauxhall engine rather than a Jag. I like the badges. I like nice enamely things. Mmm, shiny



For when you can't decide which colourway to have on your car, just leave it in primer... actually, this old Magnette looked most regal in the delicate duckegg turquoise shade. Lovely thing.



and in a surprisingly similar colour, this very original (old) and pretty rare '67 Toyota Corona is clearly quite a survivor



I always think Cortinas looks best in darker colours, dunno why. This one seemed to continue the trend of show-car owners leaving their children locked in the cars all day. At least the message about dogs has got through, though



Although I guess a nice MkI Lotus makes a good case for white and green, needless to say



Back in another life I used to know people who lived in things like this excellent Bedford ambulance. It's funny to thing back then you couldn't give the things away and that's why people like me could afford to bluff an MOT, line it with ply and mattresses, put a stove in and live on the road. Now it's at a classic car show. Funny old thing, time. Like the Winkworth electric bell



Always have time for a bit of American muscle, especially when it's as well presented as this early Camaro



Anyway, we've had the Great Camaro Model Year Debate before, but I'm going for '67 cos it doesn't have any sidelights. Place your bets. It claims to have a 454 motor packing NOS so I guess it'll be a bit lively



Got the right wheels though, is there no American musclecar they don't suit?



This bonkers mad thing is here every year, and that's a good thing. The totally deranged Studebaker Champion (or "Business Coupe" as that Desert Car Kings insisted on calling one)



Such a mad piece of styling, it's almost as if right up until finalisation they couldn't decide which way they wanted it facing, so they finally flipped a coin, stuck red lights on one end and a rocket thruster intake on the front just to clear up and confusion. It's the obvious thing to do



Nice to see that the owner's got the sand to modify such a rare car, too. The billet wheels and retrim are quite blatant, but little touches like de-bumpering make a big difference overall too



In fact, there's always a good range of the more esoteric Americana at Bromley. I have a lot of love for this marvellously over-the-top Dodge Custom Royal



As is usual with American cars of the time, there was a bewildering set of models and trim levels, from the base Coronet to Royal to Custom Royal, all of which could be specced to different levels up to and including Custom Royal trim. If it was a two-door rather than four it would have been a Lancer, too. And you thought they were Japanese... Confused? Yep, I guess many buyers were too.



Mitsubishi Lancers don't get their own faux gold lancer badge, though. Or massive fins, to be fair. I don't know if that's good or not. Yeah, actually I do. Whilst the idea of driving (and parking) a car like this fills me with pure dread, I always think why not celebrate the absolute insanity of the greatest excesses in car design the world's ever seen. 50's Americana is gloriously too much, but in a good way



More fins than the Thousand Lakes



Interior is actually surprisingly calm considering the exterior, and how zany some dashes of the time were.



I've taken pics of this Buick Super eight Electra several times before, but given how long I had to wait to get a pic without proles blundering into the damn way, you can bloody well enjoy looking at it again, too



You can tell this is a Super because it has three Ventiports. If it had four it'd be a Roadmaster, y'see. Oh, and by the way it has "Super" badges on it, of course. But that's cheating



Gorgeous though the coupe line are, I can't help but wish it was the briefly-made "Sedanet" which had one of the most glorious rear rooflines on any car ever. But it's not, it's a coupe so you'll have to google that one for yourself



You spin me right round, baby, like a record, baby right right round. Apparently



Interior is very green, like the roof. Loving the switchgear and metalwork



I love these little headlight chrome hoods. Dunno why, I just like shiny things I guess and how they reveal little secret distorted worlds within when you look closely. Like I'm always looking for Narnia in the back of wardrobes, I guess



Nice to see a sense of humour creeping in. I guess to own a Hummer you have to either take yourself very seriously indeed, or revel in the ludicrous side of life and probably not much in between.



Yeah, OK be like that. You're probably right, it is childish. It made me laugh anyway, you can draw your own conclusions from that



This vintage Caddy was an object of extreme beauty



Whiplash mermaid mascot displays considerable joie de vivre



to match the rest of the car, really. Wonderful curves, fittings and details wherever you look



Funny what a difference a colour makes; I guess if this was black we'd be discussing Al Capone and tween-war austerity, but somehow the deep burgundy makes it look a totally different car. This is another pic that took about half an hour to get, one old boy spent so long pressed up against the glass I honestly was beginning to worry he'd died standing up



More fins, this time Plymouth flavoured



This is a Fury, though not sadly a really cool Christine-style one. That hasn't stopped the owner trading on inherited glory, though, lol, Christine-based slogans abound. It also demonstrates one of the oddest phenomena in show car ownership, namely that of the owner who parks up, gets folding chairs out of the boot (or trunk in this case) and then sits like eight inches from their car all day without moving for hell or high water. It only annoys me because ... don't take it personally... I want to photograph the car, not you. But also I find it slightly odd in the abstract, much like people who drive to the beach or a picnic beauty spot and then sit in the car...



