(posted by email since I’ve hit some kind of routing issue that means I can’t post direct)
Sunday saw me heading to the Classic Car show at Shuttleworth. I love these events, seeing some of the old cars out there reminds me of some of the passion I felt for cars when I was young. Of course modern cars just don’t have the same appeal as some of these classics, everything is too snug-fitting and quiet these days, theres no character.
There was an arena with commentator describing cars as they showed themselves – it seemed everyone could take their classic in for praise or abuse by the over opinionated motor journalist on the microphone. He had watched the British car industry implode and wasn’t going to forgive the Japanese for it, despite the fact that we never really got the hang of making reliable cars. The poor guy who’d taken along his near pristine early 80s Datsun was treated to a diatribe about how the only positive thing about his car was its reliability, while the SD1 was spoken of in glowing terms comparing it with Ferraris and Maseratis. And while its true that I largely agree with him that we lost something fabulous when we let Rover decay I don’t think its entirely fair to push such strong views at an event like this.
Unfortunately his voice was pervasive across the entire grounds – he was on little tannoy speakers dotted throughout the exhibits.
There were, of course, a few stars in the vehicles themselves. Including a small collection of Allegros, which are now considered classics, and only one estate, albeit in a nicer colour than mine was. There was quite an array of Triumphs, too, TR2 through TR7 I think, all softtops showing its evolution.
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