A motoring catch up – 2017 so far…

We’ve been rather lapse with posting so far this year so here is a quick pictorial catch up of what we’ve been up to so far…

London Lisbon
In April James navigated on the London to Lisbon Rally for Michael Moss in the Fiat 2300 which started from Brooklands Museum. The first leg took in roads very near our home, in fact the first regularity finished just a few hundred metres from James’ workshop! Maybe local knowledge helped as they had a great first day. The first coffee stop was at the fantastic workshops of vintage Bentley specialist William Metcalf. After the first day in the UK they took they ferry to France for a further 8 days of intense rallying through France, Spain and Portugal in all conditions from snow to blazing sunshine. They had a great week with a pretty respectable top 20 finish in a car that was rather large for many of the tests.

Haslemere Classic Car Show
At the end of May it was time for the Haslemere Classic Car Show which we organise. This was the ninth year and it grows in popularity every year. Places for the tour and show were ‘sold out’ weeks before the event. We had great gathering of pre-1973 cars, around 90 of which were waved off by the Mayor on our morning tour of about 60 miles with a coffee stop at Lasham Gliding Club. Mario was there in a very useful capacity helping to transport lots of stuff about. He spent the day being admired peeking out between the stands. This year saw the launch of the HCCS Haslemere Hog – a charity event in Haslemere where 60 Pigs have been decorated by different organisations and then sold/auctioned to raise money. RoadHOG is great fun with his illustrations by Derek Matthews and his flying helmet and accessories. Mario even features on one side! A few of his ‘Hoggy’ friends also turned up in a Peugeot pickup to help support the event.

Our two competitions – Best Dressed Car and Crew and People’s choice produced some deserving winners. It was just a shame that after 8 sunny years the show ended a little early with a ‘Monsoon’!


Goodwood Breakfast Club – Soft Top Sunday
Obviously Mario doesn’t have a soft top so Regie had a day out. It was a lovely sunny morning with a good turn out of convertibles at the Circuit. We had a pass and so got to show off at the end of the grid. It was the first time we’d taken Regie out in a while and you forget how much fun he is to drive. RoadHOG who was raffled off at the car show was won by friends of ours who took him along in the back of their Sunbeam which created a lot of interest. Also of interest was one of the 60 new Caterham Seven Sprints, a new car but built in a retro style. It was such a lovely day that we went on down to Bognor.  GRRC Members Drinks – Kennels PhotoBomb
Every month we meet up with local Goodwood Members at the Kennels, it has become quite a tradition at the June meeting to bring our classic/interesting cars along and have a photoshoot in front of the clubhouse. For once it was a lovely summer evening so we had a great ride down in Regie. So that’s us fairly up to date, there are several motoring things coming up including a day at the Festival of Speed tomorrow…

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A busy May Day Holiday…

We’ve had a good but busy May Day Bank Holiday weekend. Saturday was ‘work’ day, Mario and Regie were taken to the Workshop to be fettled and polished. Mario’s brakes were sorted although they are going to need a major overhaul soon. He was also given a good polish in preparation for an special event in a couple of weeks. Regie the Renault had his newly painted wheels fitted, the cream or ‘Landrover Limestone’ as the paint is known, looks very smart and is much better than the silver they were. Unfortunately there are some balancing issues with them so they will have to be professionally balanced to stop the wheel wobble at speed.

Sunday morning was the first Goodwood Breakfast Club of the season and as it was ‘Soft Top Sunday’ Sunday Regie was the one to go. After all the dismal weather we’ve had recently, it was a glorious if a little chilly morning. We aren’t very good at getting up on Sundays – the rest of the week is so busy – so we didn’t arrive until just after nine and some soft tops were already leaving, wish they did Goodwood afternoon tea and gin club!

An early leaver played into our hands and we were able to sneak into a spot close to the main grid display and closer to the action, there were cars parked all the way between  Madgwick to beyond Woodcote corners plus in the paddocks. Regie was a great display and helped to advertise the Haslemere Classic Car Show we organise at the end of the month. Convertible’s old and new were on display – let the pictures tell the story…


The most interesting thing on display in our opinion was the fantastic little Heinz 57 Wolsley Hornet, it’s story is so good it deserves it’s own post so watch this space…

We were one of the last to leave the circuit and took a lovely cross country route to Southsea. Regie misbehaved slightly and we had to have an impromptu stop for a new set of points. We had the points with us but no tools, so luckily we had stopped right by a tool shop. It was a lovely day and great to finally be ‘topless in the sunshine’.

On Monday’s bank holiday  it was our local Charter Fair. Haslemere was granted a Charter to hold a weekly market by Elizabeth I in 1596 and still celebrates with a bi-annual Fair. We took Regie and Mario along to promote the car show and had a great afternoon meeting lots of car enthusiasts.

A perfect day for going topless!

Not wanted to cut Mario’s roof off, we went to the Goodwood Breakfast Club – Soft Top Sunday – yesterday in his elder brother ‘Regie’ the Renault 4cv Convertible. It was a beautiful ‘topless’ run down from Haslemere to Goodwood, other than the total a**e in a Porsche who proceeded to ‘boot’ it, overtake his mate, then slow down and pull over to let his mate pass back before pulling out right in front of us! All this on single carriageway roads with bends and dips and while he had his small children in the back! Unfortunately these idiots will end up spoiling breakfast club for everybody, as it’s only a matter of time before there is an incident, luckily it wasn’t us yesterday!

We arrived at the circuit and were let straight in with our pass and managed to park at the end of the start straight. The circuit was heaving with cars parked right round to Lavant – reports have said over 1000 cars in the circuit and 3000 in the public car parks, a popular event helped by a lovely sunny morning. We were snapped by Goodwood driving up the grid.

We met our mate Craig who was there in Victors D-type replica.

Again there were a lot of standard modern convertibles about which really don’t interest us very much but unlike super car sunday there were many more classics, interesting stuff which you can’t see in any supermarket car park. This Citroen Mahari was lovely.

An Invicta and a Hispano Suisa made an impressive sight. A great ‘shedy’ Austin 7 with a rather strange bonnet mascot. My first classic was an Austin A35 so thought this converted Austin was great fun. It didn’t appear to have any weather protection though so maybe not so useful in the UK. Really like this little Honda S800, in fact most of the small Japanese sportscars from that era are very appealing, maybe ‘Nippy’ the Subaru needs a friend!
This ‘Alfa Romeo’ was a brilliant project car made from bits of all sorts of things as the owner fancied a racing car and couldn’t afford one. Built very much in the spirit of the pre-war specials it was a lot of fun and was attracting a lot of attention. You just have to love the ‘Argyle Sock’ – a Mazda MX 5 with a special paint job – sold in the UK in a limited set of 24, commemorating Mazda’s overall victory at the 24 hrs of Le Mans in the Renown Mazda 787 driven by Weidler, Herbert and Gachot in 1991. (seen here at the Festival of Speed). They were apparently imported into the UK in plain red and repainted, a major job as the whole vehicle including the engine bay has been sprayed. Wonder if this cute Figaro used the same paint shop as the Stag. Finally a few pics of Regie on the circuit after the crowds had thinned out. As it was such a lovely day we went on down to seaside and then took a lovely country route home… a perfect day for going topless.