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SOUTH EAST PAST EVENTS

BROMLEY PAGEANT OF MOTORING - SUNDAY 27th JUNE 2004

The Bromley Pageant of Motoring is reputedly the biggest one-day car show in the world and is considered our most prestigious show of the year in the south-east. As in previous years, due to the size of the show club stands are only permitted to display three cars. So we try and present two of the organizer’s cars plus a guest car from one of our local club members. This year Michael Gray agreed to accept our invitation to display his metallic light blue coupe alongside Alan and Steve’s cars. Unfortunately, Mike had to pull out suddenly at the last minute so we were left frantically looking for a replacement. We were very grateful to Pete Kyte who, at such short notice offered to bring along his mica blue coupe. Pete was concerned that his car was not good enough to show due to rusty front wings. However, Steve assured him that it would be perfectly ok and should not worry about it.

On Sunday morning we met first in the Little Chef car park on the A21 just outside Bromley at 9am Alan, Linda and Mark arrived first followed shortly by Steve Kingsnorth, Peter Mason and Kelly and finally Pete Kyte with his son Alex. Pete’s car was gleaming inside and out as he had spent the Saturday giving it a good clean up and polish.

We arrived at Norman Park where the show is held shortly before 9.30am and found that most of the other club stands already set up. We were guided to our allotted pitch which was located in a very prominent position and squeezed between the Opel and Rover SDI Clubs. We quickly erected the gazebo, banner and other accessories such as leaflets, posters and a board with some nice photos of the club’s past activities, which proved to be very popular with the visiting crowds. The cars and the pitch looked superb and it wasn’t long before the crowds gathered around the cars, looking over them and reading the posters we had displayed. Much to Pete Kyte’s amazement, his car (the one with the dodgy wings remember?) proved to be very popular, attracting a lot of attention, the highlight being when a boy took a photo of it! There, it just goes to show that despite the myth members believe that their cars are not good enough, they don’t have to be immaculate to get admiring looks at shows.

Although we might be prejudiced, I’m sure that our club stand was one of the busiest throughout the day. The cars are so popular they just attract the attention. We handed out leaflets and posters about the club, answered questions to people thinking they might buy one and gave application forms for club membership to many, including a bloke from Cheshire! We had visits from other club members Nigel Orton and Robert Hexter and of course our friends from the Drivers Club whose pitch was located at the rear of the club display area and hadn’t attracted as much attention.

We managed to make time for ourselves to have a look around. It took an hour and a half to have a quick look at the one make parking area, which was located on the other side of the show. That’s how big the show was.

So, after a busy day, it was time to pack up and head for home. We enjoyed it immensely, met a lot of people and felt satisfied that once again the club had been promoted to many people. A special thanks to Pete and Alex for bringing their car along and helping us out at such short notice.