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| My 1969 microbus parked up at the Brill village classic car show. I have been attending this local show for the past 4/5 years and although there aren't too many VW's that normally attend it is still a great little show. |
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| Considering I haven't had time to wash the bus for a few weeks, she still looks good. |
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| Looking back at the early arrivals in the show and shine. The show did have many more participants later in the day. My bus has some good company. |
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| The village of Brill is situated on top of a hill, and this provides fantastic views of the flat Buckinghamshire / Oxfordshire countryside. |
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| This gorgeous Armstrong Siddeley really was immaculate. Armstrong Siddeley were a British Engineering group that produced cars from 1919 - 1960. |
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| I'm not sure what model this lovely car is, but I was chatting to the owner and I said how do deal with any rust issues? He said that the bonnet was made from industrial aluminium and the chassis was made from steel girders, so it's not going to rust in a hurry !. |
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| This lovely British classic 1971 series 2 (1968 -1971) E-Type Jaguar was stunning. The series 2 had no glass in the headlight recesses but did have wrap round chrome bumpers. |
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| The E-Type has an instantly recognisable shape that even Enzo Ferrari, when he first saw it, commented on how beautiful it was. This one has the V12 engine with a manual gearbox. |
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| The interior of the E-Type has a classic timeless look about it. |
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| This lovely blue and white MK2 1959 ford zodiac caught my eye. I do like these old Fords. This looked to be pretty much original and so much better for it. |
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| The Mk2's had a straight six engine with a 3 speed gearbox with optional overdrive. This lovely car was up for sale for £7000. ($9100) |
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| This 1977 Lotus Elite stood out, not for the fact that is was painted in Ferrari red, but because it was so clean. The elite proceeded the Elan and they had a 2.0 litre engine that produced a very reasonable 155 BHP. |
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| This Plymouth Belvedere circa 1960. This huge American classic looked amazing in it's cool turquoise and white paint scheme which suited the car so well. |
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| The interior was pure nostalgia and as I looked inside I could hear almost Danny and the Juniors singing 'At the hop' in my head. |
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| This car really was huge but it was also stylish, those tail fins were a work of art. |
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| All the Belvedere models had various sizes of V8 engine, ranging from 3.8 litre to 5.7 litre with either 2 or 3 speed auto box. |
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| This 1948 Pontiac Streamliner Sedan Coupe looked fantastic. This one had the straight 8 cylinder engine, nicknamed the Silver Streak. |
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| I think the rear end of the lovely old '48 looks great. |
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| This U.S import had some real patina, that really suited the cars overall look. Lets just hope the owner never decides to paint this classic. |
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| The owner was saying that because the in line straight 8 engine produces so much torque, you can leave it in second gear around town and only put it into 4th gear on motorways. |
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| This 1929 Morris Cowley dome head coupe is quite rare. The engine was a whopping 11.9HP 4 cylinder with a top speed of 52MPH. |
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| The performance doesn't seem a lot compared to today's standards, but back in the 1920's it was quite impressive. This car would have cost you £180 new, and you would have got 28MPG. From this angle the old Morris looks very similar to a 1929 Ford Model A 5 window coupe. |
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| This dinky 1981 Mini Moke was produced by a subsidiary of British Leyland, Leyland Australia from 1966 - 1981. The Moke is based on the Leyland Mini. The Australian Moke's, nicknamed the 'Californian' had the 13 inch wheels as opposed to the 10 inch wheels that the British Mokes had. |
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| This 1956 series one land rover wasn't in a concourse condition, but it was all original. The Land Rover was designed by Maurice Wilks after he drove a Willys Jeep. |
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| The Land Rover was originally designed for farm and light industrial use, which is why the interior is so sparse. The interior design hasn't changed much over the years. |
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| The 'Landy' has a steel box chassis and an aluminium body, and Land Rover have claimed that 70% of vehicles that were built are still on the road today. Now that is very impressive! |