This was Madame le Jo's favourite car of the show, and who am I to argue with a lady of such taste and discernment, lol



It certainly has good lows and fine louvre-work. It is of course, an early Chevy Advance Design pickup (or Stepside, if you prefer). Think it's a '53, going by the grille but by all means do write in...



Now, here's the thing... bonnet bras are one of my own (many, it'd seem) personal hatreds so it's hard to remain impartial to this kind of thing. Loathe them as I do I will concede they perform a useful function; if you drive to a show in your immaculately-prepared and low vehicle, then you want something to prevent those heartbreaking stonechips in your paint perfection. BUT if you do have to use one, at least for Christ's sake have the decency to take the hideous thing off when you get there. It's like a cheap ebay imitation of Ann Summers wet-look lingerie, it's not even a nice thing in it's own right and on a car of this quality it's all you can see, it jars so badly. It's wrong, nuns and kittehs die every time this happens, and it's a sin against God. Stop doing it. [/rant] lesson ends.



God, I need something to calm me down after that. Here's something a bit different. We've all seen big Yank V8s with a righteous blower poking out of the hood, the V8 suits particularly well to a big Roots-type supercharger parked on the valley manifold Mad Max stylee. The owner of this Corvette clearly wanted to go their own way, however, and has come up with this rather funky centrifugal blower setup. If nothing else, I guess it must suck all the dirt of his nice shiny master cylinder for him

[luckyseven]

Right then, moving on from the Americana for a while; I think if you own something small, subtle and understated like a Bentley Turbo R then it's probably important to make sure it stands out because people just might not really notice it otherwise



lol, awesomes. Chrome wrapped Bentley, and not a footballers wife in sight. It's so wrong it just works somehow



I'm always at home to a nice Speedster (replica) rump. The best flavour of Beetle. Is this a Beetle underneath? I always jump to the conclusion Speedsters are replicas given how ferociously expensive the originals are, but this seems to have a '67 year plate. Or is that just the year of the donor Beetle?



See? Shiny wheeltrims exemption clause two (point two) again



Style; such a personal statement. Is it wrong for a dude clearly in the autumn of his years to have a lighty-uppy LED "7" on the front of his Caterham Seven? Well if it makes him happy. And it made me take a photo. And now we're talking about it. What's not to like?



OK, we might not quite be finished with the American cars yet, but this one's worth a look, surely? Rare enough to see a T at all, rarer still to see one that hasn't been turned into a bucket hotrod. It may not be American after all, they made these in Trafford Park, Manchester, y'know



The often-quoted "any colour you like as long as it's black" legend comes from a memo to production managers from Henry Ford himself, although ironically Model Ts weren't actually available at all in black for the first six years of production. It was only in 1914 that it became edict, though other colours could be purchased at a premium. Throughout the production run over 30 different shades of black, most changes aimed at quicker drying times to speed up the lines rather than any cosmetic considerations. Perhaps answering the age-old Spinal Tap question "How much more black can it be?" to which the answer is clearly still "None more black" but with the added caveat "but it could be a faster black"



Oh, alright, I'm lying, there's loads more American cars to come. Sorry, in lieu of rotaries I automatically gravitate to them. This Olds '88 has one hell of an overbite on her



Wheeltrim exemption clause 2.1, groovy embossed logotasm...



Spats... will they ever make a comeback? Twenty-foot four-seaters probably won't, I'm guessing



Nor, sadly, will mad rocket lights and ludicrous finnage. Again, fly on the wall at the design meeting where they argued about how to give their fins a USP.... everyone else is going higher and higher, why don't we just mount ours underneath the car? Hah, that'll show 'em



My mission this year (one of them, anyway) was to take a nice photo of a Daimler Dart that doesn't make it look like a depressed bottom-feeding barbelled-up fish. This is my current best offer



They look pretty enough under the skin, though. Technically I suppose it ought to be a Daimler SP250 after Chrysler threatened legal action over the Dart name. Errr, yeah, cos they're easily confused, aren't they?



You couldn't imagine a more British institution than that Rootes group mainstay the Hillman Minx, but there's an American connection here too. The Audax-bodied cars were partly styled by the same design studio who produced the Studebaker coupes of the 50s, and you can actually see the heritage. But in a good way. This is what cars look like in a corner of my head that's forever a kid, because this is what they looked like when I was a kid. OK, it's quite a spacious corner, admittedly



Everyone likes a nice, tight Imp, don't they?



One just for Kieron... apparently, this is what the engine bay of an Imp is meant to look like, lol



Rosie looks like a game ol girl

[luckyseven]

Some of Luton's finest now, then. How about a nice Firenza? Everything was brown in the 70s. This was kinda a fastback coupe version of the Viva. Lovely. If you look closely, this one's actually an "irenza" cos the "F"s fallen off. Sad times



OK, it's not brown exactly but you know what I mean. Allycats look good on anything?



