Event BOXING DAY Romsey, Hants. Pre 76 cars

[mercrocker]

Any Southern Shiters allowed off the lead on Boxing Day morning?   COME TO ROMSEY!

 

There is an excellent gathering of proper motor vehicles in Aldi car park and surrounding carparks - SO51 8GE,   Starts early, finishes around midday.   Bacon butties, tea and coffee - no cost to park and display.   All proceeds to Prostate Cancer charity. 

 

Usually get some spiffing stuff there.  BUT - ONLY PRE 76 or PRE 86 IF IT'S A YANK.   

 

Steve the organiser has asked me to stress the above.  It is very, very busy and cannot accommodate everybody who wants to display later stuff.    There are car parks around the town (Waitrose for one) where you can park your modern and walk to the event (it is only a small market town).   Well worth a look.  I shall be in attendance with the Cowley.

 

 

 

http://www.romsey-classiccarandbikemeet.co.uk/

 

[Stanky]

Let me check if I'm allowed out to play but would be fun - I was away last year and meant to ask you about this when I saw you last weekend.

 

EDIT - Yep I'm allowed out to play, what time will you be there do you reckon?

[lisbon_road]

Good call.

 

Reckon that is a good charity cause too.

 

Will try to take the Vauxhall Viva if I can get out.

[panhard65]

I briefly thought about this until I checked the map and it is almost a 3 hour drive in the hearse and I don't fancy getting up that early on boxingday. I will hopefully make it to Hasslebury mill on new years day though, stopping off at junction 24 Bridgewater for a quick look round their meet on the way.

[mercrocker]

I will be there from about 8.30 I should think.   Really I would aim to get there before 9am to get parked up.  If you're coming as a spectator and parking elsewhere it will be on till about midday or so.    

  

This is one of the few old car gatherings I attend, mainly because there is so much interesting stuff turning up each year.....Looks like it might be the last one, too.

[Stanky]

I'll aim to be there for between 9 and ten, hopefully most of the denizens of the south coast will still be at home nursing hangovers and not getting in my damn way on the M27.

 

I'll drop you a text when I get there and see you soon after

[mercrocker]

OK, Huw....sounds good.  M27 should be alright - it usually seems to be on the 26th.  Also you won't have the Paultons lot that day....

[lisbon_road]

Looks like I can make it.  Will be there with the blue Vauxhall Viva.  Will PM you both and hope others can make it too

[eddyramrod]

I should have left Huggy down there in April, shouldn't I?  Someone could have taken him in with a For Sale sign on...

[mercrocker]

Would have been a good call, that Eddy.....Very pro-Yank this gathering is.

[Yoss]

It gets busier every year. I reckon even at 9am you'll be struggling to get in the main car park. I'm aiming for just after eight. I'll probably bring the Favorit and hopefully park somewhere in The Hundred. I could dig the Triumph out and park in the main car parks but you tend get trapped there all morning.

 

It's also worth getting there a little earlier so you can watch everything arrive. Classic traffic jams with all the sounds and smells.

[Amishtat]

I can't go to this.. Little matter of nothing eligible working and about 170 miles. But to anyone who is please post lots of photographs

[anonymous user]

Would have been a good call, that Eddy.....Very pro-Yank this gathering is.

You could always stick a for sale poster up in your window with a pic of Huggy. They do sometimes work, I should know as that's how I bought one of my Austins by seeing a small photo on a handwritten poster in the window of another car when at a show.

[eddyramrod]

That's an excellent idea!  £5495 to a non-Shiter.

[Yoss]

I can't go to this.. Little matter of nothing eligible working and about 170 miles. But to anyone who is please post lots of photographs

I did last year, they're around here somewhere. I'm sure more will follow.

[mercrocker]

I will give my £5 digital a go but not promising much!

[atomic punk]

   

  

This is one of the few old car gatherings I attend, mainly because there is so much interesting stuff turning up each year.....Looks like it might be the last one, too.

 

Really??? How comes? 

 

Might take the Victor if I can drag myself out of bed early enough

[Yoss]

I think Aldi may be planning to open on Boxing Day next year. I think that's what my friend said anyway. There are other car parks but the Aldi one is right in the middle of them and is the largest.

[mercrocker]

I believe Aldi are intending to apply for permission to open Boxing Day in future.   Not only would this cause the loss of use of their car-park (we should remember that their permission and grace is still relied upon to use it even when they are shut) but it would presumably increase demand on the other car parks next to it and across the road.   This would make it much more difficult to get full Council assistance in their present useage on Boxing Day..... 

 

This is why the organisers are saying that 2018 could be the last year of the show in its current position and format. 

