2023 Event Reports

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February Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

The day for the breakfast meeting was dry and reasonably bright so after checking where the destination was and loading the satnav with the route I set off.

My route started out from Peterborough to Wisbech and then over towards Downham Market, I have done this route many times but with the venue location it told me to turn off in Outwell and take a back road to the venue.

The road this took me on was interesting - resembling less tarmac and more the surface of the moon. It has so many holes, cracks etc that I was down to 30mph and still having a job keeping the car on the road - not nice. Still I survived that and arrived at the venue. Being the start of February for some reason only a few of us had brought the Tigers out, there were 5 kit cars there, Giles Cooper’s Cat, Frank Thurston’s SSI, Peter Hinton’s Avon, Griff’s Avon and Mike Ramsdale’s Locost. The rest of them turned up in normal cars…

However the lack of kit cars did not affect turnout we had a total of 23 people prise themselves out to meet up and have breakfast.

When most of us had arrived we went inside and were seated - a few turned up a bit later but everyone who said they were going to come did so.

Now this is the first time a lot of us have been to the venue (most of them didn’t know where it was and had to look up the location). But I have to say they have set the bar for subsequent events very high.

Allowing for the fact that they needed to get 23 plates of food out we all got the food in a 5 minute window quickly, efficiently, and the food was good quality and very reasonably priced. There was a good range available and the nice thing is that for once we weren’t asked to pre-order and they still handled everything well.

After we had finished eating we all hung around for a chat before heading home, When chatting I found there was a better way home, where I could get to the A10 and then loop round Downham Market and back using the main road, it was a lot more comfortable than using the back roads that I did on the way there.

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Frank Thurston's Tiger SSI
Picture: Giles Cooper

Andy Dunn's Fiesta
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike Ramsdale's Locost
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Alfa Spyder
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

March Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

Well if the breakfast meeting had been held a day earlier who knows what would have happened.

On Friday 10th March in Peterborough we had rain, then sleet, then 4 cm of snow, before the sun came out and dried everything off before it got dark - this would not have been Tiger driving weather.

On the day of the meeting it was very cold but dry so I got in the Tiger to travel over - as the car was booked in for an MOT at Wisbech on the way home.

The journey to the venue was uneventful apart from the cold (well what can you write about a drive down the A47 from Peterborough to King’s Lynn), and I got there to find very few Tigers in the car park. In fact only two other kits made it, those belonging to Stan Burton and newish member Mark Pritchard. This being the first time Mark had got to a club meeting despite joining a few months ago.

Still a total of 30 people made it to the venue even though most of them were not in the kit cars…

Now this is my personal opinion but having had to pre-order the food it seemed the delivery was a bit chaotic with not everyone getting their food at the same time. I have to say I think the venue last month did a better job especially as they only knew numbers and everyone ordered on the day. The service and food wasn’t bad it was just the other venue did a better job.

After having the food we all stayed around chatting for an hour or so before heading home (or in my case off to get the MOT done).

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Stan Burton's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mark Pritchard's Tiger Super 6
Picture: Giles Cooper

April Breakfast Meeting by Giles Cooper

The third breakfast meeting of the year and to a majority of the club members attending it was the first time they had been to the venue.

I was fairly sure I knew where the location was but in advance I had done a quick recce when I planned the Norfolk run so I knew where I was going.

The weather was good and so we had 10 cars arrive and a few members in ordinary cars as well. For some of us this was a long distance event - Griff had to drive a whole 3 miles…

Almost everyone made it who had booked in - one club member got lost ended up at Tiger and was given directions but we still didn’t see them at the venue.

For the rest of us we had a good chat and a nice large breakfast. Followed by some more chatting and then a few of us went over to Tiger.

Now I did cause some comments as after having had a large breakfast when I went to pay there was a cake stand next to the till with a very tempting cake on it, so I had a slice and ate it before leaving, a few others went and had the cake to take away.

It was a good venue and one worth considering to go back to next year.

Angus Grooby's Marlin
Picture: Giles Cooper

Tony Haggie's Morgan
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kevin Greeves' MK Indy
Picture: Giles Cooper

Adrian Spriggs' Tiger R10
Picture: Giles Cooper

Peter Hinton's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Tuck's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike Ramsdale's Locost
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Newman's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Stradsett Vintage Festival by Giles Cooper

Stradsett involves a lot more work (well for me at least) than going to a normal show.

