Saturday 16 December 2017

Brill Classic Car Show 2017 (part 2 of 2)

This weeks blog is the second instalment of a two part review all about the 14th annual 'Brill Festival 2017' which included a classic car meeting. The village of Brill is nestled deep in the Buckinghamshire countryside and only a short distance from the Oxfordshire border. Brill village is only about 15 miles from my hometown, so for me its a nice local show. I have attended this show for the past 5 years and it's always been a good little show that gets better every year. Brill is probably most famous for it's windmill that has timbers dating back to 1685, and it has just undergone a full restoration. The Brill festival is a two day event that was this year held over the weekend of 26th - 27th August and featured a beer festival, a food fair, classic car show, and there is also plenty for the children to do and see. There was also live music from 'Cool Beans' and 'Inter 50's' in the marquee on both evenings. The classic car show, on the Sunday always attracts a vast array of old classic cars, from the U.K., Europe and the U.S. and there is even the odd Volkswagen or two. As with most weekends in the U.K there are numerous events to go to and as most of my friends were at other (VW related) shows, I had arranged to meet with a few of my good friends Matthew and Caroline and CJ. to head over to this show in a small campervan convoy. The blog continues as I wander around this great little show.
To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of this page. Simply click on an arrow for a particular year, then click on an arrow for a particular month, this will then give you a drop down menu for all the blog entries for that month.


John attended the show in his super clean 1973
mango and white Westfalia late bay. John is a 
member of the Aylesbury Vale Rods and Customs 
Club (find them on facebook). I do like all the nice
accessories John has on his bus including the
sun visor and the twin roof racks. The chrome
Empi 5 spoke wheels compliment the mango
colour perfectly.

When John got this bus back in 2016 the first
thing John done was rip out the tired interior and
replaced it with a new better equipped interior.
The bus then underwent an half respray and had
the deluxe trim fitted by a local VW garage, 'Oil

Droppers' who also sorted out and tuned the 
1600cc motor to get it running as it should..

This 1969 Ferrari 365GTB/4 is a rare 2 seater 
grand tourer produced from 1968 - 1973.
Ferrari only produced around 1500 of these
4930cc, 4.4 litre V12 super cars. Most people
call this car the 'Daytona' everyone that is except
 Ferrari who don't recognise its an unofficial name.

This gorgeous car has a top speed of around
175 MPH and a 0 - 60 time of 5.5 seconds.
This 365 is probably worth in excess of £800,000.

This stunning sky blue 1964 Porsche 356C
coupe was immaculate and looked to be 100%
original. This RHD coupe had the black leatherette
interior and Michelin tyres just as it left the factory.

This gorgeous 1960 Plymouth Belvedere looked
fantastic in the sunshine with its pastel green and
white body colours. This car was massive and
those wild tail fins make this car look even bigger.

You can see what I mean about those tail fins..!
The fourth generation of Belvedere's (which this
model is) were produced from1960 - 1961. There
were 4 different body styles and numerous engine
sizes, but all were V8's.

This lovely restored 1951 MG TD was just like
new. The 1250cc engine had been rebuilt and
balanced and fitted with a new big valve unleaded
head. This car has been with the same owner
since 1963, and the restoration started in 1981
and was completed 17 years later in 1998.

This MK3 metallic brown MK3 Ford Cortina is
a car close to my heart as I had one of these
many years ago. My 'Tina' was nowhere near as
clean as this 2000L GXL, this car had obviously
been restored as it was immaculate.

The interior looked to be 100% original. The
dashboard with those sloping clocks brought back
many good memories. I would love another of
these MK3's but the price they go for is crazy.

The MK3 has such a lovely body shape and is
pure 1970's styling. The MK3 was produced
from 1970 - 1976... right I'm off to look on E-Bay
for a cheap MK3 !

Another member of the Aylesbury Vale Rods and
Customs crew was Dave, who owns this lovely
fender less chopped and channelled 1932, 3
window coupe finished in bright red.

Dave's '32 has the traditional hot rod stance,
nose in the weeds and higher rear with big and
little wheels / tyres. Dave's Coupe has a 283
cubic inch motor mated to a TH 350 gearbox.

The classic look of a '32 Ford. These '32's really
are gorgeous looking cars. The custom rear lights
with blue dots are true hot rod as is that ultra cool

pinstriping.