[Yoss]

Before Romsey took off, probably more than ten years ago we used to go to Wickham Square. That too started off quietly (we even took a bus one year and managed to park it) and became a victim of it's own success. Then Romsey started and now both of them attract large numbers.

 

All we need is a small market town with plenty of parking that is largely shut on Boxing Day

[mercrocker]

Which is, increasingly, a problem....Remember how the Winchester Bus day was eventually put out by the constant need to Shop?

[Yoss]

Just arrived. This is the shite side 9f the event. Just about to walk through to the older stuff.

 

[Yoss]

Mercrocker's here somewhere.

 

[Yoss]

A few more random shots. These are a tiny proportion of what was there. It overflows across the whole town centre now.

 

I don't really follow the American stuff but how big can you make a car with only two doors?

 

.

[Yoss]

Some action shots.

 

Unlike most Yank V8s that like to shout about it, this glided past in almost electric silence. No idea what it is but impressed.

 

 

[Yoss]

This belongs to a friend, as does the camper behind.

 

 

[anonymous user]

Some nice things there, if they're going spare I'll have the Gordon Keeble and Hereford pick-up

[mercrocker]

The brown silent Yank is a 1949 Pontiac - straight Eight flat-head hence no V8 rumble...Good to meet you today, Yoss (and the delightful Favorit) also Stanky and Lisbon Road who also attended.   Cracking morning out, I was a bit previous getting there for 7.30am but the burger van was already well up and running and there were at least a dozen cars there by then. 

 

Looking through the pics I can see quite a few cars that I missed (and a few mates) on my rather haphazard meandering around the several car parks. 

 

Be a bloody shame if this is indeed the last of these meets..... 

 

Boxing Day will not be the same! 

 

No pics from me, the £5 digital wasn't up to it in the murkiness unfortunately.....

[Stanky]

Managed to pap some more chod there, just got back home and plugged the phone camera in to get them. Here we go in no particular order

 

 

E28 (?) in the carpark where I left the Yaris

 

 

Note immaculate rear bumper. I had a lovely one of these about 8 years ago, I sold it to my brother in law who treated it with distain and it was scrapped about a year later after a load of rust broke out on the rear arches, the interior was trashed and he reversed into someone wrecking the rear nearside corner. it also got impounded after a mixup with insurance renewal and cost him a hefty fine, pound fees, and 6 points for the oversight.

 

 

First pic of the show proper. A Wolseley something? and Vinyl roof marina/ital

 

 

A A40 I think and an Alvis

 

 

Lowered and customised Dodge Charger, it looked amazing and was attracting a big crowd. I'd love something like this. I imagine its the sort of thing Marilyn Manson drives to get a pint of milk and packet of biscuits.

 

 

Cortina Capri which I've papped before a long while ago, and an AS-spec Escort

 

 

Nice Bristol. The bonnet is about 3x as long as the passenger compartment and boot.

 

 

Vauxhall Victor parked by the bogs

 

 

This pickup made serious progress, it was in front of me as I left the motorway and I couldn't keep up in the Yaris between the M27 and Romsety town centre on a slippery road. I have a bit of a thing about solid wheels too.

 

 

Austin Ute on its way to flytip some old tyres. Note leaping 'roo mascot

 

 

 

A Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with rather interesting* wheels. Considering the effort put into the rest of it the wheel treatment was a bit of a letdown, but they might have been away being fixed or something?

 

 

Scene Beadle. I actually quite like chopped, wingless beetles. There. I said it.

 

 

Hark the herald-rover sings? A novel contraption.

 

 

Hillman Imp and Husky? Had serious camber on the front wheels and looked good for it IMHO.

 

 

Sunbeam Tiger, not overheating.

 

 

Ford Falcon? Fairlane? Had a look for Facel Vega about it. Very nice.

 

 

 

These are some Beaulieu cars which were allowed out to play

 

 

Camaro. I liked the IROC concept on which these were styled (I think?)

[Stanky]

round 2

 

 

 

Bosozuku-spec Ford Pop hot rod

 

 

A cluch of vivas

 

 

Oldsmobile Cutlass Estate with all round drum brakes. Bet that gets hairy at times!

 

 

Closeup

 

 

Mercrocker-mobile

 

 

And the 100e next door?

 

 

Big and Smoll.

 

 

I also like Aero screens. are they are impractical as they look? A-H 100/4 I think?

 

 

ZZ-top came.

 

 

 

 

A Gordon Keeble, these are very handsome cars i think. Interesting logo for something with a Corvette V8!

 

 

Needs MOAR wood

 

 

Incl wooden wheels

 

 

 

A GT6 and another beetle

 

 

 

1930s custom ford pickup. Mercrocker spotted the gratuitous use of the rear end of a VW T2 for the back fo the cab. We agreed you'd be hung drawn and quartered if the VW crowd caught you doing that these days!