For most shows we turn up on the day, park the cars up, wander round and spend the day talking about inanities.

With Stradsett I help Tiger out by going down the day before to assemble the stand - leaving the Tiger at home as I use the BMW as a taxi, then going down the next day with the Tiger and this year heading back on the last day in the BMW again to help take the stand down.

The first part of this was relatively easy, I went down in the BMW to the factory, helped them load up and then we went over to Stradsett and set the awning up. This year Laura had obtained a new set of the plastic strips that hold the fabric to the side of the van and the complete awning went up in about an hour and a quarter - this is about 30 minutes quicker than last year - all due to the material not falling out multiple times.

So everything was setup I gave a lift to the people coming back to Wisbech and was ready to go out the next morning.

Sunday morning I hop into the car start it up and it won’t move, thinking something was stuck behind one of the tyres I jumped out and had a look - nothing there. The problem had to be at the back of the car as the front wheels wouldn’t stop it rolling out. So I jacked up the back of the car and found the passenger side rear wheel would not turn.

I pulled the wheel off and then tapped the brake drum free, after doing this the driveshaft turned without a problem so the fault had to lie in the rear brakes.

First I checked the handbrake and the cables were free, so I stuck a screwdriver in the self adjuster to free it off, this done I put the drum back on and tried again. This time the rear wheel spun freely, so wheels back on and it drove properly. The strange thing is it is usually the adjustment mechanism fails to tighten the brake - not stop the car from moving.

Still after that problem I go to the show and parked up in plenty of time.

Most of the morning was spent on the Tiger stand helping out and later in the day my Mum and brother came to the show along with the dog who enjoyed the attention she was getting from everyone.

As said about this show if you don’t really like tractors then it isn’t really your thing although there must have been over a 100 classic cars, about 40 or so trucks and various military machines parked on the fields.

The second day was interesting. Unknown to myself it had poured with rain all night at Stradsett. Which was followed by more rain the next morning, so when I headed over to help take the stand down it was rather damp and they had actually closed the show. It was only with a bit of persuasion that I managed to get in.

So after most people had gone home we pulled down the awning, and had all the cars loaded for transport. At this point I left them and headed back to my car in the public car park, I got out fairly easily and made it back to the workshop by 4:30 - and waited, eventually at 5:30 they arrived, the lorry and van had got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out and there was some sort of incident that needed two ambulances on the entrance road.

After everyone had arrived all the vehicles were unloaded, we could finally get home, I gave a lift to Laura and Ty to get them home and then finally got in at 7:15.

It was a long weekend.

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Front of Tiger Stand
Picture: Giles Cooper

Lotus Europa
Picture: Giles Cooper

Side of Tiger Stand
Picture: Giles Cooper

Tiger R10 Duratec VVC
Picture: Giles Cooper

Jim Dudley's Lotus Cortina and Paul Dudley's Escort
Picture: Giles Cooper

Paul Dudley's Racing Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Baby Tractor
Picture: Giles Cooper

Vauxhall Viva HC
Picture: Giles Cooper

Chenard & Walcker
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rolls Royce Silver Shadow
Picture: Giles Cooper

Snowtrac or new shopping car
Picture: Giles Cooper

3 Wheeled Tractor
Picture: Giles Cooper

Small John Deere Tractor
Picture: Giles Cooper

Land Rover
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rolls Royce
Picture: Giles Cooper

Ford Pickup
Picture: Giles Cooper

Ford Cortina Mk3
Picture: Giles Cooper

Patina on Mk2 Cortina (with plank)
Picture: Giles Cooper

Fair Distribution of Labour?
Picture: Giles Cooper

Please don't run over my foot
Picture: Giles Cooper

Stationary Engines
Picture: Giles Cooper

EATOC Norfolk Run by Giles Cooper

The weather for the Norfolk run was not overly warm but dry and mostly bright, this was in stark contrast to the day myself and Griff did the recce to test the route which was best described as torrential rain all day.

We all arrived at Tiger and everyone had noted my request and arrived with a full tank of fuel to save holdups on the way out. After some time chatting we headed out on the run with me acting as the tail end driver to sweep up anyone getting lost. Well that was the idea….

