We had the usual quiz to keep people busy during courses.  This time it was based on the TV programme Catch Phrase with drawings depicting various Christmas carols and songs.  A very amusing selection of answers from Emily and Andy, which, as it turned out, brought a great deal of humour when it came to going through the answers with everyone.  Not sure how the makers of the quiz were thinking on some of the drawings/songs, I  have heard of lateral thinking but some were definitely rather obscure.  If anyone needs a quiz, get in touch and I will let you have the web site.  Definitely worth the £2.50 to buy the download.

There was a smaller than usual raffle, we found last year it got slightly boring when the raffle draw went on for what seemed like ages!  Thanks to Bob and Sheila and Peter Bell for donations made to the raffle prizes.  Michaela was very happy to win the bear/dog(?), apologies to Carol Brown if Chris really does give her the wine hamper for Christmas!

Stephen was selling RHOCaR calendars for a minimum donation of £7.50.  If anyone would like a further copy or didn’t get one on the day, get in touch with either Stephen direct or through us and we will pass on your mail to him.

Now, as for the food and the efforts of the staff at the George IV, what an improvement on last year’s meal.  The food was piping hot, served at the tables, very tasty and nice portion sizes.  We will be writing to them to express our thanks and appreciation this week.

Thank you to those who came along and joined in, especially to those who travelled the extra distance!  You know who you are… and glad you all got home safely.

We would like to say that the new regime of ‘pay as you attend’ monthly meetings seems to have been accepted very well now and we will continue to run the club in this way for the foreseeable future. 

If anyone has any suggestions as to venues/outings for next season, perhaps you could email us or phone.  We are hoping to arrange another camping trip at some point in early June since the last one was such a success.  We will be working closely with the East Anglia Kit Car Club (Piddy has created this to run alongside RHOCaR just as we do withSG7s) to arrange things.

Who joined us:

Martin and Debbie Pidd, Mike and Lorraine Shearing, Andy Petrie and Michaela, Dan and Dave, Chris Brown, Bob and Sheila, Andy and Emily, Richard and Caroline, Stephen, Lesley and Michael Altwasser, Mal and Lyne, Mike Montague, Bob and Carol Howes, Glyn and Christine, Peter Bell and of course John and Helen.

All that remains now is to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a prosperous and healthy New Year! 

           Happy Christmas and Happy New Year

It made a change to have a chat in the warmth of the pub.  Had the rain stayed away perhaps we would have had a better turnout but never mind.  Looking forward to the New Year and hopefully meeting some new members and seeing some of our existing members, who we haven't see for a while, again.  To those who are not coming to the Christmas do, Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008!  Thanks for all your support this year, it has been a good year, with lots of outings, excellent attendance numbers and lots of fun.  See you in February.

Attendees:

John Hamilton-Smith and Peter, Chris Brown, Richard Sumner, Bob Plastow, Mal, John and Helen.

Yet again, the forecast had been reasonable but on the day the weather excelled itself; a little chilly but very sunny.  The meeting got off to a slow start but by the end we had 15 cars turn up, which for a November meeting was very good. 

The new ‘pay as you go’ system for membership seems to be going down ok.  Linda Wilkins who arrived with Geoff in their Luego Viento won the bottle of scotch which was up for grabs as the prize for the winning raffle ticket. A very happy lady!

Alan Rowe brought along his new lovely yellow Lotus Elise for us to have a look at. Very nice!

Alan Hudson arrived in the TVR he has just purchased from Mal (I am told that Mal now has his new Griffith).  Great to see Stuart Travers (with his Westfield), not seen him for ages so good to catch up with him.

Did anyone else notice the children’s slide had disappeared from the edge of the car park? 

A few more places were booked for the Christmas dinner on 9^th December at 4pm.  If there is anyone who would still like to come along, please contact the pub direct when you will be able to pay your deposit and secure a place.  We still have some places spare. 

A reminder to readers that there is a meeting on Sunday 2^nd December at the pub as usual and then the Christmas meal is the Sunday after.   Fingers crossed for another fine day for the last meeting of the year.

Thanks again to those who attended.

Attendees

Robin Hood:  Steve King, Steve Puttrell, Steve Altwasser, Glyn Rust, Helen  (lots of Steve’s)

Westfield:   Paul Brown, Stuart Travers, Nigel Cady, John

Luego:  Mike Shearing and Geoff, Linda and Geoff Wilkins

Sherpley:  Bob

TVR: Alan Hudson

Lotus: Alan Rowe

Dax:  Chris Shilton

Tin Tops:   Andy & Connor, Bob & Sheila, Dennis (from Walkern building a Ginnetta), Andrew Boyle

If I have left anyone out, please let me know

Considering the number of the ‘regular’ gang unable to attend the meeting we still had a 13 cars turn up, which, for an October meeting, is very good.

Steve King, with his Robin Hood S7, (now not “the new boy” !!)  commented that he has not officially been welcomed to the club.  He was, up until very recently, a biker but decided that he had had enough of riding bikes but still wanted to enjoy the open air and hence bought the Hood, which he uses daily as his only car.  He has already notched up a fair number of miles and loves every minute of it. I think sitting in my Cobra seats and the comfort that they give you has convinced him to invest in some.  If anyone knows of any going at a bargain price, can you let me know please so I can pass it onto Steve.  You can see how proud he is of his car in the photo below. 

A newcomer:  Derek Emmett's Robin Hood 2B has just passed its SVA a couple of weeks ago. Derek has joined RHOCaR and will now come along to the meetings at the pub.  Derek made contact a year or so ago when he was building his car so it is good to now see it. Another new face was Melvin, aka Rusty-Nuts on the Locost forum, I didn’t ask why he is called that !!, with his blue Locost.  We hope that they will both come back again.  Since posting the meeting on the Locost builders forum we have had a few come along to the meetings, and hopefully they will continue to do so.  As everyone knows, the club is open to anyone and hopefully they are made to feel welcome!

