Event Classics on the Common, Harpenden 25/7/2018 .

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Just realised this is on tomorrow.

Anyone from here going ?

 

It's a massive free event, but I usually manage to miss it through being busy or just stupid.

If I can find something that runs tomorrow ( Passat in for paint, ML in for inlet manifold problem, e46 pissing water out, C30 - no air con, etc etc) I should get down there about 18.00 .

 

Worth going for me , just see the White Tagora and Bronze Chrysler 2-Litre that are always amongst the 1000 cars.

[purplebargeken]

One I keep meaning to attend but work usually gets in the way.

[hairnet]

been twice previously but means taking day and half off so doesnt get done much

[Tadhg Tiogar]

I always miss this, despite living within driving distance. In recent years it has looked a touch too big for the available space.

[maxustaxus]

I attended this, but don't think I went with the right car...

 

I came with an Audi 200 5t...I parked next to a Firenza on one side, and a series mark 5 Rapier on the other. Both are great cars so don't get be wrong, but I spent about £600 to get my car ready for this show and hoped it would be of equal interest to people as these..

 

Now I know there is a narcissistic element to showing cars in all of us if we are honest, but also a bit of me just wants to connect with someone that remembers the car from back in the day. That somehow makes the past real...and that matters to me.

 

However, in terms of interest, the car I went with...one of two left on the road I think from an important period in Audi's history...was frankly non existant! This left me feeling like I had wasted my time going to this event (not to mention the money).

 

Admitedly, the cars next to me were variously mistaken for all sorts of things...but in one way or another it was these vehicles that peeked interest in people. The reality is that if I wanted to speak with interested onlookers, I had taken the wrong car with me!

 

I am not so conceited that I expect others to be interested in the symbols of my personal past...but I can look at my car in its garage and remember the past in private, without spending £600.00 on exhausts/Mots/insurance/tax ect so that others can see it as well. That is a lot of money, and I can't afford to waste it. So next year I will go with a different car, one which is relatively common and boring...if I go at all.

 

A side to owning old cars that we seldom discuss is  the need to share our passion and enthusiasm with others...to make what we do real in some way...I guess I discovered tonight that my interest in an odd and rare old german barge is not shared by other people. And that is that. 

 

Sorry if the post sounds a bit bitter....I will take a Jaguar XJS Convertible next year and speak cheerfully about the event as ever.

[Skizzer]

Was your 200 5T the x-reg gold one you posted a picture of a few years ago? I for one would have happily sat there licking it if so. Rapiers, meh.

 

Ignore Joe and Jo public, they have no clue. Get some bloody pictures and posts up on here.

[maxustaxus]

Thanks Skizzer...yes it is the same car VMX 155X...that is kind of what I thought about Joe public too... it is just that I had not quite been slapped in the face with it so hard before....

 

On a less self pitying note....the only other event this year for the car is Audis in the Park....and I have never questioned whether taxing the car was worth it after that event!

 

Thanks for your kind words.

[maxustaxus]

A picture of the car in solo....

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I didn't manage to get to this tonight.

If I had, seeing an Audi 200 would have been one of the highlights.

You wouldn't have known though, I might have taken a blurry picture and put it on here, I'd probably have pointed out the cushions( if they're thre) to Mrs N, who would have shown as much interest as in a Bugatti Royale, MGB or Lonsdale YD 2.6 estate, ie none.

I don't speak to strangers at car shows, or anywhere else come to that, I go to look at the cars, then I go home.

Pretty sure most people fall into the same category, if you want adulation and unbridled enthusiasm you should have gone to Santa Pod at the weekend for BugJam, although they'd all be wanting to slam it and fit 5000 bumpers and shit to it.

[HMC]

^^^ agreed! They’ll never be on a tin of shortbread biscuits, or the cover feature car on a mainstream mag, which is in a roundabout way why I like your Audi and will also never own a tartan reg MGB roadster.

[Mrs6C]

That is a very fine Audi. Good on you for keeping it on the road. I think it would have gone down very well at the Festival of the Unexceptional at Stowe House earlier this month and then afterwards at the social gathering and camping weekend at the Field of Dreams! May I suggest that combination for next year? You aren't very far away from both venues and there are lots of AS members who attend, so you would have had a lot of interest in it.

[maxustaxus]

"if you want adulation and unbridled enthusiasm"

 

No....I don't want or need that, as I say, I (mainly) wish to connect with others who remember the cars from tha past, or take another car and save myself some money.

 

There is always a danger of seeming narcissistic with this sort of post....I had hoped to avoid that by setting things out as honestly as I could....but this issue is kind of simple. I discovered tonight that my interest in this barge of a car is not shared by others to the extent that I had imagined.

 

That really is fine....and I can save myself a bob or two in the future. Adulation can be bought for less if I needed this.

 

What I really need to know is what car is it worth taking to which car show...and why the hell do I do it anyway!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

As Mrs6C says the Festival of the Unexceptional would be perfect for your Audi, maybe it's just too new for most of the Harpenden visitors. Have you had better responses with other cars in the past, I'm sure I've seen your Humber there .

Also I feel you've taken the wrong message from my post, the adulation comment was meant to be tongue in cheek. The fact people don't talk to strangers at car shows was my main observation.

[maxustaxus]

NorfolkNweigh

 

Yes.....I agree....people do struggle to talk to each other at these events. And I find it very hard to talk to others  myself for all sorts of reasons....and I should not expect more of others than I could do myself.

 

However...it remains the case that it is easier and cheaper to leave some cars at home for the time being if they are barely recognised let alone of interest to people....and tonight at Harpenden was about that for me.

[vulgalour]

Classic car shows are odd, as are the people who attend them.  It's amazing what gets ignored, what gets adored, and what gets misidentified.  On the few occasions I have shown I generally park up and then just go for a wander.  People tend to show more interest when they don't think the owner can see them, especially if it's something where they don't know exactly what they're looking at and can't look smart with facts.  A lot of folks don't like admitting they know nothing about a vehicle and won't face the embarrassment of asking the owner.  Some owners you don't want to ask, too, because some owners are WEIRD.

 

It's a shame when your hard work and investment appears to go unnoticed, but that's part of the gamble you take going to a show.  Opening the bonnet on even the most mundane car will draw a crowd, so if you casually do that when people are hovering, you might get someone to be brave enough to pipe up and ask some questions.

[barrett]

Surely by spending £600 you now have a fully functioning legal car which you can drive to work tomorrow, go on holiday in, go for a pointless moonlight blast down a favourite a-road etc etc, and all the other things that cars are actually for? Personally I can't think of anything worse than somebody coming up to me and trying to talk about one of my old sheds, which is why I wouldn't choose to go and park one at a show and then sit on a folding chair in front of it for the whole day or whatever. People in general are awful, and people who like old cars are even worse and I want nothing to do with them.

 

This is definitely one of the weirder thread derailments on a forum which is notorious for monumental off-topic drifts, but if anyone went to Harpenden and took some photos of rubbish old cars I would quite like to see them here, yeah?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

….Personally I can't think of anything worse than somebody coming up to me and trying to talk about one of my old sheds, which is why I wouldn't choose to go and park one at a show and then sit on a folding chair in front of it for the whole day or whatever. People in general are awful, and people who like old cars are even worse and I want nothing to do with them....

 

You weren't at FotU, then?