Retro Warwick classic car show

The rain was coming down hard. I looked out of the window and wondered what sort of person would be daft enough to go out in this.

Listening to the weather forecast, the Met Office were warning that the remnants of Hurricane Bertha were making Londoners wet resulting in riots as people panic-bought sun-dried tomatoes in the Hoxton branch of Waitrose.

To be honest, I'd forgotten about Retro Warwick until I saw a post from Practical Classics on Facebook showing one of the team sat in the Radio CWR studio. It's a really nice free event in the centre of our country town. The roads are closed off and people with classic cars park them so everyone can have a good look.

Putting this sort of event together takes a lot of time and effort from people who aren't paid for either. It was this thought that made me decide to hop on a bus and go and have a look anyway. Well, after I'd checked on Twitter (I do loads of social media me) that things were happening. It might seem odd not to drive but with the roads closed, parking might be interesting and anyway, the bus stop is 2 minutes walk from the central square, probably a shorter walk than from the car park.

As expected, the rain was falling, but there were cars to see. Adopting the attitude that there is no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing, I had a look around.

One advantage of a wet day is that photography is a lot easier. Grabbing that shot without people in the way is no problem, except, oddly, with a Princess. This isn't right - I remember these things on the road so surely it can't be old now can it? Why did everyone wan to have a look at that one?

Thing is, it's not just old cars that are now classics. Original shape Mini Metro anyone? Proper shape Mini? My mate Big Chris has just finished restoring one after 2 years work. Renault 8? I don't recall anyone being impressed with those when they were new but now...

Anyway, have a look at my photos on Flickr and be glad you didn't have to get wet. Be even gladder that just as you got back on the bus home, the first glimmers of blue sky didn't appear.