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| This 1965 Mustang looked awesome in it's grey / green colour. This beast had the 289 cubic inch motor with a 4 barrel carb and those great looking American Racing wheels. |
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| This car was not only immaculate, but also very straight. The paint was flawless and the chrome shone like new. This really was a lovely looking American classic. |
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| This stunning jet black Ford Zephyr six looked amazing. The Zephyr six was produced from 1951 - 1956 and had the 2262 cc six cylinder engine with a 3 speed gearbox with column change. |
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| This amazingly straight and solid car is capable of a top speed of 82 MPH. In 1953 a Zephyr six won the Monte Carlo Rally beating a Jaguar. |
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| The thing I like about classic car shows is the great diversity of vehicles you get to see. Here a 1960's Rover 100 and a MK1 Ford Escort Mexico are parked up together. I notice Boobie, my gorgeous dog, had to get in on the photo! |
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| This is a true British classic (in my humble opinion anyway) It's a MK1 Ford Escort Mexico. These Mexico's were produced in honour of victory in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally. |
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| The Mexico had the 1598cc cross flow engine and the distinctive body stripes and the front quarter bumpers. This old Mexico looked like new and really stood out in the Brill display |
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| Another great mix of classic cars at the show. Here an MG T series (I think) circa 1940's is parked next to a lovely 1972 Triumph TR6. |
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| I have to admit, I'm not an MG expert but I think this is part of the 'T' series of MG's. What ever model it was, it was extremely clean and complete. |
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| The interior of this lovely old MG was the height of luxury back in the day. That wooden dashboard, which is probably Walnut or Oak or some other expensive wood, looked fantastic. |
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| This gorgeous purple 1972 Triumph TR6 was totally immaculate. The TR6 was my dream car when I was a kid, and I have to admit I still like them today. |
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| Triumph produced these lovely 2.5 litre six cylinder sports cars from 1968 - 1976 and the body styling with the squared off front and rear ends was supposedly a design feature involving Karmann. |
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| The TR6 had the 2.5 litre engine with a 4 speed manual gearbox with an optional overdrive which could accelerate the car from 0 - 60 in 8.2 seconds, with a top speed of 120 MPH which back in the day was very impressive. |
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| This massive 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville in a lovely dark turquoise overshadowed almost every other vehicle at the show due to it's size. |
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| When you have a massive body with tons of chrome, you need a big engine to pull the car along and this Caddy had the 390 cubic inch 6.4 litre engine with a 4 speed Hydra-Matic automatic gearbox. |
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| This has to be America's best body styling of the 1950's. The lovely side profile of the '59 which has a body length of over 19 feet. |
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| The rear end of this Caddy looks like something straight out the cartoon 'The Jetsons' with it's futuristic look. |
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| The most striking feature on this car are the huge sharp tail fins with dual bullet tail lights. Why can't we have cars with tail fins now-a- days? I'm sure it'd make driving more fun. |
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| A close up of the beautiful bullet tail lights, that look like the flames coming out of a space rocket. |
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| This stunning car is a Facel Vega HK500 circa 1961. It is a French car that was launched in 1954. |
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| The HK500 used the Chrysler 6.3 litre, 360 BHP V8 engine that gave this extremely luxurious car a top speed of 147 MPH and a 0 - 60 time of 8.5 seconds. |
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| The body styling was amazing compared to other cars of the same age. These cars were also one of the first cars to feature a middle console over the gearbox adding to the super luxurious interior. |
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| I just love those rear tail lights, they really are a work of art. I can't imagine where you would start looking for spares for this car. |
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| The rear of the Facel Vega, the styling still looks good today. I loved how the exhausts exited out of the back of the huge chrome rear bumper. So that was part 1 of my 2 part review about the Brill Festival. Next Saturday you can read part 2 of this cracking little show where you will be able to see plenty more classics both British and American, a couple of T25's, a beetle and so much more, so be sure to come back next Saturday. |
