THE TURNPIKE
The british motor cycle preservation society put on a great show at THE TURNPIKE, between oldham and ashton. Over 70 bikes, cars and scooters of all ages and styles turned up.
The day started rather dull and overcast but that didn't stop the 'show'.
What a marvellous turn out. The bikes took centre stage with over 50 turning up, most staying for the full day. Nortons, beezers, triumphs, royal Enfields you name it there was one there. What a good turn out from the scooter boys too, old and modern 15 at one time. Even five trikes. The custom imp powered trike definatley caught your eye, owened by Alan Medhurst from stockport. It two years to build working at lunch times and saturday afternoons. Alan has run it for twenty four years now.
A BSA A65 Lighenting (650cc) restored from a 'basket case' and is now in stunning condition. Owened by Alan Coates he has rode it to Swtzerland and back TWICE since the rebuild, all for charity.
Amongst the cars, Dean Cooper turned up in his 1971 Hillman Imp, an ex rally car. Dean has owened it for twelve months and says it's a rolling restoration but it looks really well as it is.
Dave Jones from Levenshulme brought along his 1957 Ford Zodiac Mk11 (with six mates and their Mk11's). daves car has appeared on TV and will work again later this year to commemorate the opening of the motorway network.
Other cars that turned up was a rare Hudson (aprox1924), a 1969 Plymouth Fury and a last minuet arrival was a 1955 Cadilac de-ville. Good food and drink was provided by the staff of the turnpike who worked very hard on the day. Thanks to them and to all that made the effort and bring their vehicles, also thanks to B.M.P.S. for putting on the show
|
TATTON PARK AUG 08 Well here we go again on our hectic beer swillin ,bbq munchin club events,
This time it was tatton park classic car show,aug 16th-17th 2008. As it was 31yrs since Elvis chomped on his last burger, we thought it only fitting to dress up as Elvis (well the ones with balls that is lol ) and the girls 50s style. As per usual things were taken to extremes with clive bundy driving down from blackburn in full Elvis get up because dave forgot to tell him that we were getting changed at tatton god only knows what people thought as he cruised along the motorway. Rumours will be rife again with people sayin "Elvis is alive and he drives a ford consul " top marks to his family too for makin a sterling effort they were voted best dressed and clive was voted best elvis Now to the show.... It started Friday for some of us mowing the grass and sortin out flags and putting the bunting up and then came the gates of graceland (well done to marks son 10/10) The weather was fine so we were ok apart from the fact I was supposed to be going to Denton that night... But what the heck its for the club! SATURDAY The forecast was sunny spells and scattered showers becoming heavy as the day wore on. HOWEVER it was brilliant sunshine all day so the scene was set for a spectacular day. NOW FOR THE BEST BIT the fancy dress .. Dave was donned in the famous gold suit and i was in the jailhouse rock suit, gill was superb dressed as Marilyn manson oops I mean monroe with Brian, Bernie,Paul and clive in the old jumpsuited Elvis. With Rachel & Chris as pink ladies and clives girls dressed in 50s gear. At this point I have got to mention that for a club that is only one year old the turn out and effort by all involved is exemplary and a credit to Brian and daves constant hard work. back to the show We had a very large plot this year with room for 25 cars so filling it was always going to be tough, The whole of Saturday was fantastic, we had a reasonably good turn out with 16 cars and one of them was a rolls royce. We had decided to have a tombola to raise money for charity which was a resounding succsess thanks to Jackie and the girls grabbing every passer by whist Dave with his singin was drivin them away. the rain kept away and the tombola made it extra special with every one having fun and the organisers comments on how good we all looked TROPHY TIME... Yes we were there again with CONNOR winning BEST CONSUL and once again 2nd best club stand ( great considering there are 90+ stands) As usual the day flew by and it was time to get into our normal clothes , thing is you couldn't tell with some of us lol. The inevitable rain arrived by the bucket load around 5:30pm so it was off to the main marquee for the disco laid on till the wee hours.DRUNKEN KIDS ENTERTAINMENT Chris in the disco