  Melvin and his Locost  

John (NG) invited a fellow NG owner to join the meeting.  Chris sadly had his car vandalised in his garage by graffiti artists, though I wouldn’t call them artists, where his car was sprayed all over with black paint, including the cream leather seats.  You just have to wonder WHY?  The word jealousy springs to mind, especially when nothing else was targeted.   Fortunately he managed to remove the mess and restore it back to its lovely condition.  The ‘artist’ left his tag on the garage door so hopefully someone will catch him/her.  The cars looked really good next to each other.

                        Chris         John

It was the first month with the new regime of £1 per person in the new ‘pay as you go’ system, to replace the old raffles, with just one prize of a bottle of scotch up for grabs for the winning ticket.  I will see how this goes and if it isn’t popular, review things in the new year.   

Two bits of news:

• Alan Hudson has sold his Locost and bought a TVR!  (spot the connection with the next bit of news)
• Mal, who used to have the Westfield and bought a TVR, has now sold his TVR and is looking to replace it with another TVR, Griffith, we look forward to seeing what he buys at a future meeting.  He is having a good amount of success now running the Herts TVR club, some members of which went to Duxford with us last weekend. 

With regard to Duxford, we have been invited to go back again with the Triumph Club next year and whilst it is ‘samey’ we are considering going with them; we hope to go to one of the Triumph club meetings over the winter to see what else we can get involved with that they do, always nice to broaden our horizons.  One member, who will remain anonymous but who knows who he is, didn’t want to go to Duxford this time because we have been before but he found plenty to look at in the new British display hangar, he spent two hours in there!  I doubt if everyone has seen all there is to see, and they seem to update things from year to year.  There were also quite a few who would have liked to have gone this time but had other commitments so if we go again perhaps they will be able to make it. I will let you know of a date if one is booked.  It is a good venue to bring in other RHOCaR area groups. 

Anyway back to today’s meeting.

Almost forgot to mention the weather! Not like me at all, normally the first thing I discuss.  Anyway, it was ok, a bit dull but quite mild which helped bring the cars out.  I apologise to anyone if I seemed a bit muddled or more vague that usual, been poorly, ahhhhhhh! 

I don’t know if it has been mentioned before but Martin Pidd, the area Secretary for the Anglia Region of RHOCaR has branched out with the East Anglian Kit Car Club, once he has decided on a domain name I will add it to the links section so that any one in that area can get involved if they chose to do so.  Glyn Rust has done the same for Essex and again I will give the domain name once it is up and running.  Good luck to them both!  I hope they get the same support we have here at SG7’s.

I have been contacted today by Chris who owns a Quantum saloon who hopes to get along to a future meeting, we look forward to meeting him.

A date for next year's diary: June 13th and 14th, camping in North Norfolk.  Details to follow much nearer the time.

Enough waffle! Thank you as always for making the effort to come to the meeting, when I sat on my own for the first 10 minutes I began to think I would be ‘Billy no mates’ but once again that didn’t happen.  Ta lots!

Attendees:

Robin Hood:  Stephen & Lesley; Peter Bell; Steve King; Derek Emmett; Helen

Westfield:   Nigel Cady; John

NG:   John Hamilton-Smith; Chris

Sherpley:  Bob and Carol

Quantum:  Ian Harrison & Robyn

Dax Rush:  Chris Shilton

Locost:  Melvin

Tintops:  Bob

Bikes:   Mike Montague; Steve Mayhew

This is a show put on at St Mary’s Catholic School in Bishops Stortford, Herts.  A huge effort is put into the arrangements of the show.  This year the cars were organised and marshals were present to show you where to park, this was a great improvement.  They had a band playing, burgers and hot dogs, tea and beer tent, the usual things but at a very reasonable price. 

We have attended this show quite a few times now.  Last year we were there as the SG7 club but didn’t book a club pitch this time.  We met up with Steve King for a while. 

The selection of classic cars, motor bikes and other vehicles of interest on display was extremely good.  Also many of the local car dealerships, Renault, Audi, VW, Mercedes Benz, Suzuki, BMW, Jaguar, Ford, Vauxhall, SEAT, had stands with their current range of motors on display and open to sit in.  Nothing outstanding but John fell in love with the Audi R8.  I liked the three motor homes on display, made by Fiat, and at a mere £30 - £34 K each we of course bought all three….

Once again, we were very lucky with the weather, mainly sunny although chilly at times but at least the rain stayed away. 

We can recommend this show to readers, watch out for the date next year.

Another good meeting today. Great to see the guys from Northants Locost group come again, sorry I didn't recognise everyone, hopefully next time…. I have seen and met so many people in the last few weeks with Knebworth last weekend and Buntingford this weekend.

Buntingford was as good as it has been in the past. It is a motor show held on the High Street. There were lots of very nice cars, bikes, kits, bands playing music ranging from Jazz to pop, awards for various categories with prizes given by the Mayor and just generally a great atmosphere and chance to eat a burger, a rather expensive hog roast bap, have a coffee and chat to friends and strangers alike. Recommend you go next year if you get the chance. I think it is due to be on 6^th September and is free to both enter and go to have a look round the cars. John and I even had a mention in the show brochure! We are getting quite famous.  I also had my photo taken by the Mercury paper so you never know....

Back to today. Some more new faces. Clive (aka Jolly Green Giant on Locost site, I wonder why…) and Sara; Clive is building a Luego, and Gavin Cocks and Kevin Taylor who are building a Robin Hood Super Spec. Hope to see them again especially when their cars are on the road.

We sought the opinion of some of the members today regarding the raffles. I am now working longer hours and find it time-consuming deciding on and buying raffle prizes. We also find that some of the raffles just about break even and have made losses in the past. So, we were suggesting asking for a £1.00 donation from each person at the meetings, a raffle ticket will be handed out and a draw for a bottle of wine or similar would be held during the meeting. We received 10 signatures of approval and so from now on we will no longer do raffles. I will still do a raffle at the Christmas do. We hope this is ok with everyone who comes to the meetings. We are hoping to invest in a flag at the beginning of next year.