A VX1800. My remebery of 70s Vauxs is hazy at best, were these an upmarket version of the Victor platform, or a model in their own right? Dunno, shamefully. Looks very nice though, innit



The Velox range really was a miniature American car, only British. I love them, I think they look great. British design is always at its best when its mental IMHO. No-one quite does kooky the same way, self-aware imitation notwithstanding



See? proper enamel, too. None of your rubbish Austin paint, lol. You knew you'd arrived when you could afford a car with enamel. OK, paint under plastic. Maybe. But it looks like enamel



And as we've already established, there simply is no better car in any context than a Chevette. (In-joke disclaimer included for sense. They're really not that good, actually)



The Cresta was an upmarket version of the Velox, which was an upmarket version of the Wyvern. Which must have made you feel really good about yourself if you owned a Wyvern. It must have made owners of BelAirs feel really good about themselves, after all imitation is the sincerest form of flattery



Let's bookend the Vauxhalls with another Rootes classic shall we? How about a nice Avenger (not a Tiger, sadly). This continues the apparent trend for classic cars to be painted at least half the same colour as my downstairs bog. I'm starting to worry about this, if only I could consciously predict trends rather than recognise them after the event. I could make a fortune, somehow



I always feel obliged to include an E-Type in these reports, despite that they don't really do it for me. I realise I'm in a minority, but it's just the awkward high glasshouse on the coupe and the feeble pram-wheel offset fail on all of them.



But, these are apparently the most beautiful car ever made, so who am I to fly in the face of public opinion? Mwhahaha! I like a challenge. Yeah, write it off as jealousy if it helps any.



With all that said I have to concede that having one of these stuffed up your wazoo does make a strong case for them...



There are always a goodly number of Jaaaaags dotted around Bromley, I guess they were a pretty common car after all. It's nice to see the enthusiasts maintain a GSOH as well. Look, a Jaguar! ON a Jaguar! No, it's a Jaguar, y'see? On a.... oh, never mind. Made me smile but we've already established how easily amused I am



I was privileged to see the XJ13 V12 leMans protoype here one year, which is unarguably one of the most beautiful articles ever made by hand of man, but sadly it wasn't around this year. Had to make do with this rather superb C-type instead. No hardship there then



Now, this really is beautiful from any angle and made the plethora of common vulgar E-Types look distinctly ordinary. I'm guessing it's not a genuine Ecurie Ecosse car but it certainly looks stunning in it's Flag Blue Metallic



Shall we have a few Fords then? Last year I seem to recall moaning about how there seemed to be like eight Fords for every other make, but it was nice to see the balance shifting towards a bit more variety this year. However, we all like a bit of Blue Oval goodness, so best crack on.



Capri generations, excellent wheelage, groovy colours. Lovely



Not much in the wonderful world of wheels makes me more gooey than seriously dishy Minilite-style tings. I like the used look too, even the homemade wing vents look OK for having wear and that



Cortina. Yeah, it may have a lot of doors. And yes, it does seem to be the same shade as a 70's bathroom suite. BUT, and it's a big but, it has a louvred rear window cover and that instantly guarantees it hyper-cool status



A replica up next, but to be fair, that's not a pejorative term. I doubt there are many of us who'd turn our noses up at wheelage like this, for example...



See what I mean? If you return to the earlier Ford GT you can see how in isolation it looks fantastic, but compared to a car with the rather more delicate proportions and purity of the original, it looks like what it is. A slightly bloated and compromised road car



Obliging of the owner of this to even paint it the correct colour for comparison, lol



Capri Bites Man! Actually, I got bored of waiting. At this point Madame le Jo and myself were wandering around looking at cars while my long-suffering wife was keeping the kids amused with fairground rides and stuff, so I was conscious I couldn't take as long over pics as I might have liked. Sorry about the erratic quality, lol



Always nice to see a clean Escort Cossie. That wing still defines craziness after all these years...



...or does it?



lol, what an excellent weapon this little 'scort looks. Love the wide-arch attitude. One of few cars I don't mind using the word "stance" for



And to end our brief Ford sojourn, a rather calmer sorta thing, a nice Pop.



A whole enchanted forests'-worth of Elfs. And Hornets. Another example of triumphant stand organisation us disreputable and scruffy rotang types could never aspire to. As any fule kno, the Riley Elf/Wolsey Hornet concept was basically an original Mini with a boot, thus giving the car a traditional three-box profile and allegedly moving it up-market. Hmmm.



