pastevs68

PAST EVENTS PAGE 68

NEC SPORTSCAR SHOW SATURDAY and SUNDAY 25th and 26th MAY 2002

At the end of February it was finally officially confirmed that the club were having free stand space at the Sports car show on the 25th and 26th May.

When the official layout plans for Hall 4 were received, we had been allocated a stand space of 10m x 6m. After Richard and I made some sketch details it was found that, allowing for reasonable circulation space round the cars, only two cars with all their doors open could fit into this space. Noticing that the area behind the stand was unallocated a letter was written to the exhibition organiser basically blagging the adjacent area. We had a positive response and now our stand was to be 13m X 10m.

At the same time we received an 80 page manual covering all aspects of stand preparation including hire charge companies for screens, lighting, power, carpet etc. These prices were horrendous - £4.30 per sq m for putting a carpet down for two days and to stick the edges you had to buy the special NEC tape.

Various discussions were had on the amount of money to be allocated from reserves for the cost of the stand. We could offset some of the cost by selling club regalia and charging for suppliers to exhibit their products on our site.

There would also be some expenditure on items that could be used for future exhibitions (Classic Car Show in November 2002). We had also decided to produce a new club logo and after many trials were very happy with the design from a local company. This meant that items for resale could be ordered along with a club stand ‘uniform’ consisting of a grey polo shirt with logo and a matching baseball cap.

The actual stand design was also taking shape in the form of a scaffold framework round the perimeter supporting horizontal poles to which we were going to add blow up pictures of various club member’s cars. After enquiring on the cost of producing A1 size pictures at £12 to £18 each I decided to invest in an A3 printer and produce 4 to 6 piece jigsaws with slight overlaps and then mount the result on to an A1 foam board. About 50 hours of hard work later we had 21 boards plus two large new club logo boards. I used two cartridges of black ink and 5 cartridges of coloured ink in the production process. These boards were to be attached to the poles using Velcro with self-adhesive backs.

The actual cars selected for display were to be from ordinary members with no committee cars on the stand. Volunteers came forward and our design then firmed up using Toni’s white and yellow body kitted car as the centre piece with four other cars circling around it.

My contact with the scaffolding company produced a special cash price and they had erected scaffolding at other exhibitions at the NEC and therefore knew the necessary Health and Safety paperwork.

During all this time Richard and I had been meeting two or three times a week and listed various tasks that each of us had agreed to do and to check on their progress. Richard had a problem with some of the companies who had been contacted by other committee members and found that nothing was happening. With hard work and persistence they were drummed into action and started to produce components and display boards for our stand.

Lauren had agreed to produce a video showing MR2’s on various race tracks during the last year and my large bedroom television and video were then earmarked. A tall TV stand was required and I managed to hire one for a reasonable amount from a Leicester audio visual aid company.

One of the companies I deal with at work wrap their products in colour coded tape and with the shape of our new logo, I realised that this would be able to be printed onto 2” wide sticky tape. The company producing the tape agreed that it would be possible and the cost would be £2.40 for 66 metres (plus initial set up charge). This was very reasonable but one snag was that we would have to buy 36 rolls! (2.3km!) However with the fact that this tape could be used at other events we decided to proceed.

The week before the show was extremely busy with receipts of company products and we purchased an 8’ x 4’ sheet of MDF and had it cut down the middle. We then proceeded to place the various components on the boards and fastened them using plastic clamp ties - in my kitchen!

At the beginning of the week we had a letter from the organisers that we were now in Hall 5 and fortunately all the passes arrived at my address rather than Ken’s old one.

Arrangements had been made to hire a van for the period of the exhibition and on Thursday after work I collected the van and with Alan and Mike’s help we loaded up and proceeded to the local for a well-earned pint before the Friday stand preparation day.

Early on Friday morning armed with a multitude of various passes we set off for the NEC – about an hour’s drive away. On our arrival the hall was almost bare (except for the Porsche Stand which was virtually complete) Our scaffolding lorry had arrived and we offloaded some of the equipment while waiting for the framework to be erected. About an hour and a half later we could then proceed to put up all the posters. Richard’s idea of using Velcro worked extremely well and soon the stand was taking shape. The display cars had arrived and after some site dimensions and positions were taped on the floor they were soon all in their correct places. The rest of the day was spent installing the television and video, regalia tables, display boards and taping round the scaffolding poles. We had to pay £73.50+ VAT for one power socket outlet and I managed to persuade the electricians to give us another one to enable Alan to use his computer.

I had bought my black golf bag and Powakaddy – the manufacturer had donated a brand new black electric trolley (mine was 3 years old and a dirty white colour). This was for demonstrating that you can get an electric trolley and golf clubs into an MR2!

We then returned home to a great shepherds pie kindly cooked by my daughter Liz and fiancée Lance and washed down with wine and beer.

Saturday saw us back on the stand shortly before 9am all looking smart in our new uniforms. At 9.30am the public arrived and for the rest of the day there was always someone visiting our stand. At one time we were glad that there were 8+ of us working together to ensure every visitor received prompt attention. Of course there were many stands showing far more exotic cars but our stand showed the affordable mini Ferraris and with the combination of replacement wheel arches and other spares we were able to show how easy it was to own and maintain our super practical sports cars. Arriving back at Loughborough at about 7pm we all had a short respite before getting taxis for a short pub visit and were joined by Lauren, Mark and Nosmo who had travelled down from Nottingham. A very good Indian meal followed and a short taxi ride home saw us have a last coffee before collapsing into bed ready for the next day.

Sunday was much the same and we had visits from members and several application forms were filled in on the stand with more taken away for joining by post. . We had several visits to our stand from committee members of the Drivers Club who remarked on the originality of our stand. We would have revised our opinion of their club if one of the more senior members hadn’t tried to persuade one of our founder members to join the Drivers Club. (You don’t try and do that sort of thing whilst visiting another car club’s stand). It was also Mike Sheavill’s 30th birthday and I had purchased a birthday cake ready and this was presented on the stand after lunch with one candle (courtesy Richard’s wife’s ‘ take another one just in case’. The last couple of hours on Sunday afternoon started to drag as visitors left the hall. At about 5pm we started to dismantle the stand and the scaffolding lorry arrived and began to take the framework down. I went to the car park to bring the van into the hall and as luck would have it joined the wrong line which was the last to be allowed to proceed and consequently arrived in the hall about an hour later. The van was then loaded and after dropping most of the display material at my home we proceeded to Richards house and offloaded his computer desk display tables and boxes of club regalia etc.

Alan stayed on and early Monday morning we returned the van and both agreed that it had all been worth it. Alan left to go back up north during the morning and Richard and I met on Wednesday evening for a retrospective analysis on the past days events.

STUART KYNOCH