We were in luck again with the weather, nice and sunny with the occasional cloud passing over. Oh, a bit of news! Alan Rowe sold his MNR yesterday so he is now kitless. I guess he is pleased it has gone. He won't have to worry about the rain any more.

A huge thank you to all who came today.

Attendees

MK Indy - Kev

Locost - Dave; David & Jan, Jeff Pitcher; Trevor & Nikky

Robin Hood - Glyn Rust; Stephen & Lesley; Hugh Grant; Graham; Chris Brown; Helen

Westfield - Nigel Cady; John

Jaguar SS100 - Dave

Banham - Ced & Alan

Dax Rush - Chris Shilton

Tintops

Andy Barbet + 3; Clive & Sara; Gavin Cocks & Kevin Taylor; Dan

Lorraine; Bob & Sheila; James Radford; Mike Montague

Sorry if I have left anyone out!

SG7s Go North to Gods Country 3rd to 5th August 2007

Three or four weeks before the event Stephen Altwasser rang me one morning and asked if I fancied going on a RHOCaR weekend to Tan Hill in North Yorkshire. Well being an ex-pat of the said county it didn’t take much thinking about on my behalf to agree.

The day arrived rather abruptly in my case as we had arranged to meet up at the services at the A1/A14 junction and Steve would ring me when he was ready to leave home (8 to 8.30 I guessed).  Well there I was still in the land of nod when the phone rang “Morning” says this cheery voice on the other end “is it says I”.  “Just filled up with petrol so meet you in about an hour”.  Panic stations.  Get washed and dressed, throw some breakfast down my throat, finish packing the car and set off for the meet.  Who the hell gets on the road before 7am when they are on holiday?

Arriving at the meeting point I wait and wait, after about 30 minuets phone rings

“Where are you?”

“Waiting for you!”

“Well I’m here waiting for you!”

Yep you guessed it we were not more than 50 yards apart but hidden from each others view by a hedge and lots of lorries.

Well with that sorted we were on our way.

Stephen had contacted Mk Developments of Maltby not far from Doncaster and asked if we could call in and see there new bike powered track car the Sprint R, and as it was about half way it would give us a break.

When girty (Steve’s sat nav) finally got us to MK Developments we were made so very welcome by Martin who is a real enthusiast as well as a manufacturer and was more than willing to show us around the cars he had in. One of which is going to be road legal and he is at present getting it ready for SVA.  His chassis design and the standard of his work is second to none. Yes I was impressed.

After a meal in a local pub we set off again meeting up with Barry Ward one of the Yorkshire “hoodies” just north of Dishforth who then took the lead for the rest of the way with me bringing up the rear and I’m convinced that on the road between Layburn and Reeth, Steve became airborne on more than one occasion.

The weather had been good all day until we got just above Reeth then we ran into fine drizzle and low cloud so arrived at Tan Hill just starting to get damp.

Barry who hadn’t a room booked went off to put up his tent straight away while we threw our stuff into the room and headed for the bar.  Just as we finished our first pint Barry arrived having got his sleeping arrangements sorted.  I went up to the bar to order us a round only to be told by the Landlady “If you want more beer you’ll have to pull it your bl***dy self.”  Fantastic where else but Yorkshire could you walk into a pub and within half an hour be behind the bar pulling pints with no one even checking what your doing?

After a night’s sleep we woke to find the weather was no better but after a good breakfast we put up the tent as the pub was fully booked for the Saturday night. Not an easy task in a gale with driving rain and on a site that didn’t have an inch of level ground.

Despite the weather we decided to go for a drive anyway so set off for Hawes via the Buttertubs pass.  Not that we saw much as the whole area was blanketed in mist with the drizzle still coming down.  We parked in the Wensledale cheese factory car park and had a coffee in there restaurant then a pleasant walk through the town and visited the museum for an hour or so (well worth a visit).

For the return route we travelled down Wensledale as far as Askrigg then went across the tops into Swaledale then down the dale to within about three miles of Reeth where we once again took to the hills stopping at the water splash made famous in the opening sequence to the TV series All Creatures Great and Small where we all had fun driving through and being photographed by the others.

 Once down into Arkengarthdale we headed straight back to Tan Hill.  Well that was the intension when after not more than a mile I lost the convoy (about turn Brown).  When I got back to where they had stopped I found Steve with his bonnet off and after some “testing” it was decided that one of his fuel pumps was not working (not a fix at the side of the road job).  Fortunately Big Kev had a rope so it was a tow back to Tan Hill about seven miles away on a road that is not much more than a car wide with hills, both up and down with a few very tight bends thrown in for good measure. I must say Steve did very well and only once did he get close to my spare wheel although he did say as soon as we arrived he would go and change his underpants.  I’ve got to agree with him through being towed on a 10 foot rope when the hills are around one in five is pretty scary.

We finally decided it was his high pressure pump that was at fault and as I had a spare one in my boot with a bit of good old hoodie improvisation he soon had it fixed even if he did wash his hair in petrol in the process.

After a clean up we had dinner and a few beers with some of the best people I know RHOCaR members.

Sunday morning arrived rather suddenly for us at 6am in the form of a sheep bleating very loudly, in fact I thought it was in the tent but it had in fact tripped over one of the guy ropes on Barry’s tent (I know it sounds stupid but its true). But at least the wind had dropped and rain had stopped and even the sun was showing its self.

After striking camp and eating a good breakfast it was decided that most of us would call in at a MG owners club and Lotus owners club show in Patley Bridge so over the Buttertubs again, what a difference glorious sunshine and all that magnificent scenery to see.  The drive down to Patley Bridge took us through some of the most beautiful scenery in the UK (well I did say its gods country and in any case I’m a Yorkshire man)

I think all who went enjoyed the show at Patley Bridge which had the most MG’s I have ever seen in one place and I must say there were some really nice cars.

Having said our goodbyes we set off for home which was an uneventful journey being nearly all A1.

Would we go again? You bet we would   

For the past few years we have ‘gone out’ for the day for the August meeting but decided this year to hold it at the pub. 

We hit the jackpot!   33 Kit cars  -  2 TVR  - 1 Lotus Elise  and a few tintops.