It's not all European and New World cars, of course. There are plenty of Japanese icons spread around if you look. The Skyline OC (or GTROC, I could never be bothered to delve through the politics of Skyline cliqueyness) were well represented. After seeing a zillion Combat-kitted Saxos and Pugs at the height of M*x P*wer influence, sometimes you have to be reminded of the true home of VileSide



Well, I like the rosejointed tie rod anyway. There were plenty of amazing engine bays on offer



Shiny ones are best, fact. T04Z is a righteous turbo choice, too. Puts our humble 1.3 litre rotary tubs into perspective when the same turbo is considered manly on a 2.6 litre six. Strut brace is nigh-on architecture. Inspired by Forth Bridge. Maybe



Nice wheels too. Genuine Rays nuts are an eye-wateringly expensive luxury



Another lovely Datsun here. I think this was at the Gathering last year? Original Fairlady shows definite British roadster heritage with an oriental twist



This 260Z was immaculate, in an especially vibrant hue



Got some love for these rims, too. Proper colour, mind! anyone would think I'd just dropped wedge on a set of anthracite Minilites of my own or something *blush*



The MX-5 clubs stand always produces an object of interest too. Such a fine little car, and so available that people are really starting to come out with impressive builds. Last year the coupe conversion blew me away. This year this Spyder was the one that rocked my world



Some work's gone into this, I reckon. I love the twin-hump rear deck and the chopped teeny tiny windscreen



Over by the main arena seemed to be where the Hahhhndas hung out. Tango-hued little Kei car was adorably sweet



whilst the properly olde-worlde H600 was doing its best impression of Minnie Mouse. Funky bonnet strategy. Why? Becos Honda.



I seem to have acquired a not-entirely-deserved reputation as a hater of all things German in general (sorry, in Mein Herr General) and VW in specific. It's not so. I was just quite acutely traumatised by serial Beetle ownership as family cars when I was a kid, and a MkI Golf as my first car... a car that went a looooooooong way to singlehandedly dispelling the myth of Teutonic reliability. However, the self-referential and really rather strait and dour VW scene turns me off massively. If the guys who apply considerable skill and vision to making their car look exactly the same as everyone else's were able to indulge their creative abilities in the direction of making their cars unique and different then it'd be one of the best. As it is, the need to be scene strangles it for me. Which is why, in a longwinded way, I like the fact there are still Golf owners who can do something as silly as this and not apparently give a four-X who judges it. Good on yer, fella



And as previously established in this very thread (cf. avocado 4-door Cortina), the addition of a louvred rear window cover is enough to make any car ooze enough win that some of it is trickling out of the bottom of its trouser leg.



Madame le Jo was pleased to see this Karmann Ghia because she still covets the VW1300 coupe that looked like a baked bean at the Gathering and this comes a close second. I'm guessing Ada-san might be likin' this too



and to be fair, what's not to? World's slowest-accelerating sportscar, as admitted by the actual manufacturer. Respec



These Karmann converted Beetle cabriolets (I don't mind calling something like a Beetle a cabriolet rather than a convertible, because it's ghey enough to suit. OK, metrosexual then) are now getting pretty firsky price-wise. Brown perhaps isn't ideal, mind. White would be perfecto. I'd have it nonetheless



Look, I already told you everything in the 70s was brown. I remember going into a bookies with my Uncle once, and every single thing in it was brown. The faux wood stick-on veneer counters, the walls, the radio sets, the Racing Post, the people even, the only thing that wasn't brown were their eyes, which were yellow, and their cigarettes, which were generally Senior Service and thus could be used to asphalt roads with once smoked. It was one of those American Werewolf in London moorland pub moments... you brought someone under the age of eighty five into our betting shop? I've never missed that dartboard before... Anyway, this splitscreen isn't that sort of brown. It's a quality sort of brown, more like Ovaltine. Or cocoa. See, even the Ovaltine was brown in the 70s. And it's a '66 bus, more maroon than brown, but I'm not going to let little trivialities like that stand in the way of a good paragraph....



Right, something white to lighten the mood then. A BMW? In one of my show reports? With my reputation? Bingo. This is a nice one, though, innit. A 2002 as driven by one of the editorial staff on Classic & Sportscar, no less.



Not a very teutonic bit of spacing on the badging strategy though. Very cramped and amateurish-looking. Is that factory? Seems wrong somehow



More German stuff. I kinda maxed out on SLs after that awesome stable of them at Broaklands the other week, but they're always worth a couple of snaps. So here's one



This is a bit odd, though. Beautiful interior, as you'd expect, red leather (although re-upholstered, I suspect), gorgeous instrument and dash layout, contrasting white and chrome controls... and a cheesy £4.99 Halfrauds blue anodised chequerplate floormat!? Surely the guy can do better than that? Have a word with yourself, sir

[luckyseven]

Continuing in an anticlockwise around Europe but missing out Luxembourg because to the best of my knowledge a) nothing of interest has ever happened there throughout human history and b) they've never made any cars, we reach france. And what better way to celebrate than with a DS? Perhaps the most glorious expression of the insanity that was ubiquitous at Citroen for so long, and frankly all the better for it. Simply filling your sidelights with LEDs and turning them vertically does not make your car zany, it makes it contrived. The new blood could learn something about inspirational uniqueness right here on their own doorstep



