Blackthorn Classic Car Show (part 2 of 2)

This weeks blog is a 2 part review all about the 2nd annual Blackthorn Classic Car Show. Good friends of mine Caroline and Matthew asked me last year if I fancied a drive to a new local classic car show that just happened to be in the next village to where they live. I of course said 'yes sure', so I met them at their house and after Caroline had made us breakfast we headed about a mile down the road to the next village and the classic car show. Last year there was just over 200 classic cars, motorcycles, tractors, American, military and commercial vehicles on display with around 1300 visitors on the day. After the success of last year the overriding opinion was this just has to be an annual show, so it now has become an annual show. This years show was held on Sunday 4th September at Westbury Farm, Lower Road, Blackthorn. OX25 1TG from 11.00am - 5.00pm. The number of registered entrants this year was closer to 300, that's almost 100 more than the previous year, and of course you'll always get those who don't register but turn up anyway. Once again I arranged to meet Caroline and Matthew at their house, and once again Caroline was very generous with the breakfast roll and the tea before we left so many thanks again to Caroline. After we had breakfast Matthew and I drove the short distance to the show, and as we had both pre-entered we just drove straight in and parked up. (that was after Matthew upset the parking attendant by going the wrong way down the rows of show vehicles.!) Once parked up, Matthew and I started to look around this great little show. The review continues as Matthew and I wander around looking at al the cool classic vehicles.
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.

This immaculate 1970 Herbie lookalike followed
Matthew and I into the show and consequently
parked next to us. This bug really was straight
and clean.

You can see just how clean this old bug really is
from this photo. Matthew and I had a chat to the
owner who said it had been restored at some
point and that the car got used as much as
possible, which is how it should be.

The brilliant white painted steel wheels with domed
chrome hubcaps looked as clean as the rest of
the car and gave off a perfect reflection of the
AC Cobra parked next to this lovely bug.

Another white beetle at the show was this stock
looking 1969 bug. This 1200cc beauty was just
like new and could have just driven out of the
factory.

The only aftermarket items I could see on this
old bug was the twin rear fog lights, which although
were not standard, suited the overall look well.

The Ford Anglia 105Eis a car close to my heart 
as this was my first ever car. This one was an early
1960's model and was immaculate and looked 
fantastic in it's dark blue paint. I did like those 
aftermarket polished wheels that really suited this 
old Ford. Just look at that reflection in that bonnet
 it's just amazing.

The unmistakable shape of the Anglia's slanted
rear screen. Ford produced the Anglia (this shape)
from 1959 - 1967 and they had the 997cc engine. 

Another classic beetle at the show was this lovely
1971 Scarlet red bug. In 1971 the old 1500cc
engine was replaced with a bigger 1600cc unit
that produced 60HP.

Another design change for the '71 model was
the introduction of the crescent shaped air vents
behind the rear quarter window. This lovely old
bug really was a nice looking car.

The motor looked to be standard, which I always
think is best. The engine bay was as you would
expect as clean as the outside.

Another Beetle at the Blackthorn classic car
show was this street race looking dark blue
1967 bug. The low stance with the flared wings
gives the car an aggressive look.

Under the bonnet was a custom built polished
roll cage and alloy fuel tank.

The rear end had been widened and smoothed
out. You can't help but notice that huge whale
tail spoiler but all these body mods are there
for a reason, this bug has a big Porsche motor
tucked into the engine bay.

This is another car I used to have many years
 ago as a young kid. It's a 1970 MK2 Ford 
Cortina 1600E. I can't remember what year my
old 'Tina' was but I remember it wasn't anywhere
as clean as this beautiful example.

The MK2's were produced from 1966 - 1970.
The MK2 Cortina was Britain's most popular
car in 1967. If only I had kept my old Tina it
would be worth a fortune now.

The 1600E was a higher trim version of the
standard Cortina and featured burr walnut
wood grain trimmed dashboard and door caps.

This stunning 1960 corvette C1. This Roman
red and white car was brought over from the 
USA by it's  American owner in 1995. In 1998
 it had a body off restoration which is easy to
see as it was totally immaculate. 

This 'Vette' has the small block V8 motor, and 
a 4 speed manual transmission. I love the small
details on the car, like how the twin exhausts
exit from the corners of the chrome bumper. 

Pure late 1950's - early 1960's American car
 design at it's best. How cool does this interior 
look.

There was so much variety on show at this 
great classic car show. Here a 1967 Mustang
 is parked next to a 1961 Porsche 356SC.