The temperature also reached the 80’s so we were winning on two counts.

John had placed an invite on the Locost Builders Forum and had a good response from that.  It was great to see so many new faces today and also some existing members that we haven’t seen for some time such as Rod Lane, Terry Kent, Bob Moss and John Brown.   As usual, had the regular guys turned up as well, there would not have been much room in the car park.  Chris and Stephen were away at the Tan Hill event, where apparently it rained yesterday… (should have stayed home) and Mal was out with his TVR group at an anniversary weekend bash.

Back in the May meet, at the end of April, we met Ian Harrison who had been looking to buy a kit car.  He had found it hard to find the right size car and finally settled on a very nice lime green Quantum Extreme. 

The Locost group seemed to enjoy the meeting, everyone seemed to be mixing well and chatting with other people so we hope to see some of them again at a future meeting.  They are certainly most welcome.  It was a picture to see so many cars together, the highest number we had before was when we had the ITV film crew with us for the show Rizla was taking part in so this beats that record very nicely.  The photographs don’t give the full impression of a car park full of kits but we do our best to put some nice ones on here.

We did a raffle as usual and hope that the prizes on offer were well received.  Thank you for any donations made.

Anyone wanting to go the Knebworth Classic Car show over the August Bank Holiday weekend (Sunday and Monday) who hasn’t already bought advance tickets will now unfortunately have to pay full price on the door.  It is a great show, plenty to see, a good selection of stalls and commentary going on all the time from the arena where you are asked to take your cars if you want to.  We will be pitching in our usual place up on the hill so come and find us.  We are booked as ‘SG7 Kit Car Club’ and not ‘RHOCaR’.  Look forward to seeing lots of you there.

Now all that is left is to do the attendees list, this is going to take some time!!

NG – John and Yvonne Hamilton-Smith and Meg

Robin Hood – Nigel Farrow, Richard & Caroline, Steve King, Hugh Grant, Dave Rose, Peter Bell, Paul Carter, Terry Kent & Julian, John Brown, Bob Moss, Rod Lane, Martin + 1, Helen

Westfield – Nigel Cady (briefly), Paul Brown, Ron Clements, John & Andy

Locost – Alan Hudson, Dave & Kev, David Jenkins, David Maloney & Jan, Kevin Booth, Trevor Davis & Nicky, Paul Franklin, Geoff Pitcher

Marlin – Mike Gouldsborough

Quantum Extreme – Ian Harrison + 2

Banham Sprint – Ced

MK Indy – Kevin

MNR – Alan Rowe

Lotus Elise – Chris & Moira

2 TVR – didn’t get names (sorry)

Not sure:  Martin Cockman (blue car with yellow nose)  and Paul from Bedford (if you read this get in touch so I can correct this)

Tintops:  Derek Emmett (StAlbans – Builder), James (aka Cloudy on Locost www) & Julian, Emily and a few others who were having a look round!

Finally, a huge thank you to all everyone who came and made a fantastic day for all of us.  Until next time……

OLD WARDEN

You might be asking, do we ever stay in at weekends!  There are just so many different shows and places to go that we make the most of them, not always kit car orientated but classic, American, hot rods are all good to go and have a look at.

Richard and Caroline invited us to go along to the show at Old Warden on Sunday 29^th July.  There had been very heavy rain overnight but the forecasters actually got it right and it did dry up first thing leaving a sunny if at times chilly day.  Underfoot it was boggy to start with but soon dried up during the morning.

There were so many cars to look at, a fun fair for the kids, the usual eating facilities and stall holders selling anything from custom bits for the cars to handbags. 

There were some interesting hairstyles and clothes, all in keeping with the cars.  The cars themselves ranged from work in progress to those in pristine condition.  The attention to detail and the paint finish on the cars were in general amazing.  Richard is the wizard on these cars so I won’t go into any detail about engines etc.  They were just so interesting to have a look at.  My favourite of the day was a 1951 Cadillac in gold (photo below). 

            The General Lee

                      51 Cadilac

Amazing how small this caravan is but so well finished off and very well equipped. 

You can see how small it is by looking at the man sitting inside!!

AND FINALY THE OVERALL SHOW WINNER.....

Sadly the show was not that well supported.  Carol, Steve’s partner in crime, explained their reason for going to Snetterton was because many kit car people felt that there are no events in the Anglia region so they thought they would give them the opportunity to go to a local show.  Compared to Brands, the attendance was very poor.  We were the only ones from our area but we did see Martin Pidd (Piddy), Mike Shearing, Bob Rowell and Fran & Steph from the Norfolk RHOCaR group.  Interesting to see how one of the other Norfolk guys had changed the front suspension on his Robin Hood Exmo from the original set up to double wish bone set up. The swept wings were replaced with cycle wings and apparently what had been a blue and cream car is now a very nice lime green.

Highlight of the day – chatting with Mark from Sebring and being told to go get a wrist band and sign my life away, come back and make a booking for a trip around the track in their race car.

Wooooo Hooooo, never seen me move so fast!!  I was asked to come back after lunch, which of course I did.

Lunch was very pleasant, talking to Martin and Bob.  Not many cars to look around in the car park but at least the sun was shining.

Then it was time for me to go and claim my ride.  John had decided not to have a trip round the track and although before we arrived I had said that I wouldn’t be going round either, the prospect of being in the Sebring totally changed my mind.  I signed another piece of paper, again signing my life away, got fitted with a crash helmet, climbed into the passenger seat, strapped in and then it was time to go.  A quick wave of the wrist band to the pit controller and whoooooosh we were off.  Crikey, by the time he had accelerated he was back on the brakes, and then off again, round a few bends, 150 down the back straight, in and out of the bends fighting to keep in the right place, then 130 along the straight in front of the pits, then brakes again, and so on.  I think I went round three times. It just goes so quickly and before you know it, he is pulling back into the pits and it is all over.  Apart that is from the huge ear to ear smile on my face which took some time to get rid of.  Fantastic.  I love it.  A huge thank you all round, and that is it, over.  (I have the bruises on my leg to prove that I did it!). 