Lots to like about Traction Avants, too. However, forget all that "first production front-wheel-drive" malarkey. I love them simply because it's a production car that looks like it's already been hotrodded. Cool as



Passing back south in our quick European tour, but missing Switzerland because a) plenty of interesting stuff has happened there but little of it is ethical or laudable, so we'll leave it well alone and b) they only built Monteverdis, and I gave you one of those last time out and the odds of me seeing another any time soon are slim to vanishing, we come to errrr... where was I? Oh yeah, Italy. Plenty's gone on in Italy, far too much to go into here, so it's fortunate they've also made shedloads of cars to chat about



late model GTV6. All the better for it. Here, have a little Fiat coupe of a model type I can't bloody remember for the life of me. Is it a 1000 or something? Please write in, lol. If my experience of how quickly old Fiats dissolve is at all representative, I'd expect many more of these have returned to the soil as vaguely significant ferric oxide ions than survive. This one's proper tidy, too. Another true survivor



These wee X1-9s were everywhere when I was little, and I used to think they looked fantastic. I still think they look fantastic, but I guess I'd have to add "kitsch" and "of their time" to that now



Mind you, that hallowed badge on the nose speaks volumes for how they can still look cool. Timeless design from Bertone is...well, timeless, innit.



Damn, found some more German ones lurking down the back of the sofa. That's knackered that mini-theme then, it's far too expensive to keep paying tolls through the Alps. This, then, is an NSU Prinz 4



This is the sporty TT model, though all cars in the range were rear-engined fours in varying capacity and tune. They were excellent little cars, lively and good-driving nad extremely reliable, in fact the only real reason they were phased out was the pruchase of NSU by Auto Union group, and the fact that the Prinz out-competed several of the VW and the recently resurrected Audi. Shame really, they're lovely little things.



Slight touch of madness creeping in with the tail lights, perhaps. Apparently, a derivative of the Prinz was the first (and perhaps only) car to be domestically produced in Egypt, badged as the Ramses in four versions of increasing hideousness. Weird but true



And just how beautiful is this, then?



Quite possibly the only exemption from the Law of Wheeltrims. Just admire the Manta badge, yeah?



Wearing Ferrari lights with rather more grace than many Ferraris. A car that rpoves, if proof were needed, that less is most definitely more. If you use the right-shaped less, lol



Just time for one more Ghia before we depart Germany for good this time.



...pausing only to take a detour to the old Eastern Bloc, a part now the Czech republic but once something else and forced to churn out cars based more on economy and a lack of materials than any sound aesthetic or engineering principles. Still, that didn't stop them making some endearing little cars such as this fella. Coming from a time when putting "Skoda" and "Deluxe" badges on the same car would have brought howls of derision, it's no wonder he looks so sad



Back to good ol' Blighty now for a while. Ahhh, that's better. Right, how about a GT6?



I always preferred the lines of the Spitfire to the MGB... I think perhaps due to the little whiplash line in the rear haunch, perhaps due to the fact my pottery teacher at school had one and he was really cool and had CND stickers all over it and played violin in a local folk band...and always imagined one day I'd own one. However, I've regularly been informed by people who've experienced both that the Triumph is a far inferior thing both ergonomically and in performance terms. *sigh* you should never meet your heroes.



I like the worn and used look of this GT6. Looks like it has a few stories to tell



A breeding pair of Marcos Mantisses here. Errr, anyone know what the plural of Mantis is?



Someone probably needed to be gently pried away from the clay model and told to sit and relax before this point was reached actually... like, no, Bill, it's fine, honest. Three spoilers is enough. No, no, I'm sure no-one will think you've not got enough swage lines in there. Perhaps leave off the Red Bull for a few days, yeah?...



Escort Mexico responds better to de-bumpering than Aston DB6 shocker. The way prices are going it'll probably be more expensive than a Db6 soon, too



This was a mad old thing. From the front there's a hefty dose of WTF about it, like a Firenza droopsnoot front, that's easy enough to spot, but on a ...what?



Oh, of course, an Escort estate. Naturally! In fairness, I like this a lot. The blurb says it's pretty much unchanged from how it was in the early 80s and I certainly believe that! Porthole windows and random Capri vents aren't the styling cues one would turn to nowadays, but it's of its time and all the better for it



Another of the Consul family here, following on from all those Corsairs. These are of course the elegantly-finned rumps of a pair of Consul Capris.



And here's the front of one. Honestly, wasn't it better when car designers were mad? I went on quite a long roadtrip today and the only car I can even remember seeing was a lime green Focus RS. Not one single other car stuck in my memory on any level, it was just an endless procession of anonymity. Maybe I'm getting old.



