Last weekend was busy, and started on Friday with a trip to the Lancaster Insurance classic car show at the NEC.
Now, I really wanted to go to this show. There was a sharp intake of breath at the £38 fee (it's cheaper on the weekend) and a bit of a rant at £1.95 to be sent the email with the ticket, but I reasoned I'd just have to suck it up. Let's face it, I don't do this every day and sometimes you have to buy memories. The ticket price came out of my holiday fund, since that doesn't seem to be being used much at the moment. If this was a model railway show though, popular web forums would melt down at that sort of figure.
Anyway, I arrived at opening time and when through the door, spotted one of the cars for my dream garage - a Matra Rancho. Since I was there early, and most people had gone bargain hunting, there was a chance to have a good chat with the guys on the stand. And the chance to feel very jealous as one of them owns a bronze (the best colour) car, complete with the swivelly spotlights. Apparenlty, this IS a Rancho for sale, and they normally go for about £6000, which seems very reasonable for such a rare (only 6 on the road) vehicle.
However, there is a Beetle and Type 2 ahead of the dream, so I moved on. To a Talbot Alpine, the first car I ever drove. But this one wasn't full of filler - I learnt a lot about Isopon on my parents car...
Talking of which, how about a Mark 1 Ford Fiesta with only 3500 miles on the clock? The first car I drove after passing my test, it's even the 950cc model, and not far off the right colour, a very easy to touch up grey.
With so many interesting vehicles to look at, one that sticks out in my mind is this Lamar Microcar. How ugly, and fascinating, is this? Narrow enough to go through a door, it looks a little unstable to me.
Anyway, I arrived at 10am, left and 5:45 and only took a 20 minute lunch break. That's a lot of walking - 12615 steps on the hard NEC floor. None of the cars for sale tempted me (OK, maybe the Trabant) but there was a three-sided R Whites lemonade waste bin in the autojumbe area for £475. Too rich for me, and I'd gone by train so it would have been a nightmare to shift!
It was a terrific day too. Plenty of good chats, including with a couple of railway contacts. Worth every penny. Oh, and there was cake, a delicious custard slice that made my hands too sticky to take a photo, so you'll have to take my word for it.
What you want is a photo-dump - here you go then. Enjoy this lot on Flickr.
2 comments:
Erm, chances to buy a beetle compared to chances to own a Rancho? Time to reprioritise.
An NEC Classic car show many years ago was the one time I got to drive an F1 car. A Lotus 72 no less. Admittedly I only got to drive it about sixty feet, and the reason I got the job was I was the only person slim enough on set-up day who could actually fit in it
Not to buy. Chance to get my Beetle back on the road. My first car. The one that was bu**ered up by a scum "restorer". The one I feel guilty isn't on the road.
One day it will be. I won't let that piece of s**t beat me.
Still fancy a Rancho though.
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