To be a true hot you have to loose the bonnet, as
Dave has done. The chromed front 'I' beam and
the chrome shocks look just right.

This awesome looking Model 'A' sedan belongs
to a mate of mine, Mike, who I hadn't seen since
I left the hot rod scene many years ago. This
gorgeous rod has been chopped and lowered
and painted in that wild green colour with the
traditional flamed sides.

Mikes model 'A' is immaculate and no expense
has been spared to get it looking this nice. Those
chrome custom wheels looked great against that
green colour.

Underneath the 'A' is just as clean as the rest of
this car. The rear axle isn't the usual Jag axle
a lot of rodders go for, its a 245 Volvo live rear
axle, and not only does this look nice and tidy
but it's also strong.The polished diff cover adds
just enough bling under the car.

The lovely custom interior was as you expect
just as detailed as the rest of the car. I did like
the 3 spoke steering wheel and the pinstriping
on the dash. The door cards and seats were
traditional hot rod, black vinyl tuck and roll.

Power for this rod comes via a detailed 3500cc
Rover V8 engine that produces 200 BHP which
is mated to a Borg Warner automatic gearbox,

and Mike assures me he has the fastest car in
the valley !

In the Aylesbury Vale Rods and Customs line
up were two 1955 Chevrolet's. I'm not sure if
they were actually part of the club or not. I didn't
manage to chat to the owners, who I believe were
brothers which is a shame as the '55 is a firm
favourite of mine.

This deep purple '55 was so straight as you can
clearly see an almost perfect reflection of Mike's
model 'A' down the side. 

A close up of the deep purple paint that looks
almost black, until the sun shines.

I'm not sure the interior is original but it does
look so nice.

The second of the '55's was this Onxy black one.
I do a little bit about this one.. It was built in the
Tarrytown plant in New York, as its believed to
have lived most of its life in Maryland until 2014
when the new owner shipped it to the U.K. We
think both the 55's have the same running gear,
a 350 cubic inch engine and a 4 speed manual
gearbox. 

Aylesbury Vale Rods and Customs at the Brill
Classic Car Show 2017. It would be nice to see

more hot rods attend these classic car shows.

Whilst relaxing behind the buses, Matthew just
happened to mention to CJ that he had a problem
with something on his bus.. quick as a flash CJ
was down on his hands and knees trying to sort the
problem out, or at least give advise... in between
his text messages!

I dd mean to take a picture of this 1947 Alvis
TA14 that was parked next to my bus, but it
seemed the camera liked my bus more!

My 1969 VW Microbus for no other reason than
I needed to fill the blog up as this is a shorter than
normal blog entry.

Just a fun sign that I normally put in the windscreen
of my bus at shows. Its meant to be humorous but
with a serious meaning !

The Brill Classic Car show in all its glory. You can
just make out our buses in the centre of the photo.

This 1956 BSA C10L looked to be original.
These bikes were designed for commuting to
work for those who couldn't afford a car back in
the day. They had a 250cc side valve engine,
4 speed gearbox and 6 volt electrics.

A gorgeous sunny day and a field crammed full
of rare and exotic classic cars / bikes. As I took
this photo I wondered how much all the vehicles
at the show were worth, it must have been a
huge eye watering  figure

This lovely brown and beige 1940's Chevrolet
coupe was gorgeous. I'm not sure what model
this one is but it didn't really matter as it was just
so nice.

As I not sure of the model of this coupe, there
isn't much I can say about it, except that I just
love the shape of these 1940's coupe's.

As the day went on we all got hungry so Matthew
and Caroline went to get some food. Caroline
came back with this chocolate filled kebab from

one of the specialist food vendors at the show.
 It was full of dark, milk and white chocolate, but
didn't taste that nice apparently and it had so
many calories you could easily overdose!

As we were getting ready to leave the show, one
of my window stickers was creating a perfect
reflection on my seat so I had to take a photo.


So that was my 2 part review of the Brill Classic
Car Show 2017. Overall another great day out
with some great friends. It was good to see so
many classic cars / bikes / trucks and not 
forgetting the hot rods. If you haven't been to
this show I strongly suggest you try to get there
next year as you won't be disappointed. My last
photo of the Wolfsburg Bus Crew sticker is quite
apt, as next weeks blog will be all about the
Wolfsburg Bus Crew's Birthday Bash at the Ace 
Cafe London so be sure to come back next Saturday.

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