                                                  (that is me in the passenger seat!)

Check this link and open up a couple of the videos, Vid 1 and 2 are best  http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=69887

I think it is a shame that not many people went along, these events need people!  It is a great way to spend a day.  We really enjoyed ourselves and set off home around 3 so as to miss the rain should it come later in the day (which it didn’t).

Thanks to Steve for his efforts!

Thanks again to Chris Brown for doing the ticket arrangements although a little confusing when on the day, we weren’t asked to produce a ticket(?).  It was a good idea to charge the £5 entrance fee, it is after all organised by the Sporting Bears Motor Club in aid of charities; this year it was for Cancer Research UK, Dreamdrops and the Samuel Pepys School.  There was a full programme of events on the go all afternoon in two arenas. 

With the usual fete stalls, tombolas, archery, pony rides, children’s fair ground rides and craft stalls, there was enough to keep most of us amused and if all that failed, there was good old chatter that we are all very good at!  When Alan Rowe arrived in his MNR we felt confident that it would be staying sunny until late in the day (he only brings it out in the dry) so that was a good omen, or was it?

There were a good selection of kit cars there, Mal brought some of his TVR group, Westfield, Tiger and Dax.  The Smart Car group caused quite a stir, the one standing out most in my mind being the Chameleon, changes from purple to gold depending on the light, pink and green interior and many  more modifications to the car. 

Morgan had a good turnout; I am told last year they won a cup for having the largest attendance of any group. 

The pitches for the car groups are not particularly well organised so they tend to get rather spread out over the vast grounds of the school.  I do appreciate though that it is very difficult to know how big a pitch needs to be and therefore how to space the pitches out. 

Now, all was going well until John noticed it was growing a little dark and looked like it just might rain.  Some of us just put surrey tops onto the cars, some more sensible and put the roof up.  John just had his umbrella over the Westfield.  Then it happened, the thunder, lightening and pouring rain just went on for what seemed like ages.  Now, you will be thinking, what about Alan’s car?  Well, Chris Brown moved his own car out from under his gazebo and let Alan put his under it!    It turns out, Alan was the last to leave since he waited for the rain to ease off before driving home!

Good to meet a few new people and of course to catch up with the usual gang.  Glyn Rust called to say he had gone to the Essex meeting place, no one else turned up, it rained, so he went back home assuming that the weather would be the same at the show.  Shame he missed it, plus he has a kettle in his boot and we had forgotten to pack one!

Once the rain subsided enough, we packed up the gazebo and chairs etc and set off across the grass which had very quickly become very soft and boggy.  We headed up towards the exit at the back of the school only to be shouted at by one of the staff that we were heading for the cricket pitch!  As it happens we were not heading for the cricket pitch but just getting up a hill that wasn’t too slippery – he slightly over-reacted I think, anyway, they should have cordoned off the areas they didn’t want cars. Perhaps something they should do in the future??

Who came:

Chris Brown, Stephen &Lesley, Alan Rowe, Richard & Caroline, Martin Pidd, Mike Shearing, Steve King, Ian & partner, Bob Rowell & Nichola Taylor, Marie & Paul Taylor, Fran & Stef Zbrozec, Paul Carter, Jez & partner, John, Helen

Joined by:  Mal, Nigel & Pauline Cady, Mike Montague, Stewart & Sue Saunders (Walsworth organisers), Allan Jezzard

Met:  Bob & Carol (Sherpa Sherpley) - Bob is very much involved with the organising of the show.

As usual, I think the weather kept a lot of people away.  Chris had 30 tickets which were given out and we had 15 cars present (not all of them had tickets).  It was a good show again, just a shame about the weather.

The journey home was awful, with almost as much rain coming down the inside of the screen as was on the outside. Good idea of Mike's though to have a lump of kitchen roll handy to wipe it.  As we got nearer to Letchworth along the A1 it brightened up and the rain stopped.  My mum was surprised to see how wet the cars were since they hadn't had any rain in Stevenage!  When I opened my boot, there was a good half inch of water sitting in there, had to bail it out and leave everything open to dry off the carpets, roof, blankets, etc.  What good fun!  John had to take the seats and carpets out of his to dry them out. 

Hope to go again next year, thanks to those of you who managed to come along.

Debi Gillard, one of the organisers, found our web site when she was browsing on the internet and contacted me to invite us to join in the carnival procession with our cars.  It was a shame that it was such short notice, Glyn Rust was the only one who came along; he joined us at the field since his clutch was rather noisy! 

We arrived in Codicote and soon got into the carnival mood.  The children, who were all in fancy dress (and of course the adults were also dressed up) were shouting at the cars passing by to press their horns which loads of them did.  Lots of cheers and happy faces.  The police shut the road and the procession started off from the Welwyn end of Codicote slowly moving through the town, turning right onto the Knebworth road, passed the church and then left into the sports field where all the usual village fete stalls, children’s fair rides, cake stalls (very nice cake too), tea ‘tent’, bar, band, arena with events going on, pony rides, fire engine and of course our three cars along with two jeeps, a Vauxhall and a Ford Model Y.   We hope to see Trevor and his friend with their jeeps at one of the SG7 meets if they can get to come along.

I told my daughter that Hugh Grant would be there with fellow historians with information and photos of Codicote and the surrounding area.  Of course, she thought I meant ‘the Hugh Grant’ and had to smile and tell her that it was our fellow Hoodie Hugh who lives in the village.  Very interesting to see the photos of olden times. 

It was a bit strange to have clay pigeon shooting going on behind us, especially when there were horses/ponies trotting around the ground. They didn’t seem too bothered by the noise of the guns though.

Full marks to the organisers!  For a smallish town of around 5,000 people, the attendance at the show was excellent.  It was good to see so many people lining the streets as well when the procession was passing by.  There were people, old and young, sitting in their gardens, one couple drinking wine and looking very pleased with themselves.  We did get ‘burnt up’ by an old lady on a mobility scooter!  Quite funny to see her bombing along beside us all.