SUNDAY we were up bright and early for our usual egg n bacon brecky . And amazingly it began raining again after a brilliant sunshine and blue sky start, these weather forecasters want a good fooking as they got it all wrong again by saying Sunday was going to be the best day ...... However as normal of our club this did not dampen our spirits ( apart from the bottles with no lids on lol ) it was a day of sun and showers but there was still hundreds of people there wandering around our chrome laden stand admiring our cars we had 20 on display with the addition of alan and his family with a left hooker cresta who jackie pounced upon as they entered the park and a early honeycomb grill zephyr that we still didnt get there names i think With a bit more effort we could go for first prize next year, eh .. BEST QUIP... Bernie to Keith on Saturday " don't you feel a bit stupid dressed like that" SUMMARY ... If you didn't go you missed out on another spectacular weekend of drinking vast amounts of beer and eating loads of junk food in the sun .. Those of us that did go and made the effort deserve a large pat on the back and a round of applause for getting this lil ol club of ours noticed and people eager to join... WELL DONE EVERYONE.. | ||
|
SPEED DEMONS 3
Saturday 9th August
Today like any other day I had to face typical british weather, typical british traffic, typical british country lanes and lack of road signs, not to mention typical inconsiderate british motorists, but all that crap melted right away when I arrived at Siddington Hall for the Speed Demons Classic Car Show weekend. Siddington is in the arse end of no where, which was perfect for this kind of event, upon arrival I was greeted, as always when I see him, with a huge smile courtesy of the events organizer Tony ‘Bones’, aka ‘ The 
Lada Killer’. Who also happens to have a Classic Car entourage for sale, which he has brought with him to the show.
This event, like the array of classic cars on show, ranging from Buick’s to Prefects
seems to derive from the old saying, ‘If its not broken don’t try and fix it’, and that’s exactly the way we love it, there would have been events like this all over the place back in the hey day and ‘Bones’ has followed that formula to perfection. I swear I was seeing in black and white as its as it felt like a trip back in time, (maybe that was the rum I was drinking).
This event mimics the nostalgic get togethers of the good ole folks of yesteryear, friendly, welcoming, does exactly what it says on the tin… erm flyer.
Me, Lisa and the kids came along for the ride,
I was right in my element with the band and bring your own beer,
the kids were a little bored and went wild, and constantly asking when, ‘grandpa Dave’, was going to get here so that they could play football in the pouring down rain, bless em. Lisa was happy cos I put the tent up on my own, again, with some help from a weary hung over Wayne, (Cresta), which is a good job cos it had no bloody instructions. To add insult to injury our BBQ wouldn’t work, that’s right I look like a cave man and I cant make fire, Luckily Jackie was on hand and had things firmly under control, as she had the idea to wake up Bernie and ask to use his campervan cooker, which she kindly made the kids some burgers, who then typical didn’t eat them. Sorry!
It was a small event bar none, but that didn’t stop people turning up in their masses, and everyone sinner or saint was there to have fun and enjoy the offerings. The weather was typically damp throughout most of the day, which found most of us that were awake, (no prize for guessing who was asleep in they camper van at 4pm in the day), ducking for cover under some of the members of the Guzzlers car club tent and much needed and appreciated BBQ hut de ville. Many thanks to you guys/gals if your reading this, and thanks to Dougy for stoping Tyler’s chair from constantly falling over after drinking his juice out of a cobra beer bottle.
The Stone-Age Record Hop plus guest DJ’s played a perfect blend of swinging tunes and foot tapping beats. The band were a rocking trio playing many old time classics and favourites, like Johnny Cash, Eddie Cochran, Elvis, to name but a few, the music was playing people dancing, Mark shown us he could move like the wind, and put the rest of us to shame, while we sat swigging booze and chatting away. There were also a few people jiving and a fun time was had by all.
After the band had played and many people fizzled out and retired to their tents, there was a massive BBQ, courtesy again of the Guzzlers crew, (Many thanks again). And a cool matt black consul with pin stripes on white walls, was kicking out a variety of tunes till the early morning.
As always our club of most of them that were at the event, this consisted of Dave & Lesley and daughter and dog, Wayne, Bernie Whisky Mac, Johnny and Gill, Me running on empty, and some biker gal from stoke, who rode a fucking 600 motorbike duck (who refused an offer of a jumper to keep her warm!!). We were the last man/men and gals standing, and making all manners of strange noises and disturbing conversations till the very early hours, I retired earlier than most that night, despite a barrage of insults from the rest of the crew, (although try and explain to a group of drunken car enthusiasts short of a few pistons that the kids will be up real early!) It doesn’t work.