When going round Downham Market I was sure the route was meant to turn right, but the satnav had other ideas and sent me left which meant I probably did an extra couple of miles. It later transpired that some of the units had done this as they had an update suggesting a road was closed so rerouted round a nonexistent closure.

The first half of the morning session was fairly boring as it mostly used the A134 to save on time, originally the route had gone via Welney Wash but this made the first half too long and we changed it. After getting to Thetford we turned off the main roads and onto the more interesting minor roads, which were a lot more twisty although we had to be careful on the single track lanes that made up a lot of the route. I only went wrong on one section where I followed the road as it curved to the left but I should have gone straight on, it didn’t really matter as it only took a minute or so to get back to the route. Everyone arrived at the lunch stop where we all had a good feed and a break and then it was onto the second half.

The roads on the second half were a lot more interesting, due to the poor condition of the tarmac we avoided the coast road - it has too many cracks and holes to make it comfortable when driving in the Tiger. So we ran the route on the inland road which runs parallel to the coast, going through some very pretty villages before finally coming out at Docking and heading over to the afternoon rest stop at Dersingham.

Here we had to contend with an automated parking terminal to stop getting fined (it wasn’t in place when we stopped when checking the route), with most cars you put in the registration number in and it displays Ford AB23 AAA, not with the Tigers, all it came up with was Red KEG 643Y. So to whoever programmed the unit you aren’t reading the DVLA records correctly…

We then all had a break and a drink before heading home. The original route had gone through Sandringham and then back to Downham Market (through the town centre) before going back to Wisbech, Griff said why does it do that (he worked out that piece of the route himself) so instead people just hit the main roads and went home the shortest and fastest route.

There was just one problem I had. The gearbox mount on the car must have been damaged with the rough roads. So for most of the second part of the run the gear lever was bouncing up and down by about an inch as the car went over bumps. This has now been replaced with a new rubber mounting.

Apart from that I think the only other problem was James Pulford who had a problem with the speedometer drive and went home at the half way point.

There was however one complaint about the route - we had committed a serious error by not including a cake stop in the plans. What can I say to that.

Just one thing to note I didn’t get a photo of all the cars as James left just as I was pulling into the carpark - if anyone cares to send me one I will update the website with all the vehicles.

Andy Dunn's Mazda MX-5
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Tuck's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Adrian Spriggs' Tiger R10
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Newman's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kevin Greeves' MK Indy
Picture: Giles Cooper

Dave Sams' Tiger R10
Picture: Giles Cooper

Richard Gaze's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Dom Eaves' Westfield
Picture: Giles Cooper

Tony Haggie's Morgan
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike Ramsdale's Locost
Picture: Giles Cooper

Paul Lilley's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Peter Hinton's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rickenall Car Show by Allan Griffin

During the planning meeting in January Steve Newman proposed that we attend the Rickinghall Car Show on 21st May. Steve was aware of the show as he knew of someone who had an E Type that he showed and the show itself was backed by Suffolk Jaguar Club. This sounded like an interesting event and having never been before it would be a first for EATOC. We contacted the organisers and booked a pitch for five cars, as it transpired only three cars went Rachel and Myself, Steve and Heather and Michael Ramsdale.

On the day we arranged to meet and head off together. We left Wisbech then on to Downham Market followed by Thetford then headed towards Diss turning off to Rickinghall in total a distance of 56 miles. The drive over at 08.00 was superb, the temperature was just right and for a change, all the roads were of decent quality leading to a brisk drive over.

The show was on Rickinghall village playing field, as we approached we came across lots of nice cars going the other way making us think have we got this right but as it turned out there were three more car shows / fetes in the area. There was an interesting selection of cars on display needless to say a large number of Jaguars and surprisingly a large selection of vintage tractors which Rachel spent a long time admiring as she has a farming background and was able to name and recall all the tractors.

During the day we had quite a bit of interest in the Tigers. Towards the end of the day we were talking to Chris Jones who we were unaware at the time was one of our newer members, Chris was not in his Tiger, however as he lived locally we arranged that we would meet at Browns in Mundford for a coffee stop and Chris would join us for the journey back to Stradsett then headed back to Swaffham and home.

Returning home at 5.30 ish, all in all it was a relaxing day in good company with decent weather, saw some nice vehicles and met one of our newer members.