This stunning white '67 hardtop Mustang was
in amazing condition. I think this body style
has to my favourite shape for the Mustang, it's
just a classic shape that doesn't seem to age.

You can see just how nice the body shape is
from this angle. I do like those triple tail lights
and the chrome bumper with the upturned
ends. I also liked the fact that this old '67 was
running on stock wheels with white wall tyres
and not some fancy aftermarket chrome rims.

This lovely silver Porsche 356 SC looked
amazing and totally immaculate. These 356's
were produced from 1964 -1965. The twin
blue stripes over the body and the lack of front
bumper gave this old Porsche a race look.

 The 356 had 1.6 air cooled engine that had
originally been designed for the VW beetle.
I do like those chrome steel wheels, in fact
they are the same as I have on my bus!

I spotted this lovely looking 1985 grey T25
parked up and just had to go and have a look.
I do like the T25 especially when they are this
clean and tidy. The tinted rear windows looked
great against the grey paint, and the high ride
height helped this bus to stand out.

You can see just how straight and clean this
lovely bus was from this photo. I did like the
aftermarket wheels which suited the overall
look of this bus.

This weird and wacky road legal speed boat
looked fantastic as it drove into the show field.
I assume it is built on a Reliant chassis or
something similar that has three wheels.

The boat was named Clockwork Orange and 
painted (obviously) in bright orange, just to 
make sure you don't miss it as it drives past 
you on the road.!

Complete with spare wheel and life buoy this
car / boat really did look like good fun.

I didn't recognise the dashboard but it still looks
like a boat on the inside. I wonder what the local
police think of this creation. Like it or hate it, you
have to admit it's a great piece of engineering.

This lovely 1933/34 Ford sedan hot rod
 arrived at the show and immediately drew 
plenty of attention. This gorgeous car may have
been a replica, but it was too well built to tell.

The 33/34 looked completely different from its
predecessor the 32 Ford. It was longer and 
wider with a more sleek look. The grille was
wider and pointed and rounded and skirted
fenders. 

This subtle hot rod really was nice. The choice
of colour was perfect, and the tinted windows
were a nice touch. I did like the chrome wheels
that set the paint colour off nicely.

This gorgeous red 1968 Ford Shelby Mustang 
GT500 looked amazing and had obviously had
a restoration at some point. The Shelby Mustang
was made from 1965 - 1968 by Shelby and from
1969 - 1970 by Ford. The GT500 had the 428
cubic inch (7.0L) V8 engine with a 4 speed
manual gearbox.

This lovely 2 door fastback really was just like
it had driven out of the factory in Los Angeles.
The body and paint were both flawless and it
was nice to see the GT500 decals along the
bottom of the body as per the original spec.

So that was my brief 2 part review on the great
classic car show. There were hundreds of
vehicles that I just couldn't include in my blog
reviews due to space. This really is a great
show for all the family with plenty to do and see.
A huge thanks once again to Caroline and
Matthew for the hospitality and company, I
for one had a great day. Next weeks blog
is about another local classic car show that
both Caroline and Matthew attended with me
so be sure to come back next Saturday.
 

Blackthorn Classic Car Show (part1 of 2)

This weeks blog is a 2 part review all about the 2nd annual Blackthorn Classic Car Show. Good friends of mine Caroline and Matthew asked me last year if I fancied a drive to a new local classic car show that just happened to be in the next village to where they live. I of course said 'yes sure', so I met them at their house and after Caroline had made us breakfast we headed about a mile down the road to the next village and the classic car show. Last year there was just over 200 classic cars, motorcycles, tractors, American, military and commercial vehicles on display with around 1300 visitors on the day. After the success of last year the overriding opinion was this just has to be an annual show, so it now has become an annual show. This years show was held on Sunday 4th September at Westbury Farm, Lower Road, Blackthorn. OX25 1TG from 11.00am - 5.00pm. The number of registered entrants this year was closer to 300, that's almost 100 more than the previous year, and of course you'll always get those who don't register but turn up anyway. Once again I arranged to meet Caroline and Matthew at their house, and once again Caroline was very generous with the breakfast roll and the tea before we left so many thanks Caroline. After we had breakfast Matthew and I drove the short distance to the show, and as we had both pre entered we just drove straight in and parked up. (after Matthew upset the parking attendant by going the wrong way into the rows of vehicles !.) Once parked up, Matthew and I started to look 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.