Of course, no-one does utterly deranged better than TVR. Headlight design inspired by Shelob the giant spider, probably. Paintscheme inspired by the last page of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Maybe.



There was a pretty big ol stand for the TVR owners, going some way to disspelling the myth of unreliability. The guy who owned this Vixen was interesting. This is a MkII one, y'see and the easiest way to tell it from the MkI is....



...well, apart from the early Cortina pie-plates, the giveaway is that the doors are a clear four inches shorter on the MkI making it important try before you buy. To be honest, I'd never have noticed if he hadn't said, but once you know they're blatantly really small doors. Weird. Becos TVR

[luckyseven]

We were beginning to run out of time to make it round the bigger one-make showfield now, and many cars had already left. It's another odd phenomena of Bromley, everyone seems to curse word off well early, meaning that even before three o'clock the field is half-empty. Shame really. The Granny OC stand was still well represented. I never paid much attention to the coupe in the past but as I get older they seem to exert more of a pull on me



And I've always got time for a three-door Cossie Sierra



Right, this oddity has already been drawn to our attention by Mr Bizzle, but in all true deference to his excellent skills, as far as I could see he didn't draw any attention to what was, for me at least, the most impressive thing about the ensemble. See if you agree, or spot what we did...



No, obviously not that it's got a Peel 50 stuck in the backseat, I mean you'd have to be spectacularly unobservant not to twig that one, wouldn't you? Why? No idea. The guy was clearly proud of his Peel, more so than the Eldorado. At least proud enough to be selling mousemats with a picture of it on, and have loads of Peel information up Someone pointed out it's a prototype and worth substantially more than the Cadillac. There you go, Jodie Marsh is a one-off and quite expensive but I wouldn't want to cuddle up to here conker-hued and teak-hard frame in the backseat of a Cadillac either...



So, you won't have spotted it yet, then. No, not the yard-high fins, either... this being a '59 Eldorado Biarritz, they'd be the highest fins on any car ever... but not them, no



Shall we have a look inside? Aha, getting warmer. Yeah, it's a serious bit of trimming artistry in here, and strawberries and cream is perhaps not the most relaxing place to spend your time but it's undeniably effective. Have you spotted the most special and interesting thing about the car yet though?



Yeah, well done, top spot. It's got a record player. An actual vinyl turntable record player. In a car, how bonkers is that!? I love this car, it's got a record player! (younger readers may need to pop off and ask their dad what "records" is, and why this stupid old fool on the interweb is banging on about them)



Let's have a slightly less nice Caddy to calm down with, shall we? I look at this photo and just want to photoshop it matt black with rust patches hanging out everywhere. And whitewalls with spoked wheels, drop it onto its belly... actually, I may do that when I've finished here



I only seem to have managed one pic of a TR-series out of a sea of Triumph roadsters of varying vintage. I'm not sure how I managed this oversight, because there were loads of them, but this is it so you'll have to be happy with. Odd but effective grille treatment on this TR6 s probably what persuaded me to it



Low hotrod is low. Nope, no idea what it is. Probably a Ford, I expect



By now my parental embarrassment level had exceeded my need to ogle cool cars so we made our way back to the arena display area, where my long-suffering wife was soldiering on with the nippers. I needn't have worried, because there were one or two things keeping them amused;



It was funny as hell watching the Classic Car bloke trying to reach high enough with his mic to conduct this interview! Who couldn't have a lot of love for a bright orange Range Rover monster truck? Certainly not my boy, he thought it was the best thing ever. He may be right



I managed to miss most of the display events, by now it seemed basically that anyone who fancied it could potter up with their car do some skidz on the wet grass, have a chat with the compere, then potter off. Which was interesting enough, to be fair. You got a strange mix at times, if the Rangey had a wider track this Ultima could have driven underneath it without scraping its sump!



There were some interesting cars going through, as well. This v8 Moggy looked and sounded excellent



Abarth Fiat 1000 went pretty well too.



After a while I went for a brief wander round the club stands near the arena while Madame le Jo had to shoot off to get to a night shift. The fields were pretty well emptying now, a constant stream of cars heading for the exits. Blimey, they have early tea round Bromley way...anyway, it made it easier to snap those that were left. Early Scirocco snapped to show Cyman they don't all have to be ugly, lol.



Running twin Webers I bet it goes and sounds pretty amazoid, too



There was a stand of ex-Police vehicles, which was interesting. This Jaaaaaag made me think of the Sweeney before I remembered that it was always the villains that drove Jags. In fact, due to budgetary constraints, they generally drove the same Jag with the dents from the previous episode hammered out.



This one is more from the Professionals-era, I suppose. I seem to remember a lot of SD1s in that. I wonder if regular old Bill looked enviously at the CI5 Capris and RS2000s or not, lol.