Jaguar E-Type
Picture: Rachel Collins

Jaguar XK-120
Picture: Rachel Collins

Renault 4
Picture: Rachel Collins

Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite
Picture: Rachel Collins

WW2 Jeep
Picture: Rachel Collins

Triumph Saloon
Picture: Rachel Collins

VW Beetle
Picture: Rachel Collins

Austin Healey 3000
Picture: Rachel Collins

Triumph Dolomite Sprint
Picture: Rachel Collins

Jaguar MK IX
Picture: Rachel Collins

Small Truck
Picture: Rachel Collins

VW Camper Van
Picture: Rachel Collins

Massey Ferguson Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

David Brown Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Allis Chalmers Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Ford and Fordson Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Ford Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Massey Ferguson 65 Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Ferguson Tractor with gold engine
Picture: Rachel Collins

Fordson Tractor
Picture: Rachel Collins

Sandringham Pageant of Motoring by Giles Cooper

Well last year this one was a bit of a disaster, the weather was so bad only one club member managed to get to the event. This year the weather was much better. The day was bright, dry and relatively warm. There were just 5 cars booked in for the show, myself, Griff, Kevin Greeves, Mike Ramsdale and Adrian Spriggs. The initial drive over was nice and easy - I met up with the rest of them at Griff’s and we made our way up to Sandringham, the only hold up being a group of 4x4 drivers with too many lights fitted that were doing about 35mph up the A149. We used a different road to get into Sandringham and just got in ahead of them…

Once in we got to the entrance for the club stands at which point things went a bit odd as we looked for the space we had been allocated and were chased down by an official yelling we had gone the wrong way. It turned out the parking area was in a hollow near the edge of the show area. All I can say is it was fortunate that the grass was dry or the cars would not have got back up again when it came time to go home.

Once parked up we then setup the flag and chairs (the flag at least giving the public an idea we were down in this hole) and spent the morning just talking to people and handing out catalogues and club information. We were also visited by quite a few members of the club Tony and Liz Haggie, Simon, Oliver and Ali Noble, Geoff Cross and possibly a couple of others I have missed.

During the afternoon I heard someone calling my name out, and looking round the only people I could see were a couple of children, so I wandered over to see who they were. It turned out to be Yasmine and Emilio (Laura and Ty’s children) who were there with Sue Dudley. Now a strange bit it turns out that despite living 25 minutes from Sandringham, in the 25 years they have lived in Wisbech it was the first time Sue had been to Sandringham. Jim hadn’t even told them that a car show was on even though the previous week I had been at the workshop and asked if he wanted to come along but he had a golf competition instead.

Finally the day drew to the end and from 4PM we could leave so we packed up and headed home, I got out onto the A149 at 4:30 and managed to drive the 4 miles to the Knights Hill Roundabout in 20 minutes, at which point I turned off and went through Kings Lynn to get home avoiding the dreaded Hardwick roundabout.

As a footnote, if you go to Sandringham go and have a look around the church, this small parish church is very impressive inside with a silver pulpit and altar. But then it is the one the royal family use every year.

EATOC Parking Area
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Adrian Spriggs' Tiger R10
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kevin Greeves' MK Indy
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike Ramsdale's Locost
Picture: Giles Cooper

Interesting choice of headgear
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rover P6 Estate
Picture: Giles Cooper

Vauxhall Victor Hot Rod
Picture: Giles Cooper

Decaying and preserved
Picture: Giles Cooper

I think this is meant to be a land rover
Picture: Giles Cooper

MGA
Picture: Giles Cooper

Escort in a very dull colour
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mercedes Pagoda
Picture: Giles Cooper

Marlin Speedster
Picture: Giles Cooper

Aston Martin V8
Picture: Giles Cooper

Singer Gazelle
Picture: Giles Cooper

RAF Sculthorpe Museum Visit by Giles Cooper

This was suggested by Dom Eaves back at the event planning meeting. A couple of club members had been to the venue already for the rest of us it was a trip into darkest unknown Norfolk - or just outside Fakenham.

A few of us met up at Griffs and a short convoy headed out to the agreed meeting point, so myself, Kev and Griff started out towards the first meeting point at the Knight Hill hotel outside Kings Lynn. Along the road we picked up Angus who had decided to meet there rather than taking the back roads to Griff’s. At the Knights Hill we had another few cars join us (I forgot to note the names so if I have missed anyone sorry) Steve Newman, Peter Hinton and Richard Gaze. Incidentally from the road the hotel looks to have a nice large car park but there isn’t really much space to use a meeting location - one to note for the future.