Loads of photos were taken of our cars, lots of nice comments about them and plenty of interest shown.   During the procession, I was asked a few times to rev up the engine, which of course I did…. Such hardship!    We all felt it was a really fun thing to do and what made it even better was the sunshine.  Still a little cloudy at times with a very tiny sprinkling of rain, but all in all a great day.

Highly recommended if we get asked back next year!  Hopefully we can muster some more attendees from our group to really put on a show of kits.  A brilliant opportunity to show off the cars. 

One word of warning!  If little children get in your car, make sure the power is switched off.  Glyn ended up with a flat battery but help was at hand from Hugh and the Jeep guys.

Having just returned from our week’s holiday in Walton on Naze and being quite lucky with the rain missing us most of the time, we woke up to rain on Sunday.  It did clear away but we feel it was enough to stop some people from coming along to the pub.  After a slow start, we ended up with a reasonable turnout and only a brief sprinkling of rain.

No new comers this month to welcome.

Because there were not that many people early on, we decided to pass on the raffle this time and will do one hopefully at the next meeting.

Not a great deal to say, nice to see Mario and Lisa, not seem them for ages (I bought my Exmo from Mario).  He still would like to own another one but…..

Attendees:

Robin Hood:  Steve King, Peter Bell, Stephen Altwasser & Lesley

Westfield:  Paul Brown, John

TVR:  Mal

Tiger:  Doug & Maggie

Jaguar SS100: Dave

Mx-5:  Helen

Tintops:  Dan, James Radford, Richard & Caroline, Mario & Lisa, Steve Mayhew,

I know, let’s go camping…..

Well it seemed like a good idea at the time when we first thought about it and yes, it was a very good idea! 

Having trawled the internet for camp sites in a 50 – 60 mile radius of Stevenage, preferably north trying to make it possible for the Norfolk guys to join us, we knew that Stephen from Hemel wouldn’t mind the extra little journey…, we found and settled on Riverside Camp Site, Littleport, on the A10 about 6 miles from Ely.  The camp site is on a nice flat pitch, with some static caravans, and caters for touring caravans and tents with electric hook up should you need it.  The toilet and shower facilities and sinks for washing up were very clean and nice to use.

The forecast changed daily from good to bad, to bad, to absolutely dire, threatening thunder and lightening, heavy rainfall and flash floods!  Still, being the good old British people that we are, we thought ‘nah let’s go anyway’.  What a good job we did.  The only people who saw heavy rain were Sue and Roy from Norwich and they left the bad weather behind them.  As we got nearer to Littleport it did get darker and more threatening, lots of cars coming towards us had headlights on, not a good sign, but we didn’t get one drop of water on us, apart from me that is, I was daft enough to think ‘oh the windscreen has lots of dead flies on it, think I should give it a squirt’.  Oops pressed too hard and got a face full of water and screen wash.  Sadly, the white transit van behind me with two men in it saw what I did, so we just laughed together.  Once we arrived it brightened up and the Saturday was possibly one of the hottest days this year we have had for an outing. It was wall to wall sunshine!

Anyway, by the time we arrived the Norfolk lads were there as was Stephen and Richard with Caroline and their tents were already up.  For Richard, John and Brian, it was a first time to put the tents up so considering that, they went up very easily and quickly.  Once settled Mike and I went off to the village to get fish and chips.  I just love Mike’s car, the V8 sounds like a monster and he took great pleasure in putting his foot down hard, put a huge smile on my face.  I loved it.  They say it is a small world, the girl in the chip shop and I soon found out we knew my mum’s neighbour in Stevenage.  Can’t escape can you?  The fish and chips weren’t only reasonably priced but it was really nice as well, the owner also threw in a couple of 2 litre bottles of Coke so that was even better.  So far so good!

After polishing off the dinner out came the booze!  I should have kept all the bottles/tins to see how much was consumed.   We had such a laugh.  Bedtime soon came around and time to play a little prank on Mike Shearing.  John had packed Vinyl Vera, a joke blow up doll, she had been inflated and put into Mike’s tent when he nipped off to the loo before going to sleep.  Well, what a laugh we had when he returned to find her ‘waiting’ for him.  Brought a few others back out of their tents to see what was going on.

Eventually we all settled down and most of us slept quite well.  Can’t believe how noisy the birds were at 4am.  It sounded like they were sitting right on top of the tent.  Then the cockerel decided to crow, then a cuckoo, then another cuckoo, pigeons, blackbirds oh and a pheasant to name just a few.  The road which ran beside the camp site also started to get busy at around 4.30.  That was to me the only downside to the site oh and of course the mosquitoes!  The Ouse ran along the other side of the road.

  5 am, I was the only one up!

One by one the tents came back to life and the smell of bacon and sausages soon filled the air.

              Stephen's feast         

    Mike tries a new chat up line!

                                                    Martin and Glyn cooking breakfast

   What is he doing to Vera?             

We were met by Mark and the guys at Sebring and shown round the show room and then the factory where it all goes on.  They sell on average 10 kits per year and 3 factory built cars.  For anyone who doesn’t know, they build Austin Healey replicas and also sell and service TVRs, one for Mal possibly!  We were made to feel very welcome and they were happy to answer any questions we threw at them.  They even took photos of our cars in their car park!  I have written to thank them on behalf of everyone who went.

The owner of the camp site, who lived in Harlow before buying the site which was derelict at the time, had recommended we had lunch at the Lamb and Flag in Welney.  Quite right he was too.  We were served quickly, efficiently and by very pleasant staff.  Something we seem to lack in the Stevenage area at times!  The food was reasonably priced, tasty and well presented.  The pub nearest the camp site is at present a bit run down and seeking new owners so we were advised not to go there.  Roy and Sue didn’t go to the pub, they went back to the camp site, parked the car and then walked the 6 miles along the river bank to Ely, had a look round, and then walked the 6 miles back.  They didn’t even look hot when they got back…

Once we had eaten, we all went our separate ways to do our own thing.  Stephen and I stayed back at camp, John went to see his cousin at Hilgay, some walked into the village, Brian went to Hunstanton to join Judy who hadn’t done the factory tour because they had their dog, Harley, with them (very surprised to hear how cold it was there compared to where we were) and Ced and Lorraine went off to have a drive round.  We all met back at camp and after a lazy end to the afternoon lit the barbeque, prepared some salad, got the drink out again and had another fun evening sitting and chatting.

