Holidays were in Europe, and went to the Goodwood Revival, Frankfurt Motor Show, Classic Remise in Berlin , Haynes Motor Museum , Beaulieau Autojumble, and various other places and locations, not all car related I must add.
Goodwood was, as previously just really quite fantastic, the racing was great, the Spitfires brilliant and the atmosphere as always fun and relaxed. It is great to see so many people getting into the vintage spirit of the event and dressing for the occasion. The car park alone is almost worth the visit by itself, such a amazing array of vehicles parked in the paddock. It is great to see that people are happy to use cars that are worth such vast sums and not just leave them locked in a shed. Over all Goodwood Revival is a great event and it really has grown in size quite noticeably since the last visit to it a few years ago. No wonder it is a sell out every year.
The Frankfurt Motor show was just out of this world, it really makes the old Melbourne and Sydney “International” motor shows look quite tragic and tiny by comparison! To be honest the old Sydney or Melbourne shows would quite easily have been accommodated in just the Mercedes pavilion alone at Frankfurt , and quite comfortably at that! The scale of the pavilions and variety of cars and parts suppliers on show was truly overwhelming. Really such an amazing spectacle and the amount of money they must have to spend to present it is really quite mind blowing. Whilst we didn’t get into the Audi pavilion the Mercedes on was by far the stand out in style and scale.
A recommendation for Berlin, make the effort to go and see the Classic Remise, which of course is moving to a new home in 2015 I believe, the current building (an old imperial tram depot) and setup is really quite something and the range of cars that are there being stored or waiting for sale is just amazing. Really like the two Horch 853A Sportroadsters which would have to be a personal favourite.
Whilst travelling about the UK in our rented bright red Fiat 500 (what a great little car!) was trying to decide if I should look up and visit a few Morris Minor parts places prior to going to the Beaulieau Autojumble or not, as maybe all that I wanted would be at the Beaulieau and “special” prices, but in the end decided to visit Bull Motif Spares in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire. I purchased quite a few parts and bits most of which I managed to pack into my luggage and some larger parts that I had mailed home. I was very glad that I had stopped by Bull Motif as, maybe I wasn’t looking carefully, but I didn’t see many Morris Minor parts at Beaulieau at all, and no specialist suppliers that I saw. I had though that as Beaulieau was such a big event and grandly advertise as being an International Autojumble that there would have been a great many traders of Morris Minor parts, so that was a insight to the event.
Don’t get me wrong it was great to attend and see what this event I have heard so much about over the years was actually like and there were a vast number of traders and private sellers, and it was definitely international, so many Dutch nationals, both selling and buying, they must really like the British cars. Mind one question remains, clogs, really, you actually wear them, surely they can’t be at all comfortable walking for miles through wet and muddy grass! There was so much “stuff” at the Autojumble that it would be almost impossible to actually take everything in, there was certainly some amazing items and I think it would be hard to locate the exact obscure part your after without actually scouring each and every stand, though what your after is probably there somewhere. Well not so much Morris Minor spares, but plenty of other stuff anyway.
So anyway heaps of bits and pieces for The Count, which should have it looking and running mighty fine for a while. Thus now it is the hard slog of saving the money for the actual trip and figuring out when I can actually get to the car and install the parts that are needed to get it road safe and legal, so that I can then either just drive the car from Queensland to Melbourne or have it freighted. I have been looking at freighting it and it has to be fully operational and running for that, so with the brakes needing doing and such like that I may as well just drive it down once it is all done I think, well that is what I would prefer to do.
Well hopefully now I have all of these parts, one day in the not too distant future I will be able to get to the car and start to sort it all out, I would like to be able to get it down to Melbourne prior to Christmas, though this may slip a little to early in the new year, I hope not, though as there is only 11 weeks to go until Christmas it may just catch me out.
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| Goodwood Revival parking lot |
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| The mighty 500 in the UK |