From the meeting point we then continued to the meeting location just outside the museum - surprising Dom Eaves as he approached the road to find a load of Tigers waiting for me (I slowed up to allow him to turn in). Griff then waited at the meeting point whilst the rest of us continued in.

It took a little longer for the rest of the cars to make there way into the carpark, but we ended up with a total of 13 cars. We also had two ‘new’ members - Kelvin Rogers had just joined the club and Chris Jones had been a member for about a year and it was the first time he had come to a club event. We had actually got there earlt for once and so had to wait for the museum to open.

Now it has to be said that the museum is quite small, it is based in the back room of a community hall for the village, and is interesting but not somewhere you could spend all day. It was interesting and quite a lot of the base infrastructure is still visible.

The museum is planning on moving into a large hanger next to the community centre once they raise the money to allow them to do so. This hanger was originally the base chapel (armoured of course) as it was an USAF Nuclear Bomber for much of its life. This hanger will certainly give them space to expand and make the exhibits less crowded. They are looking for donations and have a gofundme page for those who want to donate Link to the gofundme page .

After the museum visit Dom had another thing to do. Parked in a field only a short distance from the museum is a SPECAT Jaguar Aircraft, where there is enough room to park the cars underneath the wings and around it. So we all moved location and then spent an hour taking loads of photos. We then headed off to a local pub to get some food as we were all hungry.

The pub was slightly strange as when we got there the only food on offer was a carvery or the childrens menu. There weren’t any other choices! A few of us ordered off the childrens menu but some went for the full carvery and then went back for at least 3 desserts…

Finally we all headed for home, it had been a really good interesting day.

For those who have visited the club website using a computer (and not a phone) will have seen on the pictures from the day is the first one that appears on the website before they all rotate around.

Dom Eaves' Westfield
Picture: Giles Cooper

Andy Dunn's Maxda MX-5
Picture: Giles Cooper

Peter Hinton's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kelvin Rogers' Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Newman's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kevin Greeves' MK Indy
Picture: Giles Cooper

Angus Grooby's Marlin
Picture: Giles Cooper

Richard Gaze's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

James Pulford's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Chris Jones' Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

All the cars lined up under the jaguar (better version is on the front page)
Picture: Giles Cooper

A group of Tiger Owners
Picture: Giles Cooper

Malvern Kit Car Show by Nick Parson

Since 2004 I have been a regular annual supporter of the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh. Back then I was busy buying parts for the build of my Tiger Cat and the shows at Stoneleigh and Newark were awash with stalls where you could just about source anything you needed. Like many others though, over the years I have watched the decline in these shows, especially Stoneleigh. For me Stoneleigh was just a 30 minute drive away and so I was still happy to take the Tiger for a drive and have a wander around the show knowing not to expect much. This year however there was a new venue for the National Kit Car show at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern with the regular early May Bank Holiday slot swapped for the first weekend of June. This was still within reach for me to get to, a journey of 70 miles each way. I decided to visit on the Sunday with my mate Colin in his Fireblade powered MK Indy.

Sunday morning greeted us with glorious sunshine and we set off as a very small convoy of Tiger and MK, from South Leicestershire about 9.30am. The first thing that I noticed was during the drive down to the show I didn’t see a single other kit car on the road heading towards the show. Not a good sign I thought. I would normally see a few cars heading to Stoneleigh along the M69 or A46 but nothing this time. It wasn't until I was within 500yds of the show that I saw a Westfield but he was heading in the opposite direction away from the show! We arrived at the showground around 10.45.

Getting into the show was easy, free entry in a kit as per usual and we were given a map of the showground. The showground is lovely with The Malvern Hills dominating the backdrop to this venue. I drove around looking for the Tiger owners club pitch. It's usually easy to find as there are plenty of Tigers parked on it. Not here though, I found the Tiger pitch and there wasn't a single Tiger parked there, I was the first. I parked on the pitch and Colin parked his MK alongside to double the numbers! That is how it remained all day, I was the Tiger Owners Club. To be fair there was a brief visit from someone in a red Super Six around lunch time and he left the car on the pitch with a For Sale sign on it but only for about an hour and then he was gone. There were some other Tigers dotted around the showground but they were on other club pitches such as NWKCOG. There were countless club stands completely empty of cars. Westfield usually turn out in huge numbers at Stoneleigh with several rows of cars. Here there were just 2 rows and in amongst them were a few Caterhams (one a 620S), Locosts and an MNR. The Westfield Slalom had been replaced by MEV doing their own rides in an Exocet around a small sprint style course.