Mathew's lovely 1969 Westfalia Campmobile 
SO67 with his newly acquired swamp cooler, 
which he tells me works very well... I'm not 
jealous at all.!

Although Matt's bus is in a reasonable condition
considering the old girls age, he has booked
the bus in to have a full respray over the winter. I'm
looking forward to seeing his newly painted bus
which will still be blue and white but a different
shade of blue which should suit the bus well.

Our buses parked up together at the Blackthorn
show. Both Matthew and I like parking our buses
together as they have sequential number plates.
This is because they were imported from the
West Coast of America in the same container, and
all the import paperwork was given to the DVLA
at the same time, so they gave the buses age
related sequential registration numbers. 

I have to admit that it does humour Matthew
and I to park the buses together and then stand
back and watch the public walk by and see their
reactions as they suddenly spot the sequential
number plates..!!

A couple of nice rear ends... Our bays parked
up together. They are both 1969 buses but
look so different.

This gorgeous 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air station 
wagon looked fantastic in it's nostalgic white
over turquoise paint which was straight from
the 1950's. These 'Nomads' as they more
commonly known were also available in a 2
door model. 

The standard engine for these Nomad's was
the 235 cubic inch, in line 6 cylinder that pumped
out 140HP, or you could have the 265 & 283 cubic
 inch motors that gave 162HP / 185HP respectively.

This 1960 Mercedes Benz 190SL was amazing,
not only is it quite rare, but it was in such a
beautiful condition. This car looked to 100%
original. Mercedes only produced the 190SL
from 1955 - 1963 and only just under 26,000
were built.

This gorgeous car would have cost 16,500DM
($4000) from new back in the fifties, but today
this has to be worth £100,000+ ($138,000)

It may well be out of most of our price ranges
but just look at the style, comfort and detail you
could get if you did have that sort of money.

This lovely 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray
really was immaculate. This style Corvette is
known as the C2, the second generation of
the Sting Ray. The easiest was to tell that this
is a pre 1964 car is the fact that it has the
air intakes on the hood, cars produced after
'64 didn't have them.

The body shape is almost perfection, it looks
like the space ship from Flash Gordon. The
engine in this was probably the 327 cubic inch
motor although several variants were available.

This 1953 Bently 4.5 litre Peterson Bently
 blower was amazing. The car is an authentic
recreation of the famous 'blowers' that Sir 
Henry Birkin raced in the 1920's.

The blown  4.5 litre Bently engine produces
around 235 BHP  and with construction being
of an alloy body over an ash frame the
acceleration and speed are both breathtaking.

The dashboard is machined aluminium with
large air craft style instruments. This must be
scary driving this with so much power under
the hood.

Another American car at the show was this
lovely light blue 1967 Ford Mustang. The Mustang
was available with various engine's, all V8's
and this one had the 289 cubic inch 4.7 litre V8.

The unmistakable shape of the Ford Mustang.
Even people with out any car knowledge should
be able to recognise this rear end. 

In 1967 Ford redesigned some area's of the
Mustang, changes included the wood trim dash
and discontinuing the embossed running horse
motif across the back seats...

... and looking at the reupholstered interior
in that gorgeous white leather the rear seats
do not the motif, as they look just about perfect
without it.

The Jaguar XK150 is probably the one of the 
best known British classics. This lovely deep
red model, circa late 1950's was immaculate
and had obviously undergone a restoration.
The XK150 was produced from 1957 - 1961.

The standard of this car was amazing, it looked
like brand new. The bodywork was super straight
and finished in that gorgeous deep red paint that
was flawless. I do like those chrome spoke wheels
that must take ages to clean.

The Blackthorn show had numerous military
vehicles attend and this Willys jeep stood out
for me. The Willys jeep or Willys MB as it is
less commonly known has always been a real
favourite of mine.  

The Willys jeep was not only produced by
Willys, but also later on by Ford due to the
production demand for this utility vehicle.

The interior of the Willys is as you would expect
for a utility vehicle used during WW2  sparse
to say the least, but then it wasn't built for comfort
it was designed as a reconnaissance vehicle.

American and British classics side by side at
the Blackthorn classic car show. Here a huge 
1959 Cadillac Coupe De Ville dwarfs a MK2
(I think) Jaguar. There is always so much
diversity at classic car shows, it's great.

This lovely stock looking 1963 beetle caught
my eye as it was clean and original looking.
It was nice to see that everything was as
Volkswagen had intended. The roof rack was
a nice addition that suited this stock car.

