Neil Hopcroft

We took a walk down to Clare Priory, which is now some ruins and an old church in the grounds of a retreat centre. There is a little gate at the bottom of a windy path with a sign that says “NO ADMITTANCE, except to ruins and church”.

Nils wanted to take a picture but couldn’t work out why the touchscreen on my camera wasn’t working (mostly because it is not a touchscreen)…so I did the actual pushing of the button, but this is how the show looked to him.

Maserati have come a long way since they couldn’t fit the whole engine under the bonnet.

The sign for the Italian car club said “Alphfa Romeo”.

I think the Alvis was my sons favorite car of the show – he kept coming back to it trying to work out how it worked. There was something out-of-place about the child seat in the Rover, we are so used to seeing children put in the backs of cars because of the warnings about […]

I’ve always had a soft spot for Mustangs, although they lost their way for a bit they’ve found themselves again now – while I was drooling over the Roushcharged convertible, Nils was rather taken by the yellow machine in the next bay.

As always, I was drawn the the muscle cars, the Ranchero in particular is a nice balance between practical and powerful.

I’m pretty sure this wasn’t a factory fitted engine for the Ford Anglia?

There were more custom cars at the show than I had expected. Me: “What engine have you got in there that needs wheels like that?” Obviously missing the fact I was wearing a Santa Pod t-shirt: “A very big one” On pressing a bit more turns out it was a Chevy small-block stroker.

The first thing we saw as we entered the main arena around the castle were a couple of Lambourghinis.