Sunday 10th of August
Sure enuff and as predicted in a drunken stupor the previous night, the kids were awake at 7:15 am, I told you so springs to mind. So while I was trying keep them from waking up the entire village and fellow campers, we sprung forth into my consul and headed west I think, and ended up at bloody McDonalds for breakfast. I also treated my car to a much needed bath at a nearby petrol station. Dave was kind enough to let my kids shadow him all day and played football with em. Cheers for that.
Upon a our return the sun was shining and complementing the chrome on an entourage of fine looking steel, that had already lined up ready for the days viewings.
Most of our crew were lively if not the walking dead. Bernie disappeared quick smart and transformed his Renault camper van into a Plymouth Fury ready for the day. Although there wasn’t many cars that showed up what did was plenty for the looking. There was a couple of nice 32 style big money rods there with the chrome a gleaming and some too cool old skool rat style rods, plenty of flames, chrome, and whitewalls for everyone and a couple of interesting stock motors too, a very nice the big yellow chevy fleet pick up truck, and of course not forgetting Dave’s lead sled Buick, wit its cool custom decals and paint. Aswell as few other interesting mark II that didn’t belong to our club.
The band from the previous nights performance was up and at em with a few more members to toot, and the prior nights drinking had not slowed them any and they were playing like fire to the crowd, whose feet were a tapping while the big bass and vocals wailed. All we needed was some tractors and hay and we could have been Dixie style. There was a van selling hot food and drinks all day. There was also a strange man with a walking stick who said he was scared of the trees falling down, and was going to enter the X factor thing?!
This was my first Speed Demons but it definitely wont be my last, for £5 per person you would be daft to miss it, included in this price is camping, DJs playing R’n’R music all day/night long, a live band, and a car show, what more could you ask for. Many thanks to Tony ‘Bones’ and crew for organizing such an outstanding event, and to Jackie and Wayne for helping me feeds my kids and put up the tent, and thanks to Wayne for keeping me watered with Budweiser. And to Dave for keeping my kids entertained, while I drank liquer. If 50’s style nostalgia is what you want you don’t have to look further than Speed Demons events, cool cars, cool music, cool people, need I say more, so come on down to the next one!
review by cool4door60 (paul g)
MK 11 WEEKEND
WICKSTEED PARK
Friday (not Bernie,s best day!)
we set off Friday dinner time. Bernie, gill, and myself meeting Brian at sandbach services. Bernie had problems from the off, with trouble at home and a permanent red light on his dash. After a little tinkering we gave up as he had no indicators and one brake light. The map was put aside and we set off following his sat nav.
We had decided to take the A5 route stopping off at a truck stop on watling St A5 southbound , as we left the M6 we saw the truck stop which appeared empty, so still doing 50 and checking it out , I looked round in horror to see Bernie on his way into the gates,( forgetting he had no indicators) I dived on my brakes only to hear Brian locked up behind me and about to plough into us, I flew into the furthest part of the entrance allowing Brian a bit of space before he caused a pile up behind him.
We had a brew and sat there pissing ourselves at how close we had come to smashing all three cars up. The rest of the journey was a nightmare as Bernie took us back on the M6 through Birmingham at 5 oclock, with brian threatening to shove bernies sat nav where the sun don't shine lol.
We arrived at wicksteed some 5 or 6 hours later putting our tents up in a force 10 gale and settled in for the night with lots of beer. There were only 8 mk2s there and nothing to do so we decided on an early night... 3am ??.
SATURDAY
We were up with the larks around 7 am for full a English , meanwhile bonnie one of brians 2 dogs had gone AWOL and after much searching and shouting I found her in the next field raiding someones food container, she had a full pack of cheese they had left out to thaw. She was in the dog house for the rest of the morning and we kept very quiet. (If you read this and it was your container) HARD CHEESE LOL ! .
SAT also saw the arrival of dale and moira and mark b in his convertible and later Dave Lesley and dawn making it 7 cars , and the weather improved as lots more cars made the field, Jason had brought all 3 of his cars , his Ute, vert and mays zephyr which gave us something to drool over.
