Car Shows Captured by Camera Phone
Car Shows Captured by Camera Phone
Report by David Harbey
There’s not a lot of motorsport / car related things to do at this time of the year. The odd race meeting or rally aside, there tends to be “gatherings”.
The Brooklands New Year’s Day attracts large numbers of cars and enthusiasts and also provides the chance to see the Museum. Closer to home, for those of us in Milton Keynes, is Stony Stratford New Year’s Day Vintage Car and Motorcycle meeting, or Vintage Stony, for short.
It’s been running for 10 years and supports the local Willen Hospice. We have done Brooklands in the past but fancied somewhere just up the road. DSLRs were left at home, but Andrew was using his Xperia 10.
As such, his photos represent what he was interested in – there was a huge selection of vehicles of all ages, conditions and provenance. Italian cars were to the fore to start with – an Alfa 155 V6 and a Delta integrale.
As a child of the Gran Turismo generation, the evo and Suzuki Cappuccino (with Daihatsu Copen hiding behind) were attractions for Andrew. It’s hard to get a clean shot of the cars which are parked up in every available space in the High Street and Coleridge Close
Elans of two eras – a sixties Sprint in Gold Leaf colours and an M100 of the nineties – were spotted
As we walked up the High Street, I’d noticed a late arriving car – an Alpine A310 in that gorgeous blue. A comparative rarity in the UK, it achieved considerable success in French motorsport including winning the French Rally Championship in 1977. As we started to talk to the owner, we both realised we knew each other !
Tony and I had both worked for NatWest and were members of the NatWest Bank Motoring Club many years ago. Having previously owned an Alpine A110, Tony had imported his A310 from France recently. It’s a working car with real patina.
If you are interested in either Vintage Stony or the summer sister event Classic Stony, details are here - https://vintagestony.co.uk
and here https://classicstony.co.uk
All in all, a pleasant New Year’s Day walk in Stony Stratford.
Move on a few days and we get to the first Sunday Scramble of the year at Bicester Heritage. The former WW2 airfield is being developed as a focal point for a wide range of motoring and motorsport related activities.
The Sunday Scrambles happen three times a year and have become so popular that attendee numbers have been capped (Andrew’s late availability meant that he was too late to get a ticket to come with me).
I arrived as the event opened at 08.30 with grey skies and light mizzle in the air which never really went away. Deciding to leave the DSLR in the car – it was the iPhone SE for me. I was intrigued by the GT86 I queued behind, resplendent as it was in “dirty” Castrol Toyota Supra livery. Saves washing it, I suppose !
There were loads of cars – from Austin Maxi to Maserati Merak and everything in between ! My photos are simply a collection of what caught my attention, or reminded me of cars owned in the past. Hence – the following shots of Mk2 Golf GTI 16V. Ours was a black F reg on the standard wheels – a sort of amalgam of these two.
I always wanted an Alfasud but could never bring myself to the potential running costs. This one looked in fine fettle with a notable car next to it – the BMW 2002 turbo – complete with correct reversed script on the spoiler.
Continuing the family theme, my brother has a Lancia Fulvia Zagato tucked away in his garage – this is a Series One.
Continuing with the Italian theme, in the same building as the Lancia, was this classic Alfa – a Montreal while Rob Farley’s Alfa is a regular at Scrambles. Love those wheels !
There were also some (relatively) moderns – the Honda NSX.
A fabulous Ferrari 308GTB and an F40 both attracted attention
From Germany – the BMW 3.0 CSL (which we had seen at Stony on New Year’s Day), an Alpina B12 based on the 850 and a close up of those famous M Sport colours (which I have only recently realised are very similar to the Martini colours …).
It seems that the “dirty” look is catching – spotted this Porsche near the end of the morning.
Finally, some good advice !
Given the number of people wandering round with cameras of all shapes and sizes, there will be plenty more photos posted online in coming days. There you will see a much wider range of vehicles, than my set here. Given that I was using the phone, I am reasonably happy with the images here – they have had a little light cropping and editing in Polarr.
You can find out more about Bicester Heritage and the next Sunday Scramble on April 26th here - https://bicesterheritage.co.uk
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