Walking around the show ground I only saw one Ultima and two Ferrari replicas, Again, these are represented in good numbers at Stoneleigh. What was going on? Do people not like the change of venue? The Jago owners pitch is again normally busy, here only a couple of jeeps. There were some nice cars though scattered about such as a nice Ariel Atom looking car called the ASBO 4. Only a handful of these were built. The infamous Honda powered Shamen was also there.

Outside there were only a couple of trade stands selling a small selection of tools. There were more stands selling outdoor clothing and other non car related stuff. I had read a review on a forum from someone who had visited the show on the Saturday complaining about the price of food. They weren't wrong, double cheeseburger £9.

We headed into the show hall to the manufacturer stands. The hall is smaller than Stoneleigh. In here MK stood out with several cars on display. Their stand was very busy. I have watched the MK brand revive over the last few years with its current owners and I really do like their cars and the ongoing development work they put into the brand. Westfield were displaying an electric seven on their stand. The usual Cobra replica manufacturers were also present. Outside the show hall was an interesting Porsche Boxster conversion called the GT1 built in Northern Ireland. It’s a prototype so still a work in progress but it has got a different look about it. This is based on the 986 Boxster.

It didn’t take long to walk around the complete show and we decided to head for home around 3pm having done it all. It would be interesting to see what others say about the show and if it continues next year what the organisers will do to bring in bigger numbers. I don’t know how Sunday compared to the Saturday but if I had travelled from abroad or even some distance in the UK I would have been very disappointed. Let us hope for better things next year, it was the first attempt at Malvern. Otherwise, it was a hot sunny day to be out in the Tiger and what’s not to love about that.

ASBO4
Picture: Nick Parsons

Caterham Parking Area
Picture: Nick Parsons

Electric Westfield
Picture: Nick Parsons

GT1 Porsche Boxster conversion
Picture: Nick Parsons

The entire Tiger Owners Club display...
Picture: Nick Parsons

Fish and Chip Run by Giles Cooper

Well this didn’t go quite to plan.

The day started off well with a large number of us meeting up at the first meeting point which was Tesco’s in March. At March we had myself, Griff, Steve Newman, Derek Oakes, Angus Grooby, Kevin Greeves, Tony Haggie and Mike Ramsdale. Once everyone had met and those who needed to do so refuelled we left the Tesco car park and headed off on the first section of the run to Tesco’s in Ely.

The journey to Ely was uneventful apart from a few horse boxes and tractors occasionally conspiring to split up the group. When we arrived at ely we found that Derek’s car had developed sticky valve lifters and he decided to head home rather than risk causing a problem. Now when I parked at ely, Liz said that the reversing lamp wasn’t working, I wasn’t that bothered as I had only replaced the gearbox mount a couple of weeks previously and just assumed the wires had come loose. At Ely we picked up both Steve Tuck and Jim Danks.

We then continued onto the next stop (no not another branch of tesco but the village Green in Long Melford) again everything seemed fine and we picked up more people Chris Jones, kelvin rogers, Paul Browning and Peter Hinton. Peter was for some reason waiting in the garden centre rather than on the Green so we spent a while waiting for him to arrive and he was doing the same about 200 yards up the road…

Most of us took advantage of the local hostelries to refuel as it was fairly warm that day.

Leaving long Melford we route wound few villages and all went well until we had to cross under the a14. I was running one from the back and Tony was in front of me and we both missed the exit (I will take the blame as there should have been more markers on the route to put you back). We ended up doing a diversion before finally getting to the fuel stop. At this point I needed fuel and as there was a queue turned the engine off. It wouldn’t restart as the battery was flat. It appeared the alternator had failed with an open circuit and did not put the warning lamp on the dash to tell me there was a fault and I had been running for a good number of miles without charging the battery. I had seen the light come on dimly when starting the car each time but as it was a bright day hadn’t thought anything of it.