Nighttime was soon upon us and there was no entertainment laid on so we were forced to make our own ,,and drink more beer, Brian subjected us to some bizzare cinderella story (where does he get them) and we made up a few games and had a pop quizz to pass the time. The evening was one laugh after another, with the highlights being, Bernie accusing me of nicking his beer as he had brought 3 bottles in., a full bottle sat in front of him on the table surrounded by 5 empties ??? and mark b capped it off by not being able to unzip the gazebo to get out , after a few minutes he got up and opened another exit, (you had to be there)
SUNDAY
cars rolled in all morning making an impressive sight with the chrome glinting in the sunshine. We had a visit from Wayne and Jackie (ex Mk 2 owners lol) who stayed and helped us pack up for the run back home , which was almost incident free , we ran into a torrentual down pour as we left Kettering, which was scary to say the least. After that it was sunshine all the way back up north. All in all a great time, the only drawbacks were the lack of toilets entertainment and having to fork out £10 per night to kip in a field with no washing facilities for us or the women.
JONNY
THANKS JONNY I WILL ADD MORE PHOTO'S WHEN I GET A BIT OF TIME
REGARDS TO ENTERTAINMENT AND TOILETS YOU DO HAVE A POINT BUT IT 'S A LOT OF WORK TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING RIGHT WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES AND OUR CRITICS
DAVE AND BRIAN (two dogs)
PARK BRIDGE
2008
park bridge is off Lees Rd between oldham and ashton i didn't know this place existed it's part of the national heritage trail.
It wasnt untill friday night Bri(2dogs) said he was going and asked if anyone else fancied it so i rang around a few members who live local as it was such short notice for everyone to attend.
we arranged to meet at asda car park in ashton. So when i arrived i found bri,Keith,Jim,Jonny and Gill waiting for me so we shot straight off to the park which is about a 2 miles drive.
when we got there the stewards were going to put us in a packed car park but that would have meant splitting us up so Paul who organises the show came up with the idea it would be better to keep us all together so he gave us our own area it was a little out of the way but i think it worked out better for us as it was a small grassed area which was over looked by the main show and had spiral stone stairways leading up to the show car park and a stream running at the side we could fit around 15 cars on
paul also informed me later that if we could get enough cars next year we could have the same area
there was a wide range of cars on show from vintage austin sevens and a hudson essex (al capone style) to capris and cortinas val and berts chey impala and a rare edsel ranger and there were plenty of old british bikes
whilst walking around the cars i saw a consul right in the corner of the car park it was paul and cheryls they must have been one of the first to arrive and looking how they were blocked in i bet one of the last to go but i dont they would of minded much as they got 2nd best post war saloon (well done you two)
a few days later i was told the show was mentioned in the local paper and look what they put..
ROAD RUN
2008
Sunday 18th May at The Butchers Arms Great Sankey was to be the starting point for our first road run of 2008 and the day proved to be a great success, weather wise and turn out.
And so it was that at about 0900hrs on a bright and warm morning over 20 cars of variying ages and makes gathered on the car park to receive the "Route instructions" carefully prepared by Steve and Jill Tanser.
I think we were all impressed by the variety and quality of cars, especially some guests who made up the numbers with mark 2 Zephyrs, Zodiacs and Consuls as well as a trilogy of Vauxhall PA Crestas.
Some rarity as well. the Hudson Owned by Wayne was a real one off!
Thanks to all who planned the day and those who turned up.
The run took up approx. 100 miles in all, including a really good mix of Rural, semi Rural, towns, Villages and even the Seaside. In brief this is what we did..
Butchers Arms to Frodsham via Preston Brook, on thro' Helsby and past Elton to the first stop at a little Country car park down a lane god knows where.
Steve Marran utilised his charm and wit on a local girl blocked in by the sudden arrival of about 23 cars.
Very understanding lady (about Steve, not the Blockage)
A quick brew and off again through some typical Cheshire villages and Lanes, across the Wirral ending up at Harrison Drive above New Brighton at the Seaside.
Met other classic people out for the day and eventually moved on to Eastham where the Manchester Ship Canal lock gates start. Lovely place, bit of a nature reserve and 2 pubs. Busy and popular place.
We intend to do an evening run there soon.
The sun shone and spirits were up as we returned to the Butchers Arms for the "judging" and the assistant Manager picked a really clean red and white Ford Consul she fancied. Well done to one of our guests who took the trophy. 