What halcyon days they must have been when an old T-midget was considered an ideal pursuit special, lol. Another of those excellent Winkworth electric bells seemed pretty much the only special equipment needed in those days



Ford Thames camper conversion must have been able to give the archetypal Veedub camper a run for its money, what with an awesome 1700ccs of snort underfoot. No, I don't believe a word of it either. I might have to revise my "the 70s were brown" motif, too, here's another 60s brown thing. Surely it was all technicolour in the 60s wasn't it?



I didn't get much of a chance to poke around the bikes this year, partly because it'd make me want another too much and She has said NO in no uncertain terms. But I had to consign this one to celluloid... well, digital virtual film, anyway



A gorgeous early bevel drive desmo Ducati SS. Gave me a small crisis, this one



Occupying that strange twilight world between bikes and sensible transport were a whole phalanx of bubblecars. This Heinkel Trojan was my favourite, simply because it looks like exactly what it is; a fighter plane cockpit nailed onto a tricycle



If my old Marina had looked as good as this, I'd still have it now. Amazing what a difference a pair of foglights makes. Mine was BRG, too. Well, almost. It would have looked brilliant.



Random MGBGTV8 wheel. For two reasons, one being I love the idea of a steel alloy wheel... eh? Why?... and I love the way that "MGBGTV8" rolls off the tongue... seven syllables in seven symbols, doesn't get neater than that

[luckyseven]

Basically a pair separated at birth next up. There was a random little posse of American cars by the arena, dunno why they weren't with the others but there you go. Anyway, first up is the green Ranchero that I snapped at Brooklands the other week...



...and since I did, I won't dwell on it too much. Alongside was it's sleeker sister. The one who got the decent date on prom night and got to shag the quarterback under the bleachers



This is of course, a Torino upon which the Ranchero pickup was based. Quite a funky one, too if allegations of Cobrajet power are to be believed. Hood-mounted tacho is a nice touch



She's got one hell of a long rump on her for such a pretty face



No particular reason for this, other than the little card made me smile, and it's a nice polite way of asking people to respect your car, and it shows how ordinary even serious musclecar interiors could be... OK, and it's got a nice laydee showing her nethers.



That absolutely gorgeous white Sedan de Ville from Brooklands again, but I thought it bore repeating



We've seen what a proper man's fin looks like now, of course, so these seem almost mundane. And this one doesn't have a record player. Why, it's positively ordinary, lol



Turquoise Task Force pickup, also spotted recently in another of my reports. Brooklands again. Or Aldershot, my mind's going. It's late and I've inhaled far too many RX-7 exhaust fumes today.



A couple of random black Fords now, the first of which looks like it ought to be rumbling through an early Walter Hill film, such as Streets of Fire maybe. Another rocket intake nosepiece that must have seemed very futuristic back in the late 50s



...and a V8 Pilot that looks like it ought to be ferrying the Anthill Mob to the Wacky Races startline. I was never sure if the emblem on these was an aeroplane that had melted a bit, or some sort of futuristic spaceship or just some odd fish of the sort that Roger Dean probably wished he'd thought of first for a Yes album cover



Old Fordson tractor thing in rhubarb and custard. Creamy! For some bizarre reason this was one of my tinies' favourites of the show...



...so much so they insisted on having their photo taken with it, so here it is. Mr C admittedly would take a better photo if he didn't insist on trying to show off his missing tooth in all of them. At least they were still smiling after several hours plodding around, so that was a result.



Conrad liked this Imperial Caddy a lot as well for odd reasons best known to himself, and wanted to know why me and Mummy didn't get married in one. I'm not sure how he knew we didn't, since he wasn't there of course, but no matter how much I tried to lie that we went one better and got married in a carriage drawn by thirty white swans and attended by giant frog footmen and fairy handmaidens like in Sylvie and Bruno, he wasn't having it.



That was pretty much that, then. Two-thirds of the vehicles had vamoosed, and all that was left was to give him his go on the electric go-kart that we'd promised him if he was good. Which he had been. On the way we had to pause for a photo with a star of screen and space



and then a blast on the karts. Which, I might add, are excellent and I bloody well wish I fit in one, I'd love a go. He seems quite a natural the li'l un, good lines and completely fearless. Good lad!



Also seems to have the correct cut-throat rostrum or strawbales attitude. If you can't win any other way, put your opponent into the wall! The guys running the karts were great, in fact. I wish I was rich enough to pay the hundreds of pounds per hour to hire the setup, now that'd be the best kids party ever! No, for the kids, the KIDS, I say. No, definitely no competitive dads. Well, maybe just the one race...



And that's me done. The queues on the Road to Hell of the M25 beckoned. It was late, we were all tired, and the kids would sleep in the car on the way back, then prove impossible to get to bed later, which is a success of sorts. Bromley's a funny show, always is. There are a lot of people who don't seem the slightest bit interested in cars, there are a lot of car owners who don't seem to like even their own car much, let alone rivals. The exhibitors go home too early, the tickets are too expensive, the carparking is shocking. The weather is ALWAYS curse word.

