All fixed now thanks dave.
Very few photos from me I'm afraid. Ironic as we're known as the people who take millions of snaps at every show we go to, but I hardly had time to get away from our own pitch all day, plus the blurry vision thing didn't help -the camera was on auto focus. How come my piccies are still blurred? I've got just a few random snaps of our pitch, as people arrived & left, which makes it look empty. Hopefully our roving reporters will get back to us with a better representation of the rest of the show.
Yes, there's an awful lot of running about beforehand, desperately trying to organise things, chasing people for favours, sorting out transport for our perpetually unfinished projects etc, but it's worth every minute of it when you lot start rolling in.
A couple of last minute cancellations & a break down for one of Goforest's VW beach buggy troop, but otherwise all present & accounted for. I know it's just a little local show & the weather wasn't on our side early in the morning, but we were so proud to have you all there. Yeah, we may have been the scruffy bunch in the corner of the club field, but I reckon we gave the big money classic car clubs a run for their money. We definitely had all the cool stuff! As several people observed, we had a wider selection of interesting vehicles than every other stand. Others may have had neat rows of lovingly polished cars, all the same in different colours, but we had drag cars, hotrods, trikes, bikes, quads, Yanks, Brits ...a bit of everything. I can't believe you lot all made the effort to get there for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. We had vehicles from the West country, the South Coast, Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Essex, even Hertfordshire.
We started off trying to arrange you all in neat rows but that just ain't us is it. Despite my efforts to shuffle things around into some semblance of order, it pretty soon slid into our usual chaotic mish mash of machines. Ah well, just go with the flow. The 6 man crack gazebo building team struggled valiantly with poles & canvas & no instructions, more Dads Army than commando team, to eventually produce a passable imitation of a tent -which promptly tried to blow away. Good job I'd made a handful of tent pegs the night before. Somehow we managed to end up with 4 spare poles & a box of canvas left over. We filled it with comfy chairs & donut supplies & it became home for the afternoon -the gazebo, not the cardboard box, though that may have been more structurally sound.
The drizzly start to the day slowly cleared & although we didn't get the scorching heatwave of last year's show, it was warm enough for a family of punters to stop for a picnic on the grass in front of Ken's Corvette. The 11.o.clock start time soon came around & from then on it was non stop until late afternoon. Familiar faces appeared from the crowds to say Hello. Other forum members came over to say hello. Complete strangers came up to say Hello. A thousand conversations were had, hands were shaken, donuts were munched -this socialising business is hard work!
As far as I could see, every vehicle on our pitch attracted it's fair share of interest. An awful lot of photos were taken by the general public & they weren't shy about stopping us & asking questions. Someone pointed out that most of the other car clubs there consisted of a row of shiny machines & a small tent full of owners who had no interest in engaging with their audience, preferring to ignore the public & chat amongst themselves. The Manky crew actively encouraged Joe Public to come & take a look though. Dave Two Lanes in particular deserves an honourable mention for his tireless showmanship -come & have a sit in my dragster little boy -well, he had a queue of eager lads waiting their turn all day anyway.
The weather may have kept visitor numbers down -they certainly didn't match the 20,000 of last year, but I reckon every one of them found their way to us eventually & would've discovered something there to interest them.
Well done chaps. We're very, very proud of you all.