So at this point we were 10 miles from the lunch stop with a battery with an unknown quantity of charge, could we make it to the stop. We jumped started the car off a friendly passer by, and the engine ran so we tried to make it. It almost did, a 1/3 of a mile from the car park it lost all power, first the instrument panel went off and then the there was some spluttering as the fuel pumps lost power and pressure before it came to a halt with nothing available. Fortunately Tony had been following me from the petrol station and so between us we pushed the car over a small bridge and then left it on the grass in front of the church. Tony then went and took liz to the car park before coming back for me.

So I needed to call the RAC to get a recovery, first off it says use their app to log a call. The app claimed my car didn’t have a valid MOT (it was tested and passed by Tiger back in March this year) so I had to call in, eventually they answered so I told them where I was and they would get a patrol out in about an hour and a half. At this point it was 2:15 so around 3:45 they should get to me. Nothing else to do but leave the car - it wasn’t going anywhere and go and get some lunch.

The projected arrival time started going up to 4 then 5 and finally about 5:30 a van did arrive, now if they had got there earlier conceivably they could have got a new alternator and swapped it over but at 5:30 on a Saturday evening no chance. Rather than have me wait for a recovery truck which would have been another who knows hours to wait they deployed me on a towing dolly and took me home.

We finally arrived in Peterborough at 9:15 than evening and had the car unloaded and back in the garage at about 9:45.

Angus Grooby's Marlin
Picture: Giles Cooper

Tony Haggie's Morgan
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike Ramsdale's Locost
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Jim Danks' Tiger RS6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Tuck's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kevin Greeves' MK Indy
Picture: Giles Cooper

Steve Newman's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Adrian Spriggs' Tiger R10
Picture: Giles Cooper

Allan Griffin's Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kelvin Rogers' Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Chris Jones' Tiger Avon
Picture: Giles Cooper

Paul Browning's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Parked on Dunwich beach
Picture: Giles Cooper

9:15 Saturday Evening uploading the broken car
Picture: Giles Cooper

Kimbolton Sporting Bears by Giles Cooper

Well the weather in July has not been kind to events and I think this is partly to blame for the lack of turnout to some of them.

I had booked a 15 car slot for Kimbolton but could have booked something a lot smaller as in the end we only had 4 Tigers and a camper van parked on the club pitch. Maybe the weather put people off but who knows, I don’t think being double booked with the Parson Drove helped with the numbers so I hope that won’t happen again next year (especially as I would normally go to both shows) but anyway on with the write up.

The day started out dry and sunny for the relatively short drive down to Kimbolton it is only about 35 miles for me, but most of that 35 miles is on the A1 or the parkways in Peterborough so it doesn’t score highly on the exciting drive front. The last bit from the A1 through Perry and round Grafham Water usually makes up for it, and the whole journey it stayed dry and sunny. Getting in was easy as I had already paid the entry fee on-line and printed out the confirmation so it was merely a case of handing the printout over and finding the pitch.

As mentioned we were in a new location this year, and locating the parking area was relatively easy. I found it and parked up ready to unpack the usual quantity of stuff that we take to a show, Tiger catalogues, flags, application forms, chairs, kitchen sinks, full sets of encyclopaedias etc…

Now as much as it was dry it was also very windy, so as a result of this I did not put the club flag up, yes the club has liability insurance but in the wind I did not want to risk it coming down on someone or causing damage to cars (especially my own as that is the one which would be supporting the pole).

After a while both Mike Finch and Frank Thurston arrived in their Tigers, followed by Paul and Marion Browning. This completed the Tiger turnout but we also had Richard and Michelle Gaze in their VW Camper van.

It wasn’t the best turnout but it was better than one or two cars which could have been the case.

Next door to us was the East Anglian Kit Car Club, which again suffered with low turnout for the event. They had brought their own shelter which they put one of the side panels up for. The wind decided that was a silly idea and was blowing so much that all the lower fastenings were ripped out the fabric leaving a row of pegs with little loops in the grass.

There were also a few over shelters which people where hanging onto to prevent them blowing away - personally if that was the case then I would have pulled them down rather than risking damage.

There was a good range of cars that came to the show, anything from a 1920’s Riley to a ‘23’ plate Porsche, with certainly some unusual stuff as well.

The show ring as usual was holding events all day - I didn’t see them all but the ‘Wild West’ show was quite good with some impressive horsemanship on view.

