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| My 1969 VW microbus all washed and polished and parked up at the Brill Classic Car show. When I first started attending this show my bus was the only Volkswagen at the show, today there is more like 7/8 VW's including bugs and buses. |
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| Our small convoy parked up. Matthew's blue '69 SO42 Westy and CJ's '76 late bay. Matthew's bay actually came over from California in the same container as my bus about 6/7 years ago. |
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| A gorgeous sunny day, a great location and good friends, and a trio of lovely Volkswagen buses, what else do you need? |
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| Once parked up and while the kettle was boiling, Matthew made some adjustments on his 'Swamp Cooler' type air conditioning unit and I'm not jealous at all as these are quite rare over here in the U.K. |
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| Matthew's partner Caroline had the right idea, just sit down and relax in the sunshine while the boys get their buses ready for the public to view. |
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| This great little show attracts many U.S classic cars and trucks including this awesome 1960 Cadillac Eldorado. This car was huge, this 2 door convertible was over 17 feet long and around 7 feet wide, so driving this immaculate vehicle on the narrow U.K. roads must be terrifying ! |
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| This car was perfectly straight and this photo shows. Those gorgeous tail fins and rear light clusters give this car a futuristic look. It must have been fantastic living in the U.S in the fifties / sixties with all their fantastic looking vehicles. |
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| The interior of the Caddy was, well bright red vinyl. This was the classic look for interiors in both U.S and U.K cars of the time. You can imagine cruising down the freeway listening to cool fifties music in this beauty. |
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| Another U.S classic was this Pontiac Chieftain 2 door deluxe sedan ( I think). This was another immaculate car finished in white with a light green roof. This car oozed chrome detailing that sparkled in the sunshine. |
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| This really was a lovely looking car, I loved the spare wheel mounted on the bumper and housed in that chrome cover. You wouldn't want to rear end this car as that chromed rear bumper was massive and would probably write your car off. |
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| The interior of the Chieftain was a little more reserved than the Cadillac above. Finished in the same colour green as the roof, this looked a nice place to relax and cruise the highway. |
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| Our contribution to the classic car show. There were more Volkswagens that arrived later in the day, which feature later... This was taken shortly after we arrived which is why the show field looks somewhat empty. |
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| CJ has finally got his new 356 replica wheels on his bus and the shiny new hubcaps give a good reflection of Matthew's Westy, even though it does make it look like it has been shortened. |
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| Later in the day, as the show field filled up with various classic vehicles, I spotted this immaculate 1988 MK1 Golf GTI 16v. This lovely car was like new and 100% original. In fact the only thing new is the tailgate that Volkswagen replaced under warranty due to well known rust issues. |
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| This lovely Golf started life as a company car for a advertising executive who worked for Saatchi and Saatchi. The present owner (only the 3rd owner) purchased the car in 2015 and the car only had 67,000 mile on the clock. This car is so original it still has the original Blaupunkt stereo cassette fitted. The current mileage is 69,500 with an average of just 2,500 mile a year. |
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| This AC Cobra caught my eye, I'm not sure if this an original AC or not as there are many reproductions out there, but it did look original and very well finished. |
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| The badges on the body stated that this was the 427 cubic inch motor, and I have no reason to doubt that. All that power in such a lightweight body, this must have quick. |
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| A bit later in the morning more camper vans arrived. I have seen this bright mauve early bay several times at the show but have never managed to track down the owner to find out about his bus. |
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| Another bus was this Dormoblie which is a local bus to us. It is a 'work in progress' (albeit slowly!) but it's on the road and that's the main thing. |
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| The interior has some way to go, but the sound deadening felt is down so that's a start! |
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| Eddie came along in his lovely clean high top T25. This lovely bus has all the whistles and bells including full camping interior with gas heating. |
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| This great 2 day show attracts many classic cars from all years and manufacturers. It's great to chat to the owners of these classics, as they are all so passionate about their cars. |
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| Like us, the Triumph TR4 owners had brought along some of their cars. These lovely 2 door sports cars were produced from 1961 - 1965. They had a 2138cc engine with a 4 speed manual gearbox |
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| This 1967 silver blue E-Type 2 door roadster was one of my favourites at the show.This series one model had obviously been restored as it was immaculate in every way. This had the 4.2 litre engine that produced 265 BHP that gave the 0-60 speed figure of 6.5 seconds and a top speed of around 150 MPH. |
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| The E-Type has to be one of the prettiest cars ever designed and built, in fact upon its launch in 1961 Enzo Ferrari called the E-Type the car the most beautiful car that has ever been made. |
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| The interior of the series 1, which must be such a lovely place to sit, with its black leather and vinyl seats and dash, and that huge array of clocks and the wood rimmed steering wheel. |
