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| Claude's '58 low light and my '69 bay parked up and ready to leave for a very short cruise over to the Chiltern Hills car show. Claude also owns a lovely 1960 split screen kombi. |
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| Claude led our mini convoy out of my estate so I could get a photo of the low light driving on the street. At the end of the road, Claude allowed me to pass so I could lead the way. |
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| En-route to the show we had to stop at a red light, so I glanced in my rear view mirror and thought I had lost Claude. After a few seconds I noticed I could just see the top of the Ghia's roof at the bottom of my rear window. You can see how low this Karmann is by the height of the car behind Claude. |
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| After about 10 minutes we arrived at the show field, where Claude had to slowly navigate the smoothest route over the bumpy field to the show and shine line up. |
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| My 1969 VW Microbus parked up at Chiltern Hills classic car show. I'm so glad I chose the velvet green colour when my bus was recently repainted, as I think the colour gives the bus an 'old' look. |
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| Claude's 1958 low light Karmann Ghia parked up at the Chiltern Hills car show. Believe it or not but Claude has recently raised the ride height of his ghia due to it being to impracticable for use on the rubbish uneven British roads. |
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| Claude and I are parked up on a lovely sunny Sunday morning. The show looks a bit empty at the moment, but we did get there early. The show field soon filled up with every conceivable classic car you can imagine including many other air-cooled Volkswagen's. |
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| This lovely 1969 metallic green early bay arrived shortly after Claude and I, and parked close to us. This looked very similar to mine, with it's green body, white roof and bumpers and sitting at about the same height.. but that's where the similarity stopped. |
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| Whilst I was looking around this lovely clean bus I noticed the fuel filler cap was in an unusual place, and that there wasn't any air vents, that got me somewhat confused... |
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| The engine lid was open so I had a look to see what engine this bus had, which would maybe explain as to the fuel filler cap location and the lack of air vents. I was surprised when I looked inside as the engine bay was now a boot with no sign of any engine. Now I'm really confused. |
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| Looking inside this bus, the interior looked very nice, but something was puzzling me, the floor seemed to be higher than normal. |
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| Looking into the cab area, again it was finished to a very high standard, and the mini DVD player was playing the movie 'Hot Rod' (one of my favourite movies) but there still wasn't any sign of an engine... then I spotted a magazine the owner had left out with an article about his bus. This very trick bus has a 2.0 litre Toyota water cooled engine mounted under the cab and access is via under the passenger seat |
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| This is a photo from the magazine showing the 2.0 litre engine in situ. It sure is a tight fit! This photo is looking through the passenger door with the passenger seat tilted back. |
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| This lovely white 1966 beetle is a car I often see around and every time I see it I think how good it looks. It really does look nice and solid and pretty much original. |
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| The original look really suited this old bug. I do like the U.S. style chrome towel rail bumpers and stock wheels. |
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| This satin black 1968 bug was anything but original but still looked really cool. This lowered bug had a narrowed front beam and was running on red painted steel wheels. |
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| The old '68 looked tough with it's satin black body and colour matched bumpers. I did like the all red U.S. style rear light lenses that suited the overall look of this car. |
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| This 1970 U.S. imported early bay looked amazing with it's baby blue paint and super straight body. This really was a nice straight bus, and the alloy side step looked good against the blue paint. |
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| The polished Radar wheels were a great choice of wheel to compliment the overall look of this lovely bay. |
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| One car to catch my eye was this gorgeous dark blue 1968 MK1 Jenson Interceptor. These cars were hand built in West Bromwich, near Birmingham between 1966 - 1976. They had the Chrysler 383 cubic inch (6276cc) V8 so they not only look gorgeous they also go well. I do like these cars and when my numbers come up on the lottery... |
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| There is always a very good display of various military vehicles at Chiltern Hills, and this year was no different. This pair of Willys jeeps, (complete with props) were just a few of military vehicles that attended the show this year. |
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| This Ford C800 fire pumper was massive. This real fire truck is from the Flemington Fire Brigade in the state of New Jersey, U.S.A. and this actual truck attended the 911 tragedy along with many others. It has also been seen in the film 'Dark Shadows' starring Jonny Depp. |