Quite a crowd stayed for the discounted meal and once again many thanks to the organisers, Steve T and Jilly T for the hard work put in weeks before the event.
Thanks also to Andy and his staff for hosting at the pub.
Dave Espley Social sec.nwcc
MK 11 INDEPENDENT CLUB
BILLING 2008
it was a glorious day to be travelling to northhampton. we met at sandbach services at 6:30 and left at 7:00 the traffic at that time on a sunday was very light there were four cars brian's (2 dogs) jim's (santa) bernie's and mine having one more stop on route we arrived around 9:30 with no problems
when we got there we told jim who went in a different gate to us that we paid £6 instead of the £10 and jim was not pleased with that and after 20 mins of moaning bernie had to let him know we paid £10 because he was on his way back down to the gate (you would have had to be there to find it funny)
after a little detour we found the field where the mk11s were and i wasn't impressed, there were around 12 cars without ours and i thought i drove all this way for this but by noon there were plenty of cars to look round so it was worthwhile in the end
we got talking to the other owners and telling them about our club in the north west then we met a guy from st helens with a zodiac and his mate with a cresta who were keen on attending our runs and shows and may pop down to the meets if they can.
moira and dale were there as was steve toye with his parts stall and a lot of familiar faces from the last time i was at billing
it got to 3:00pm and time to give out the trophies but first it was a prize for the best teddy of the day as the theme was the teddy bears picknic there was only going to be one winner and he was picked brian 2 dogs and he got awarded a plate with a picture of a mk11 on it for putting his teddy on the roof of his car and rigging up a devise for it to wave its paw at people passing by (he is always tinkering) well done brian
the first trophy to give out went to the guy from st helens for his cresta for best non mk 11 ( keith & wayne have competition if he turns up )
the next trophies were 1st, 2nd & 3rd best mk11s and 1st prize went to les the other guy from st helens for his zodiac (so more competition if he turns up )
the last trophy to give out was the best daily driven mk11 and that went to me, what a shock! had we all decided to pick the same car again i'm just sorry mark b didn't get it at leyland museum when we picked his (so i dont have to worry about competition)
the drive home was fine with just one stop to let the football traffic clear so the 3 graces done well again so thanks for turning out again
DRIVE IT DAY 2008
LEYLAND TRANSPORT MUSEUM
8:30am sunday morning another miserable day, weather wise. still we were going to enjoy ourselves
we had decided to drive to leyland transport museum along the A6 and were being joined by the american auto club northwest our meeting point was the brown cow at worsley thats where the american club hold there meetings.
by 9am most of us had arrived and we only had to wait for a couple of saturday night party goers.
there were six mk 11s (bernie came in his plymouth fury and gave his consul a rest) Five american cars set off with us. it must of been a great site from the side of the road.
everyone seemed to stop stare and smile we even got plenty of waves
half way there we arranged to meet some of our other members from the wigan and bolton area in the carpark of the red lion.
there was another four cars that joined in and it was difficult for us all to keep together but with a few stops we managed a great procession of cars without annoying or holding up the other drivers on the road.
we also met up with clive b from blackburn futher down the A6.
we eventually arrived at the museum about 10:30 and all parked up.bob (from blackpool) had arranged to meet us there with his consul and john smith with his very early hi-line zephyr had already arrived. all together there was twelve mk 11s, 5 consuls, 4 zephyrs and 3 zodiacs
a quick walk round the display of cars and then into the museum for a warm and a brew.
the museum is all about commercials, such as trucks,buses,vans and some bikes. there is also a lot of literature about all these vehicles.
back outside and it's still miserable but the car park was virtually full so we had another walk round to view the late arrivals and a chat with the owners.
the weather really does make or break days like these and this was a miserable one but after all it is drive it day and its all about driving your classic.time for a sandwich and a coffee and say our goodbyes,by this time it was 3:00pm and ready to leave so we headed for the exit .a nice steady drive home and plenty of classics to view along the way.now looking forward to this seasons of runs and shows and hoping for better weather.
a big thanks to the mk 1 cortina owners club for the invite and also the american auto club north west for the joint organisation for the run up to the museum and to all our members who turned out on the day cheers guys and gals.
who remembers what the ESSO sign means?
HAPPY MOTORING BRIAN HAW