Perfect paint over perfectly straight body panels,
helped this old bug stand out. This really was
a lovely clean car.

The original look continued on the interior, with
those lovely door cards and original steering
wheel and dash trim. The only thing that I don't
think was standard was the seat covers, but
that doesn't matter.

In the engine bay, again everything looked to
be pretty much stock which was nice to see.

Another Corvette at the show was this gorgeous
1956 model in the classic red and white paint
with white wall tyres. The '56 Vette had the 
265 cubic inch V8 engine and a 3 speed manual
box, although the power glide automatic gearbox
was an optional extra.

I love the shape of the rear end on this model
of Vette. I love how those tail lights are set into
the rear wings. I'm not sure if this one had the
power assist for the convertible hood as this
was an optional extra.

The Citroen SM was a very futuristic design
when it was launched back in 1970. In fact the
car came third in the European Car of the year
in 1971. This gold coloured example looked
great parked up. The SM had self levelling
head lights that swivelled with the steering. 

Another cool innovation the SM had was the
hydro-pneumatic suspension that was also
self levelling. I think this was the only car around
at the time to have the rear wheels covered by
the bodywork giving an unusual look.

The Isetta was produced under licence by
several countries and this one was made by
BMW. It's a 1960 model in burgundy and white.

BMW put their own engine into the Isetta's they
produced,this one has the one cylinder 250cc
4 stoke motorcycle engine. BMW did later
 put a 300cc engine in to comply with new
 traffic regulations.

This lovely old GMC truck, circa 1950 looked
great with it's patina paint. I have seen this
truck several times at local shows and it still
looks as good as it did the first time I saw it.

I just love the patina paint and the old skool
Wolfrace style alloy wheels. 

Another true British classic car is the Jenson 
Interceptor. This gorgeous example is a 1973
 SP 2 door saloon. This model is very rare as
only 232 of this model were ever produced.
The SP had the Chrysler 7.2litre v8 engine with 
a Holly six pack carburetter producing 385 BHP.
The top speed of this car is about 143MPH.

Another cool American classic at the show was
 this 1962 Cadillac series 62. The 62 series of
Caddy's underwent various body styles during
it's production from 1940 - 1964. 

This huge angular design was typical of the 60's
car styling in the U.S. and I think it looks great.
This model had either the 390 cubic inch or
429 cubic inch motor V8 engine which would
have been more than enough to pull the huge
body around with ease.

This wacky creation was produced by some
old school friends of mine, it's a based on a
Daewoo and made to look like the 'Little
Tikes' children's play car

This really goes attract attention everywhere
John and Adrian take this car and it's easy to
see why. This car is fully road legal and looks
great driving down the road.

The MK3 Ford Cortina is a car I'm very fond
of, as I used to have one back in the day. This
immaculate 1972 GXL model had the 2.0 litre 
engine with a rare automatic gearbox.

I had a brief chat to the owner who told me all
about the work he has carried out, suffice to say
it took a lot of work to get this old 'Tina' looking
this good.

This wonderful trio of pick up trucks arrived at
the show together, so I just had to go and have
a look.

The first truck was this 1960 Chevrolet short
bed pick up truck finished is a superb coat of
jet black gloss paint with traditional hot rod 
style red painted steel wheels with white wall
tyres, which looked awesome. 

You can see just how straight this old work
horse really is from this photo. The body panels
are perfectly straight and the paintwork was
flawless.

The next pick up was this lovely patina'd 1953 
Chevrolet 3100 1/2 ton (I think) pick up. Again
this also had the old hot rod style red painted
steel wheels with white wall tyres and chrome
hub caps. 

The patina'd turquoise paint looked great as
did the tail gate. The '53 was the last year to
have the 216 cubic inch motor, after this they
all had the bigger 235 cubic inch motor.

The third and final pick up truck in this trio is
this 1952 Chevrolet pick up truck finished in
what looks like rust. This truck had been hit
with the lowering stick and virtually sat on 
the ground. The aftermarket alloy wheels
suited the look of this old truck as did the visor.

I did like the bed of this truck with it's wooden
slats and the wooden crates in the back. These
pick up trucks are popular over here in the
U.K. and you them at most hot rod / classic car
shows across the country, and that's just fine
with me.

So that was part one of a two part review on the
Blackthorn classic car show 2016. Overall a huge
success with a lot more entrants than last year,
which can only be good news. Part two of this
review will be next Saturday where you'll be able
to see some cool beetles, more American cars
and of course plenty of British classics so don't
forget to come back next week.