TATTON PARK SHOW SATURDAY and SUNDAY 17th and
18th JULY 2002
This event, recognised by members who had visited in
previous years, was one of the largest gathering of vintage, classic and sports
cars held in the North West.
Unfortunately, the arrangements for obtaining a club pitch seemed to have
gone astray and it was understood that there were tickets issued but these
didn’t appear to be made easily available. The intrepid ‘visit events threesome‘
consisting of Fred and Doris’s blue one, Richard and Rachael’s white over silver
SC and my red NA. – All of us from Loughborough who decided that an MR2 MK1 Club
presence was necessary. The 84-mile journey to Tatton Park at 7am on Sunday
morning was reasonably easy as the traffic on the A50 was virtually
non-existent. Those that had camped over on the Saturday night had promised us
tickets at the gate. These didn’t materialise and we had to park outside the
entrance while a search was made for the ticket supplier. This turned out to be
a farce as:
No Club pitch had been booked.
The tickets that had been issued were probably up somewhere near Newcastle –
and these could not have been issued for our club.
Why is it that only three out of 600 members visited this superb rally and
especially since it was up north on the western side where several members
complained that they were too far away to come to the majority of events held
further south.
In any event by the kind auspices of the Drivers Club who ‘lent’ us their
passes we were able to park on their club stand. Everyone felt a little awkward
at first but we were made really welcome by Paul and Fazza who were the
organisers of the Drivers Club’s large pitch – around 65 cars – mostly Mk2’s
with a few Mk1’s and Roadsters. What a pleasant change in attitude from the
usual snubbing we receive further south.
The day passed very quickly for me as I had cleaned the outside of the car on
Thursday, hoovered and polished inside on Saturday evening and so it was the
turn of the outside to receive the autoglym at the show. After an hour and a
half the car began to look reasonably smart and Richard and I spent a long time
chatting to and advising two people who had produced a very unusual body kit for
the Mk1 (more on this in this issue).
There were many fine examples of older classics to be seen and with a large
auto jumble stands scattered around this large park gave one plenty of interest.
After making a tour round I returned to the car to find a little blue sticker
attached to the windscreen saying I had won a prize. (Thank you Autoglym!) And
was to present myself in the main marquee at 4pm.
At about 3.30 the heavens opened and people either rushed to shelter in their
cars or ran to this main marquee. I was thinking – typical - polish the car and
then get it all mudded up driving out of the pitch in what looked to be changing
rapidly into a quagmire!
Fortunately after half an hour the rain eased off and I was then presented
with a prize for being the third best car on the Drivers Club stand.
Most of the other members had made an early exit and after a series of photos
were shot we all said our thank you’s and made our way back home.
Last thoughts were for a very pleasant day that could have been a disaster
but for the generosity of the Northwest Area of the Drivers Club.
STUART KYNOCH
