NEC CLASSIC CAR SHOW FRIDAY to SUNDAY 27th to 29th OCTOBER 2006
This was
the fifth car show at the NEC that we have taken part in and like last year the
show was open to the public for three days.
We had
been allocated a 14m x 9m pitch back to back with the MR2 Drivers Club – free
as usual in Hall 4. The show has become the largest car show in the UK
as this year there were 4 halls plus the MPH 06 show in Hall 5. For all of
those who didn’t take advantage of the discounted tickets you missed a big
treat. For an extra tenner you were entertained for an hour by Jeremy Clarkson,
Tiff Needel and James May on a massive stage accompanied by a host of exotic
cars. Various stunts were performed including James May crouching in a shopping
trolley and given a push by a powerful sports car in order to knock down 10
polypropylene 2m high skittles!
Response
from members to show their pride and joy on the stand was very disappointing
including one member who backed out a week before the show! Jo Walker very
kindly stepped in at the last moment and with her orange MK1 boosted by a newly
fitted Nos bottle labelled “Tango Orange” created lots of interest with the
general public.
We had four cars on the stand:
John and Linda Upsall with their White Supercharger
Fred and Doris Sanderson with their Helios Blue NA
Jo Walker with “you’ve just been tangoed”
Tim Cartledge with his MR2 Challenge race car (MK1A)
As usual the traffic situation and security a the NEC varies from the sublime to the
ridiculous with a deposit of £50 having to be paid in order to offload the van
in the hall and if it didn’t return to the car park within the allotted hour
the fifty pounds would be forfeited. Fred driving the display car and I driving
the van managed to offload the screens, gazebo, flags, tables and a host of
other stand equipment within twenty minutes so we were well in to return to the
south lorry park and claim our fifty pound cheque back. John and Linda arrived
and by 3pm the stand was finished.
Tim managed to bring his race car up to the NEC on Wednesday evening and I collected
the keys and instructions from the security gate to bring the car into the hall
(I kidded him that I didn’t know it was 18 miles from the car park to the
hall!) We then had a close look at the car which had stood out in the rain and
dust for almost a day and John and Fred proceeded to wash and polish it. Sarah
Wherry – another racer in the challenge posted a note to him on the forum that
he would walk straight by his car when he came to the show as he wouldn’t
recognise it!
We then
attended the show on each of the open days and quite a few visitors took away
application forms. Most of the people viewing the cars were surprised at the
storage capacity of the cars and the performances of both the NA and
Supercharged versions.
The show
finished at 5pm on Sunday evening to a blast of about 500 car hooters and I had
managed to park the van outside the hall in a small parking area (when you’ve
been exhibiting here five times you get to know the ways to beat the system).
This parking area was only half full for the whole period as you were supposed
to park in the South 2 Park – about half a mile away.
Rather
than join the queue to get the van in the hall – a long time as all the
display cars has to leave first we with the help of the “team” plus Bill Hulme and Garrick
Abrahamson we carried
the stand components out to the van.
The total
cost of the mounting this exhibition was the 5 day hire of the van plus some
small incidentals. The pictures and the screens that have been used on the stand
for the last four years are now showing their age and the committee have decided
to make a theme for next year’s club stand and to try emulating Jo’s efforts
at the Restoration Show and aim for the best club stand of the show. We will
report on our progress over the next issues but we need more support from you
– either in assisting the stand build up or help in manning the stand on the
open days.
STUART KYNOCH