But... even a third of the field is an amazing array of unusual and exotic motors. It's genuinely a great family day out, with something for everyone. It's sooooo nice to have a show (relatively) on our doorstep and perhaps most importantly of all it's not at Santa Bloody Pod. I left with 500 photos on my memory card, a backseat full of happy children clutching 50p Matchbox autojumble finds, a 1:24th scale '99 spec diecast RX-7 in the boot (for Father's Day, I wasn't allowed to play with it for a week yet) and even a wife who claimed to have enjoyed it. So it must have something to say for it. Back again next year? Yeah, I guess so.

Here's a rather nice Jensen CV8 Type III to end on. Just because. It was pretty much the last thing there on the way to the exit, and I like the goggle-eyed stare. If it could speak, it would sound like deNiro in Taxi Driver. You talkin' ta me?



Thanks for staying with us to the bitter end, as always, we enjoyed your company. Now go away

[Joe T]

10/10 as always! Cheers!

[markgenesis]

As always mindboggling pics and report, thanks for sharing

The white Camaro though is a 68, the way i've always identified them is by the driving lights in the grill, Round lights in grill = 67, square lights in grill = 68, no lights in grill (just headlights) = 69 (also the 69 has squared rear arches), hideaway headlights in grill = RS/SS

[luckyseven]

Cheers!

Yeah, we were having pretty much that exact same conversation on another forum about Camaro years a while back, hence the comment. Pre-68 they didn't have to have sidelights by law, which helps on some marques as well. I needed my mate Rich there, he just translates the VIN plate for me, even down to telling me the factory of origin, trim level, etc. But then he has apparently Jedi levels of American car anorakism

[Amazosan]

A good show as always; amazing how we went to the same show but took almost different pics! my pics here

And a coupla tasters:


P6090547 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090592 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090621 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090680 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090667 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090676 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090708 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr


P6090700 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr


P6090736 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr



P6090770 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr


P6090829 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

[willowandmikey]

Nice work good pics with a educational write up

[luckyseven]

Jun 23, 2013 20:53:58 GMT Amazosan said:

A good show as always; amazing how we went to the same show but took almost different pics!

Yeah, it's weird, innit? About the only thing we seem to agree on is the subject of Citroen DSs I didn't even see a load of the cars in your photos, let alone photograph them! Must try and get there earlier next year, but getting out the house with two kids and all their paraphenalia is a major mission in itself.

Great pics, by the way, thanks for posting. "Jim Bowen Special" gave me a good chuckle

[Amazosan]

Jun 23, 2013 22:19:21 GMT luckyseven said:

Must try and get there earlier next year

I did get there at 7am-ish as I was showing one of my cars; great for taking pics of cars in apparently empty fields:


P6090541 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090588 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

P6090538 by Sosumi Photography, on Flickr

[matty2300]

lovely pics!

I totally agree with all the negatives you say about this show, but luckily the sheer variety of cars overcomes them (for me anyway)

oh, and my car is "Garnet Starmist" not BROWN!!

[luckyseven]

You're welcome, Mr pOG. I find writing these things is a perfect antidote to the braindrain of the dreaded tube ...although I don't suppose they use tubes any more... I sit at the computer with my headphones on and ignore the constant stream of soap drivel from the next room. It's some sort of microcsom of 21st century life, I guess, each person in their own self-inflicted electronic sensory deprivation suite. Ooooh, it's like E.M. Fortster's The Machine Stops I sometimes say to the missus "No matter how tragic, mundane and pointless their virtual lives, what's the one thing you never see these people do in soaps? That's right, you never see them wasting away their lives anaesthetised in front of the telly". Then she tells me to *&@#! off, so I suppose that's only fair

Jun 24, 2013 9:25:24 GMT matty2300 said:

lovely pics!

I totally agree with all the negatives you say about this show, but luckily the sheer variety of cars overcomes them (for me anyway)

oh, and my car is "Garnet Starmist" not BROWN!!

Cheers; yep the mix of cars definitely outweighs the snags; very nice too and that's one of the most beautiful paint colour names I've ever heard "Garnet Starmist", how wonderful! It sounds like an elf wizards' name in some sub-Tolkein fantasy novel. Beyond awesome

[shagracer]

great set of photos, love the consul capris and the vauxhall P.A.s, i was hoping to go to this show with the mkIII supra club, but we fell short of the minimun number for a club stand :-() maybe next year

[mdh]

Cool pics, thanks L7!

The blue GTA you refer to is actually an A310.

One other correction - Ferrari F40s are the peak of awesome. Agree with you on the newer Fezzas though - glitzy willy extensions for footballers and F1 drivers!!