                                       a game of Boules

 Richard, Caroline, John H-S, Peter and Mike Monty (behind the camera) walk along the river into the village.

Off to bed again.  Morning came and one by one we cleared up and set off for home.  Richard and Caroline, John and I were the last to leave.  We thanked Steve the owner for ‘having us’ and he said we are more than welcome to return whenever we want.  I think we will go back there at some point and perhaps do a little more exploring ourselves.

Well, all that remains to do is thank you all for coming and making such a great weekend for us.  The feedback we have received is all positive and we are hoping to arrange a similar trip next year (unless we get itchy feet and do another later this summer…).  We might possibly be camping at Knebworth on the Sunday night if we can arrange to do so, we will write nearer the time.  When you are on your travels, keep in mind and let me know whether you see a site that is ‘quiet’ and without too many facilities, noisy entertainment for example, I think it was nice to make our own amusement for a change.

Thank you for the photos you have sent, I will be sending some to the RHOCaR magazine for their next issue.  If anyone wants to join RHOCaR let us know and we will send you an application form.

Who came:  Richard & Caroline, Peter Bell, Mike Shearing, Martin Pidd, Mike Montague, Sue and Roy Thomas, Stephen Altwasser, Glyn Rust, Ced and Lorraine, Brian and Judy, John & Helen

Factory Tour:  Andy Petrie & Michaela, John Hamilton-Smith

Bye for now, hi de hi campers!

Link to campsite www.riversideccp.co.uk

Now I mentioned the Murtaya, I have to say that I would have taken it home with me if I could. It would have been the one car to go out in had I been braver. It just flew round the track without any great effort. Totalkitcar Magazine did an article on the Murtaya in the March/April edition. Adrenaline Motorsport (AM) own the production rights of Minari who produced an Impreza-based prototype years ago. Originally AM intended to put that prototype into production but decided to design their own body instead when they found that there were too many design points they wanted to change. A bit of technical stuff: the track version has 275 bhp with a torque figure of 285lb ft at 4500 rpm (will mean more to you than me but I know it goes very fast). Estimated build cost is from £16.5K. The roadgoing car has around 200 bhp, John's Westfield is around 135 bhp! It just sounded so good as well. Mmmmmm more info on www.adrenalinemotorsport.co.uk .

Oh dear!  Glyn had let us know that the show was on again this year so we decided to go.  However, yet again the forecast was awful so we decided to go along in a proper car.  We drove up to Royston and then Richard and Caroline took us in their car.  Considering the weather, there was still a reasonable turn out of classic cars, a small handful of kits, including Glyn's, (brave man) an auto jumble which wasn't up to much - most of it was covered up because of the rain - and the usual antique shops/stalls to poke around.  You do need a good day to enjoy this show but we made the most of it.  We even sat on our chairs under umbrellas eating our picnic, the British will not be beaten!!!

Perhaps next year it will be dry??

Thanks to Glyn for the idea. 

Then it started to rain!  I think we took the rain with us somehow.  By the time it eased off many of the stalls were packing up, lots of the classics had left so after a last quick look around, we came home again.  Glad we went, especially being able to use the advance tickets we had bought, just a great shame that yet again it was spoilt by the rain. 

The total sum of the SG7 contingent was one TVR, an MX-5 and a VW Golf parked somewhere under a tree!  Never mind, better luck next time (just thankful we went to Stoneleigh on the Sunday and not the other way round!!!)

Expecting some pranks but as far as I know, other than asking £5 per raffle ticket, which caused strong reaction, no other pranks were played. 

After last month’s meeting, the sight of the sun was so much more welcome.  We all know as well that a sunny day usually means a good turnout.  We were not let down.  We had a total of 20 kit cars and many tintops to add to the number of people present.

We met some new people; Grant & Sebastian Miller, in their Robin Hood (yes Robin Hood..) Daytona Spyder Ferrari replica with a V12 engine (fooled lots of people); Geoff Wilkin with his Viento, Graham Jones with his Robin Hood Super 7 and ‘Kev’ with his Locost.  There was also a V8 Westfield that called in but unfortunately didn’t get his name.

                                                  the V12 engine in the Daytona

We also had a few come along who had not been for some time so nice to see them back again. Hope they keep coming.

                       Rob's Ronart                                            John's NG

We had the usual raffle and glad to see a few of the new comers win prizes as well as the ‘old gang’.  I still have some SG7 car stickers should anyone be interested. We do charge 50p for them, just to try and get back a little bit of the cost of printing.  Also, I was handing out forms for Greenwood Exhibitions shows.  If anyone thinks they might go to any of these shows, as always it is worth the gamble of paying £2 per show in advance because it entitles you to go in and out of the shows on both days with no extra cost for your passenger(s) (up to 4 people, not something most of us can take advantage of having only 2 seats). You do, however, have to pay no less than 28 days before the date of the show to get the £2 entry otherwise you pay the full amount, I think Knebworth last year was £6.50 per person!  You have to hurry if you want to get a ticket for the Bedfordshire show at Old Warden which is the first one on 6^th and 7^th May.  We will, weather permitting, have a club pitch, which we are booking today.  Anyone wanting to get tickets can visit Greenwood Exhibitions at www.classicmotorshow.com  or ring 01527 835256.  Greenwood Exhibitions also does three classic car runs, but at £75 per car, we feel a little expensive so will not be doing any of them ourselves. If any one does do one please let us know how you get on.

                                                    Kev's Locost

The Knebworth House show will be the usual two day event for us so we will be there on both Sunday and Monday, again of course, weather permitting.

