surrey street rodeos | Mario the Multipla

Been slack at posting again – too much to do with the car show coming up. So in order to catch up here’s a mainly pictorial post on the annual Wheels Day.

Wheels Day is the annual show organised by the Surrey Street Rodders and has been taking place for over 40 years. Always held on Good Friday the show took place at Rushmoor Arena near Aldershott. There must have been the best part of 1000 cars on display ranging from Hotrods and Customs to Classics. Personally I feel it’s a shame that there are modern souped up cars on display but each to their own I suppose.

Mario had an entry, although we were a little late turning up after celebrating a friends birthday the night before!

Loved the Woody and Buzz hanging off this pick-up
The picture looks red but this was soooo orange! Great Matt paint finish Couldn’t decide about this. Had it just been pulled out of a barn/field or very carefully made to look destressed? Tiny, Baby Airstream – would look great behind Mario! This Cosmotron had been completely handcrafted on a BMW Z3, very comic book, space age.

Good Friday traditionally means a trip to Wheels Day. Organised by the Surrey Street Rodders this show has been going locally in various venues for 40 years and these days incorporates everything from the original Hot Rods and custom cars to American, Classics, Sports, trucks, buses, bikes and to be honest quite a few dreadful vehicles which shouldn’t be allowed near a show!

Mario has been attending regularly since we have had him and as always is very popular, his cuteness, shape and colour scheme seems to bridge the gap between the various genres and appeal to everybody. This year for the first time the event was held at Dunsfold Aerodrome, home of ‘Top Gear’. It’s a good location for us as it’s nearer and a lovely cross country drive which brings us in on the southside which seemed much less crowded. We arrived around 10am and drove straight in but the good weather and the 40th anniversary had brought cars out in droves and we spent some time being parked up!

The rest of this post will be a series of pictures of things that caught our eye. Over the years we have witnessed the changing fashions in hot rods and customs, the current style seems to be what I’d call ‘Sheddy’. Stuff made to look (in most cases) in an unrestored condition with ‘rust’ and bare metal showing. Lots of the cars are ‘slammed’ and ‘chopped’ e.g. the suspension when stationery lowers the car so the sills are barely above the ground and the roof line is lowered so the windows are long and thin. The immaculate and heavily painted, flamed and chromed cars of previous years are quite few and far between these days with a much smoother and simpler single colour look being dominant.

Mario was again used to advertise our forthcoming car show. An immaculate classic – 4.0R Vanden Plas

1950’s Plymouth Station Wagon A really cool Batman ice cream/snack wagon, think it was based on a Mark 3 Escort, love the glass bubble in the top so the vendor can stand upright! Allegro Police Car – bit worried about James’ growing love for 70’s and 80’s ‘shitters’ the thing is they were pretty unloved at the time and hence very few have survived making them rare and quite ‘desirable’ these days!! We will not be adding any to the family though. A ‘sheddy’ slammed Citroen Dyane, big wheels and big engine We bumped into a guy we hadn’t seen for years. Thirty odd years ago we were all in the venture scouts together and Geoff sold James his first ‘classic’ a Ford Cortina Mark II 1500GT complete with a roll back roof and a fur fabric headlining. Geoff was showing off his recently finished project another GT Cortina. Absolutely immaculate the new white paintwork was dazzling. This Mini had a very original bonnet – copies of the Beano. I loved this bus, afraid I know nothing about it other than it had been converted into a motorhome, and it had a fantastic New York Liberty Tours paint job Now this is the car that really took our eye, think it would make a stunning BIG brother for Mario, although I’d never be able to park it! It’s a Hudson Hornet and it was for Sale… if we win the lottery tonight! The second one parked behind is in race spec and has competed at Goodwood. This Mercury was amazing, subtle in two-tone cream and white with great lines, room for all your friends too. Probably the rarest car at the show – A Mazda MX4 twin rotor wankel engine and again totally immaculate. Another Hudson, maybe this colour scheme would fit in better with the ‘family’. The interior was blue and black zebra fur! Simca 1100, the engine is fitted with ‘twin webers’ in a better conditions than it would have been new inside and out. Classic Capri Chevy Bell-Air. Station Wagon’s are increasingly popular On the way home we stopped to take a few new pictures of Mario. Happy Easter Love Mario xx