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SOUTH EAST PAST EVENTS

SUNDAY 29th JUNE 2003 – BROMLEY PAGEANT OF MOTORING

Here we were once again for the second year, on our way to the Bromley Pageant of Motoring show, reputedly the biggest one-day event for classic car enthusiasts in the world. Well we must admit it was big, very big in fact. The show is run by ‘Practical Classics’ magazine and is held in Norman Park just outside Bromley, Kent. 30,000 spectators came to see the 3,000 exhibitors, 300 trade and autojumble stands, Arena entertainment’s, AutoGlym Concours, 120 Club stands plus the huge one make parking area. Cars as far as the eye could see, cars of all types and ages from all over the country and some exhibitors from Europe came to join the spectacle.

Due to the show’s size, club displays - the category which we entered, are limited to three cars only. The clubs are also required to have a theme. A few clubs take this very seriously and put on a spectacular display, so we knew we had no chance of competing against them. So, for this year we had decided that our theme would be called ‘Party Time’ where we could just have a few balloons for effect and voila! - We had a theme.

We met as scheduled at the Little Chef car park on the A21 approach to Bromley and travelled together with Alan’s Omega estate packed with our recently acquired gazebo, chairs and loads of blown up balloons leading the way followed by David Price in his prize winning T Bar, Steve Kingsnorth in his special edition supercharger and Pete Mason in his very tasty white T bar model. We arrived shortly after 10.30, giving us half an hour before the show started but blimey, when we passed through the entrance gates we could hardly move due to the crowds of people roaming around and entering the show. ‘Hang on a moment, the show doesn’t start until 11am so what were they all doing there?’ A quick check at the promoters leaflet reveals that the judging commences at 11am the show starts at 9.30am. Ooooops!

We made our way at a very slow crawling pace in the rough direction towards our allotted pitch, we were having difficulty finding it due to the vastness of the show. We, well Alan actually, was obviously lost and stopped for a moment to get his bearings. At this moment a spikey, ginger haired fellow comes over to talk to us (There’s always some one!) He was from the Drivers Club and saw us coming in, he told us that the pitch next to theirs was empty. The 280 Brooklands club who were allocated the pitch had not turned up and they thought it would be a good idea if we took their place so that the MR2’s could be next to each other. It seemed a pretty good idea to us as well so we followed his directions to the Drivers Club pitch.

As we started to set up, we were wondering what would happen if the other club turned up and thought maybe if they did, we could pursuade them to use our pitch, we’d have to wait and see. Up went the gazebo and out came the chairs, now for the balloons. Where’s the bloody balloons gone? Alan told us he heard gunfire on the way here, He thought maybe that some deranged MX5 owner with a grudge was shooting at him, but when he looked back he realised the balloons were exploding in the back of the car! Most probably due to the heat in the car or the way Alan was driving. We only had a few balloons remaining so it didn’t seem worth putting them up. Never mind, the thought was good.

The cars looked stunning, even without the balloons and in no time at all visitors were looking over them and asking all sorts of questions about the cars and the club, some remembered us from last year and told us how pleased they were to see the cars again. A few people actually owned the Mk1 so they were handed a form and hopefully will be joining the club.

There’s always someone on the day isn’t there who comes up all cocky and obnoxious, well, we had him for about 15 minutes, he wanted to know about this and where to get that, obscure things, testing our rather limited knowledge to the limit then walking away without even a thank you. Well, “UP YOURS” Pal!

The day continued as it started, we didn’t get that much time to look around ourselves and before long it was time to start packing up. A good day for the club with hopefully some new people joining, and a thanks to the Drivers Club for suggesting we park in the vacant pitch next to them. The other club whose pitch we had used never did turn up. Thankfully.