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| This stunning series 3 1959 Ford truck looked great in it's all white paint scheme. The quad headlights were introduced by Ford in 1968 replacing the old duel headlights. In 1969 the body also changed and had integrated cab and front fenders and the clam shell bonnet design. |
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| The interior of this lovely old truck looked to be original, it was very basic but functional. There wasn't too many mod cons available back in '69. |
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| These old Ford trucks do look nice and they are so versatile and can haul heavy loads with it's 292 cubic inch V8 engine. Another design change in '69 was the integration of the pick up bed and body, this one has ( I think) the 'styleside' body as opposed to the Flareside. |
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| This ready to race 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass looked tough with it's themed livery. I did like the bronze coloured steel wheels and the 400 cubic inch motor nestled under the hood. |
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| These are tough looking cars when they are stock but add the paint job and painted wheels ans they they look super tough. |
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| The gorgeous interior of a 1960's American muscle car, it really doesn't get much better than this for classic styling. |
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| A gorgeous 1961 Ford Galaxie finished in a lovely grey colour. The 1961 model had a revised body from the earlier models. This one has also been lowered and looks great. |
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| One of the most attractive features on this car, in my opinion are those lovely 'pie plate' round tail lights, they just look like something out of the Jetsons cartoons. |
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| This stunning jet black 1956 F100 truck was was immaculate. The 1956 model is easily identified by it's vertical windsheild pillars which were a one year only body modification. |
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| Another 1956 body change was the introduction of a wrap round back window. This one has got a flat rear window so I'm guessing it's an early '56. This really was a lovely looking truck. |
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| This immaculate 1975 beetle was so clean it looked as though it had just driven out of the showroom. This really was an amazingly clean and original car. |
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| Every inch of this car was like new. The engine was also like new and so clean, and with no oil leaks! How much effort must it take to keep this 41 year old car in such nice condition?? |
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| A friend of mine and a fellow Outcast VW Club member Colin, attended the show in his 1970 imported early bay. Colin's bay is recognisable by the black and white chequered painted roof and truck style mirrors. |
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| This lovely old bay is Colin's daily driver come rain or shine and goes to prove you can drive these early Volkswagen's on a daily basis. |
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| The interior of Colin's early bay is cool and he has a great collection of U.S. licence plates. |
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| This bright yellow MK1 Ford Popular certainly caught my eye in the bright sunshine. The 100e was produced from 1959 - 1962 and over 126,115 were produced, although they didn't look this nice. |
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| This Deluxe model has bright fresh paint and super shiny chrome wheels that helped this little Ford stand out in the crowd. |
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| This lovely metallic blue 1987 type 3 T25 was a gorgeous example of this sought after vehicle. These T25's are really nice and very versatile and a great alternative to a bay or split screen. |
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| This bus was so clean and straight, and T25's in this condition are selling for good money, not that I'd imagine the owner would ever sell this. |
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| This 1968 Aston Martin DB6 saloon was simply stunning. This one had the 4 cylinder 282bhp engine with a double overhead camshaft, and a 5 speed ZF manual gearbox and those sexy chrome wire wheels with knock off centre caps. |
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| The DB6 had an Aluminium body shell which was much lighter than steel and therefore this car could reach a top speed of 145 mph, with a 0 - 60 time of just 6.3 seconds which 48 years ago was almost supersonic. The initials DB actually stand for David Brown, a tractor manufacturer who bought the company in 1947. |
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| A glorious sunny Sunday looking along a line of American classic cars at the Chiltern Hills classic car show, what could be better. |
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| This lovely 1959 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner was a show stopper it was that clean. The Skyliner has a retractable hardtop which was unique to Ford at the time. The 500 Skyliner is huge and has a wheelbase of 17.5 feet that's excluding those massive chrome bumpers. |
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| This lovely Ford looked stunning in the white over pastel yellow paint scheme. I wouldn't fancy driving this around on the U.K.'s narrow roads as it's so big, it's really designed for the huge arrow straight U.S. freeways. So that was part one of this fantastic car show. Next weeks blog will be part 2 where you can see plenty more cool V-dubs along with some American classics and some real true British classic cars, so be sure to come back next Saturday. |