                                  Mike Shearing's Luego Viento

The next big National Kit Car Show is in two weeks’ time at Detling, Kent.  Last year we felt it was the best show of the ones we attended so worth thinking about going if you get the chance.  It is on Saturday 14^th and Sunday 15^th April.  By all means get in touch with us if you want more details.

          Nigel Cady's 1.8 zetec Westfield                                                                 

                                                      Geoff Wilkin's Luego Viento

Some good news: Andy Barbet is, at long last, getting a garage! This means that he can now start building his Luego Velocity!  About time too.  We wish him every success with the build and look forward to seeing it coming together at last.  I hope he gets in lots of tea bags for when we call to see how it is doing.

Now, to the list of attendees, and it is a long one today:

Robin Hood:   Chris Brown, Hugh Grant, Glyn Rust, Steve Puterell, Mike Gouldsborough, Martin Marshall, Graham Jones, Helen

Robin Hood:   Daytona Spyder Ferrari Replica:  Grant & Sebastian Miller

Westfield:  Paul Brown, Nigel Cady, an anon. V8, John

NG:  John Hamilton-Smith & Meg

Luego Viento:  Mike Shearing, Geoff Wilkin

TVR:  Mal

Tiger:  Doug & Maggie

Locost:  ‘Kev’

Ronart:   Rob

Tintops:

Andy Barbet & Connor, Alan Rowe (Alan started off in the MNR but broke the clutch cable so arrived in a tintop), Alan Hundson+ 1, Simon Kirby (Viento builder), Bob & Sheila, Caroline, Dan + 1, James Radford, Fiona & John in their Vauxhall VX220.

20 Kit Cars          and                   36 People             and              Meg!

We attracted some interest from other patrons of the pub so we can say it was a very successful meeting. 

Again, thank you to all those who come along and make the meetings more fun.

Nice to see Glyn, Steve (TR2, very interesting colour, geranium, an original colour for a 1955 car), Steve Putterell , John and myself.

Oh dear! Another wet meeting.  John was brave enough to take the Westfield out but I decided to leave the Hood tucked up in the dry and took the MX-5.  All things considered we had a good turnout.  Mike Shearing joined us from Thetford; Allan Jezzard and  Bob Pagram who are building a Robin Hood 2B came along to get some info and Mal invited his TVR group to come and ‘meet the neighbours’ but only two came along; hopefully only put off by the weather and not the thought of meeting us!  We will invite them again and hope for better weather next time.

However, despite the rain, we had 5 kits and one TVR in the car park, which were soon abandoned for the drier climate of the pub!  Made a change to sit round a table and have a good laugh. 

Alan Hudson, who restored a Locost which was on the road last year, has now purchased a Midge (a wooden bodied car) so we look forward to seeing how that project progresses.

We are talking about going to Duxford again this year, on a date to be confirmed.  This will most likely be a joint trip with the TVR group so it should provide an interesting mix of cars.  The date we are thinking of at the moment, 30^th September, already has a booking by a couple of clubs.  Duxford is asking them if they mind us being there as well and we will keep you updated on the progress of this venture.

Essex RHOCaR (Glyn Rust) is arranging a trip to the Lower Stondon Motor Museum on Sunday 11^th March, details on the RHOCaR forum.  Contact us if you are interested in going.  Short notice but some of you might wish to go along again. 

Good to see you all, very brave to make the effort to come along.  Let's hope for a drier April!  Talking about April, don't forget the May meet is on 29th April so as to avoid clashing with the bank holiday weekend.

Attendees

Kits:        Mike Shearing, John Hamilton-Smith, Peter Bell, Chris Brown, John Tween

Tintops:  Richard & Caroline, Alan Hudson, Paul Brown, Mal, Stephen Altwasser, Bob & Sheila,   

               Allan Jezzard, Bob Pagram, Helen

TVR:      Alan and friend, plus one other the driver of which we didn’t get to meet.

Two wheels:   Mike Montague

5 kits                   19 bodies

I can’t do a report without discussing the weather.  IT WAS ************ COLD!  (Insert whatever word you think fits best).  The meeting got off to a slow start but I think the fog and ice might have put many off from coming along.  It didn’t seem too bad to start with but the longer we stood, the colder we all became.  I was caught with the hot air hand dryer nozzle down the front of my jacket!  I don’t think the little old lady knew what I was doing! 

Anyway, by the end of the meeting we had a very nice 11 kit cars present and 7 tintops.  29 people in all plus Andy and Emily’s two boys and John’s West Highland Terrier, Meg, and Brian and Judi’s sheepdog called Harley (after the bike of course).

Brian and Judi had been given the details of the SG7 meet by Bill Fisher, the Area Rep for Westfield Cars, Herts/Beds/Bucks.  They own a Westfield Se, which is currently undergoing work but should be back on the road soon.   Very nice to meet them, they have until recently been bikers but have given in to driving a car to be in a warm, comfortable and dry environment. Good to meet all three of them and we hope they will come back again.

Nigel Cady has sold his Westfield but is now on the look out for another car, hope it doesn’t take him too long to find one.

Another new face at the meeting was Greg Butterworth, also a Westfield owner, from Steeple Morden.  It is great to have new people joining us.  He can be seen here talking to Andy:

Thank you to all who braved the cold and for joining in with the raffle.  We don’t make a great deal of profit on them but it is still enough to cover costs of the club so we will carry on doing them this year.  I had thought of finding someone to sponsor the site but I would miss doing the hunting for raffle prizes!

So, now to attendees:

Robin Hood:    Graham + 1, Chris Brown, Hugh Grant, Stephen & Lesley, Peter Bell, Helen

Westfield:       Greg Butterworth, John

NG:               John Hamilton-Smith & Meg

Banham:        Ced & Lorraine

TVR:              Mal (he is an honorary member)

Tintops:

Richard & Caroline, Brian & Judi with Harley, Andy & Emily with Aiden & Connor, Bob & Sheila, Bob ‘the builder’ (not long now..), Chris Shilton, Nigel Cady, Paul Ranson & Gerald (2B builder) and finally Graham’s family (2)

29 people    -   2 children   -   2 dogs