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Every month - that is 12 times per annum - the little village
of Ashby Folville in North-East Leicestershire, hosts a massive
car meeting - classics, vintage, motorbikes, supercars, sports
cars, modified and Japanese Imports are all represented. It is
without doubt a great gathering. During the summer months in-excess
of 4000 people descend, to view hundreds of show cars. If you
can get there do - the event is every 2nd Tuesday of the month,
but be warned.... it gets busy!
After the gorgeous Spring evening back in May the weather was
looking good again for June's gathering at Ashby Folville (NE
Leicestershire), but alas the vagaries of British weather and
the guesswork forecasting of the professionals saw the clouds
come over, resulting in a steady downpour for virtually the entire
day. "Cloudy with long periods of sunshine" Hmmmm our
forecasters seem as bad as ever.
In May it was only TRickett (1981 Solihull Triumph TR7 DHC) who
went along from our stable of cars that could be classed as show
cars (obviously there's TRisha and we also have a Japanese import
in the Mitsubishi FTO Mivec). TRickett, having arrived just a
week earlier was still on his French plates, and with the co-pilot
away on business I could only take the one car and TRisha TR (1976
Speke built Triumph TR7 FHC) was over in Coventry for an MOT and
some known issues being sorted.
So into June and This time, with the co-pilot in the UK, both
TRisha & Trickett were taken to the gathering of Classic Cars,
and 'interesting' vehicles; taking both cars was slightly Harold
& Hilda but hey so what? TRickett was now back on his original
UK registration and also getting properly wet for the first time
in a few years. With the inclement weather we didn't expect such
a turnout but we were pleasantly surprised. Sure - arriving at
around 18:15 - numbers were down, leading to 'normal' cars being
allowed into the show field but the cars kept arriving and the
numbers crept up.
An American car club had arranged an outing, resulting in some
large chunks of metal being present - Hemi's were ten a penny
and dwarfed the old British classics. There was a gaggle of VW
Golf's - one of which had had the barry-boy treatment and looked
as ridiculous as Vince Neil (or any other member of Motley Crue)
would today if he walked into your local with all the big hair
and spandex! Initially I thought 'how sad, a bunch of old Golf's'
… then realised that the newest of them was about 16yrs old,
and thus probably justified it's inclusion - maybe it's because
there's so many of them around still that I don't consider it
worthy of being at these shows!
What was evident was that the Triumph Stag owners seem to be
averse to the wet stuff, the previous month the Stag was possibly
the most common single model, this month the Triumph TR7's outnumbered
them…. And there was only TRisha TR & TRickett TR representing
the TR7/8. Another wedge was a splendid TVR 390i belonging to
Blane (apologies if I have your name spelt incorrectly) - I was
looking at the car and commenting to the no-longer-a-co-pilot
that "This is definitely the one I saw broken down in Hinckley
last week" when the owner appeared…. And confirmed that
he had indeed needed the recovery services. We had a good chat
- mainly about what a joy 'proper cars' were; his car was a splendid
example, just a shame that his TVR was surrounded by more mundane
vehicles - a late arrival meanthe was surrounded by the early
'normal' cars.
Ashby Folville does attract a wide spectrum of people - it's
not purely the car enthusiasts (with their beards and bad dress
sense) or the motorcyclist (with their mid-life crisis belly protruding
from their leathers) who turn out; whole families and many younger
people, also wander around the cars. The 'star' for June had to
be young Benjamin Hamilton (pictured) - we overheard him talking
about the cars and suggesting valuations to his Mother. After
he
commented on TRickett I thought I'd have a word with him, and
ask him what his valuation of the car was. Considering the car
rolled off the factory about 17yrs before Ben was born he could
be excused a wild one. Indeed his first stab was a bit wide of
the mark, but he got it spot on second time around - agreeing
with both an independent evaluation as well as mine. I told him
that it was one of the last ones built, coming out of the Solihull
plant, with only appox 1000 more following it off the line before
production ceased…. "yes because BL were going through
a bad time weren't they?" was Ben's comment! Obviously he
does his research and knows his cars and it was great to see someone
so young who was genuinely interested in the vehicles at the gathering.
I think it's true to say that the meeting at Ashby Folville is
probably the most diverse collection of vehicles that you will
see outside of the big one-off events….. this is monthly,
on the 2nd Tuesday, so get down there! See some more
pics here!
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