Towards the end of the day the weather did get slightly worse, with the expected rain making an entrance and the wind getting up - causing even more problems with the shelters and awnings. At this point quite a few people tried to leave early causing problems for the organisers, a strange thing but the cars that leave first are always those with roofs and windows - maybe unlike kit cars they melt in the rain….

When it was time for me to leave it had almost stopped raining but less than a mile from Kimbolton on the way home the sun was out with no sign of any rain all the way back to Peterborough.

Frank Thurston's Tiger SSI
Picture: Giles Cooper

Mike FInch's Tiger Super 6
Picture: Giles Cooper

Giles Cooper's Tiger Cat
Picture: Giles Cooper

Paul Browning's Tiger R6
Picture: Giles Cooper

East Anglian Kit Car Club Stand
Picture: Giles Cooper

1930 Riley 9
Picture: Giles Cooper

Monochrome Mini
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rebodied MG Midget
Picture: Giles Cooper

Bike Engined Fiat 128
Picture: Giles Cooper

Why does a Mustang have lambo doors?
Picture: Giles Cooper

Corvette Stingray
Picture: Giles Cooper

Wild West display
Picture: Giles Cooper

Lotus Europa
Picture: Giles Cooper

Lotus Esprit
Picture: Giles Cooper

Porsche Boxster
Picture: Giles Cooper

Rover 100 (Metro) Convertible
Picture: Giles Cooper

VW 186
Picture: Giles Cooper

Panther De Ville
Picture: Giles Cooper

The poor sap spent 30 minutes holding down a shelter
Picture: Giles Cooper

Lincolnshire Run by Giles Cooper

This was a very unusual run out for the club, nobody broke down, or got lost, and the weather was warm dry and sunny all day!

However the above sentence doesn’t make for very interesting reading so I need to pad it out a bit.

We had planned the day by just using routing tools as we didn’t have the time to go and drive the route in advance. We did hit one problem the ‘lunch’ stop ended with us being booked in for 4PM - so less lunch more early dinner and to make up for that we inserted a stop at the Heckington windmill to break up the day.

The day started with meeting up at the Tiger factory, I arrived about 10:15 to find there were already a few cars arrived, after a while some more came until when we left there were 11 cars: myself, Adrian Spriggs, Tony Haggie, Peter Hinton, Jim Danks, Mike Ramsdale, Angus Grooby, Kev Greeves, Richard Gaze, Steve Newman and Griff. We all set off at approximately the correct time (well within 15 minutes which is quite good actually), and we set off on the first part.

Before getting stuck in traffic for a few minutes before we got out of Wisbech. Whilst in the queue some idiot on the other side of the road, drove down it at 5 mph videoing all the cars with a mobile phone resting on top of their steering wheel. Not really very sensible was it. We got out of Wisbech and then got caught in a lot more traffic on the A17, but this is normally a traffic black stop so it didn’t really make a difference to the timings.

When we arrived at Heckington windmill we got parked and then found the cafe for some refuelling (as lunch wasn’t going to be for another 4 hours), during this time Ady’s daughter and grandson arrived which resulted in someone getting stuck on a child sized slide…

We then had a wander round the windmill and a chat before saying goodbye to Jim as he needed to go home and look after the dog as in his own words “All my neighbours have gone away when they know I need a dog sitter”

After we left the windmill it was a short (35 minute) drive to the lunch stop which we arrived at about 3:15 - a word with the management and we actually got seated about 10 minutes later as they had enough room to accommodate us.

After a good early dinner we carried on with the last section of the run going back towards Grantham and then Peterborough. I was running close to the back with just Peter and Jenny behind me, and at one point we all approached a junction virtually together, everyone else got through until it got to me where this previously empty road had 4 cars appear on it and a couple of minute wait meant everyone else had disappeared out of sight. Ah well I had the route on the satnav so the two of us continued on until Peter and Jenny left me on the A1 so I continued on the way home.

In the original plan for the day there had been a stop at the A1 Grantham services but after finding the time for lunch we dropped that route. So I was on my own heading through Grantham and then heading down the B1167 to Corby Glen, sunny afternoon, dry roads what more do you need.

I went through Bourne, and past the Deepings before getting home, now unknown to me the others had stopped at the new services outside Market Deeping and all watched me drive past as I headed home - I didn’t know they were going to stop and I was only 5 minutes away.