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| This ultra rare MK11 Ford Zephyr Abbott estate grabbed my attention due to its rarity. I think I have only seen one other of these, and that was an Australian version with a straight 'C' pillar rather than this curved pillar. This was built by Abbott's a U.K company in the fifties who also created conversions for the likes of Bently, and Sunbeam- Talbot amongst others. |
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| This car really was immaculate as you can see. The curved 'C' post pillar can also be clearly seen. The Australian estates, or station wagons as they called them also had wind down rear windows. |
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| This is a car from my youth that brought back fond memories, its a 1973 Ford Escort 1600GT Mexico in the red and white colour scheme. This was one of the cars that I longed for as a spotty teenager having just passed my driving test, although I never managed to have one. |
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| The Mexico's biggest achievement was winning the 1970 London to Mexico world cup rally co- driven by Hannu Mikkola. These road versions of their winning car were produced in tribute to their fantastic achievement. They had the 1598cc cross flow engine. |
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| This lovely old 1929 Morris Cowley Dome Head Coupe is a regular at this great two day show. The coupe had a 11HP 4 cylinder engine that gave a top speed of 52 MPH. |
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| This car when new would have cost £180 (that's around $240 U.S.) and gave the owner about 28 MPG. It amazes me how the owners of these really old original classic cars actually manage to keep these cars on the road, I mean where would you find spare parts for this ?? |
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| This Westfield is a replica of the famous Lotus X1. Westfield started producing these glass fibre boding kit cars in 1982 and are still making them today. |
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| This really is a lovely kit car. This was a very well built kit car with plenty of attention to detail. The paint finish is, as you can see in this photo simply amazing. |
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| The interior is finished in contrasting red vinyl, and looks quite snug. The authentic Lotus steering wheel was nice. I didn't manage to find out what engine this had but it could have had a Lotus engine..? |
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| This very old Riley is another rare car. I'm not sure what model this is, possibly a Brooklands? Anyway it looked to be totally original and complete. This car is circa 1930. |
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| The interior is sparse and void of any comfort to talk about. The lightweight alloy dash and floor are basic necessities and the huge steering wheel should make turning corners easier. |
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| This lovely white 1983 all white T25 looked to be a very clean honest bus. The white wall tyres were a nice touch that suited the bus. |
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| This standard Ford Popular 103E caught my eye as I had one of these although mine was far from standard. My Pop had a Rover V8 engine, with a Jaguar rear axle and painted in bright two tone pink! (you can check out my Ford Pop in the Blog Archive, under November 2013) Anyway back to this beauty, The Popular's were produced from 1953 - 1959 and they had the 1172CC Ford side valve engine which gave a top speed of 60 MPH and a 0-50 time of 24 seconds. |
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| These Pop's have always been, and still are the U.K. rodders favourite car to customise. |
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| There is always a vast array of classic cars from many manufacturers and many different years at this great show. |
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| This lovely MK1 Ford Zephyr, or Zephyr six as it should be called was so clean it looked like new. The MK1 Zephyr was produced from 1951 - 1956 but I doubt they ever looked this nice. |
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| The Zephyr had a 2262cc (138 cubic inch) six cylinder engine with a column change gearbox. It had a top speed of 80 MPH and a 0 - 60 time of 20 seconds, while this doesn't sound very impressive in 1953 the Zephyr won the Monte Carlo Rallye, after pushing a Jaguar MkV11 into second place. The Zephyr Six also won the East African Rally in 1955. |
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| This stunning 1969 Aston Martin MK1 (I think) DB6 Vantage was immaculate. The MK1 was produced from 1965 - 1970. The Vantage models had the same engine as the standard DB6, a 3995cc (244 cubic inch) twin overhead cam in line 6 cylinder engine but produced 325BHP compared to the smaller 282BHP. |
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| This lovely British classic, had the performance that would still hold its own even today. The top speed was 150 MPH and it had a 0 - 60 speed of just over 8 seconds. |
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| This great show gets bigger year by year and with so much to do and see for all the family it really is a good day out. |
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| If you like rare cars, you'll love this. It's a Triumph Italia 2000, This car is based on a TR3 chassis and running gear and designed by Michelotti who worked for Vignale. Although this is a very pretty car, production was limited due to the price £1430 compared to the cost of a Triumph TR3A £800. |
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| In addition to the high cost, customers were also asked to sign a form saying that they are aware that no spare body panels would be available outside Italy, not the ideal way to promote your car! Consequently only 329 were ever made and this one is No. 316, It is believed that only 130 still exist in various states of repair. |
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| This show always has a fantastic display of U.K. European and U.S classic cars, some of which are as rare as chickens teeth! I wasn't trying a new photo effect on this photo, it is actually... |
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| ...the fantastic reflection in the bonnet of this early 1970's Magenta coloured Triumph Stag. This 2+2 sports tourer was produced from 1970 - 1978 and had the 3.0 litre V8 engine which was reputed to be the best tuned V8 back in the day. So that was the first of two reviews all about the Brill Classic Car Show 2017. Next weeks review will be part two where you can see, plenty more classic vehicles including a lovely Porsche 356, plenty more U.S. classics including some lovely hot rods from the the 'Aylesbury Vale Rods and Customs' club and so much more, so be sure to come back next Saturday. |
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