BL Brooklands PHAIL

[Partridge]

Did anyone else see the OUTRAGE on Facebook over that BL Wedge which was turned away from the gates of a breakfast meeting "for not being a classic"?

 

Brooklands issued a statment saying they "NEVER turn away any car" but the evidence points to that being bullshit.

 

This is what leylandprincess.com had to say:

 

"So, (edit: name of owner removed from this post) drives 70 miles to Brooklands museum in his 1978 Princess 2 to show his car at the Brooklands Autumn Classic Breakfast. Upon arrival he is told in no uncertain terms his car is NOT a classic and is told to park in the visitors car park."

 

I've only ever seen this happen one time before, where a BMW 8 Series was turned away from a local show "not being a classic" which I can kinda get, more so because the marshal was about 147 and it was probably younger than his grand kids...But a '70s car?

 

What say you Autoshite, the voice of reason* in the digital world?

 

[mercrocker]

Given that the whole place is surrounded, and indeed almost becoming a shrine to, those monstrous pieces of corroding cack with three pointed stars glued to them I think Brooklands gate staff have a bloody cheek turning ANY British car away.   However, removing my Colonel Blimp monocle for a moment, perhaps the gent concerned should get in writing the reason for the refusal.   It is surely not up to Mr Glowing Green Vest to decide what is a classic car so somebody must have given him some direction and if this direction is official it should be made clear on all and any documents/flyers/internet listings relating to the event.  Otherwise, one must conclude, that Vesty is being an Arse.   Princess, Wedge or otherwise, is generally accepted as a Classic, surely?

[Partridge]

It stinks doesn't it? And they're officially "historic" so they don't have a leg to stand on.

[eddyramrod]

Couldn't agree more.  I've seen the FB posts... well by now probably only some of them!  The car shown is gorgeous and should be invited to any show, never mind turned away.  There are calls for a boycott of any future events at Brooklands, which might be a bit strong, but from where I sit it's safe to say I won't be attending anything there.  As for turning it into a shrine to the three-pointed star.... don't get me going!

[trigger]

I'll state this again. It's not Brooklands that's turned the car away, It's a old man the gate, He needs either replacing or educating.

[Partridge]

Either way, they are lucky to be in a position to turn cars away. We'd have welcomed it at a local car show yesterday. There was a MK IV Escort there....That would have really got Mr Glowey Green Vesy going

[Partridge]

I'll state this again. It's not Brooklands that's turned the car away, It's a old man the gate, He needs either replacing or educating.

Yup. I find it hard to believe that Brooklands have an intelligence department, intercepting incoming shite.

[mercrocker]

Is it not the case that you pay full admission anyway regardless of where you park  your car?  In which case, Vesty's bosses might like to know he has potentially turned away a customer?  I KNOW these guys are volunteers and work hard in the rain for nothing - I have done the steward/marshal thing myself but undoing the damage this kind of attitude causes is not easy.    Our local Boxing Day classic car meet has very strict and well publicised rules about what is allowed and what isn't - its the only way you can have effective gate control.  

[Skizzer]

Someone (forgive my forgetting who) posted pics from a Christmas meet at Brooklands and there was some much newer and duller stuff than that.

 

Besides, if we can welcome AnthonyG into Shitefest in a Jaguar XF then some hi-viz jobsworth in Weybridge ought to stretch to a 1978 Princess, FFS.

[dollywobbler]

Pete M was doing a good job of winding folk up on Facebook over this. As has been covered, outrage was deserved but it doesn't appear to actually be a policy of Brooklands Museum to 'ban' Princesses, so anger not required.

[plasticvandan]

what was brooklands response? i remember going to steam rallies in the mid 90s where the classic car line up had signs saying "no allegros" 

[Felly Magic]

Would be interesting to see if there were any cars of an identical age in there. If so, its time to give said old fart/farts in a green vest a polite talking to.

[seth]

An alleged classic car at Brooklands.

 

[vulgalour]

I think this is a random freak event.  No doubt the Daily Mail will get hold of it and tell us all about how immigrants stopped a treasured and valuable British classic from entering a place of historical significance thereby lowering all the house prices in the south of England and causing several people to contract cancer.

[Sigmund Fraud]

In protest*, we should arrange to gatecrash the next breakfast meeting in some of our exquisite* British* classics*...

 

I'll bring the 214 (and will probably be refused entry even into the visitors car park !).

[Partridge]

I think this is a random freak event.  No doubt the Daily Mail will get hold of it and tell us all about how immigrants stopped a treasured and valuable British classic from entering a place of historical significance thereby lowering all the house prices in the south of England and causing several people to contract cancer.

You left out muslims on benefits.

[richardmorris]

Here's my 1988 classic at Brooklands (although that's auto-italia not breakfast club). There's always been a hierarchy of sorts with the expensive posh stuff near the clubhouse. I was turned away from the ace café classic night once in my CX Pallas as the gorilla on the gate said "well it's not a classic is it".

 

 

[Felly Magic]

Brooklands certainly are getting a bit of bad PR over this, no doubt it will be mentioned in the press in some shape or form

[Alexg]

I'll state this again. It's not Brooklands that's turned the car away, It's a old man the gate, He needs either replacing or educating.

 

Exactly. The response on Facebook was a tad overboard, with some militant MGR lickers talking of go-slows (like the opposite is possible for BL users?) and even flipping blockades FFS! Its embarrassing by association quite frankly. Sure email Brooklands, mention it on their Facebook page but using multiple exclamation marks and calling them Wankers just makes you look like a flipping helmet.

[Cavcraft]

Pete M was doing a good job of winding folk up on Facebook over this.

 

{unsurprised face}

 

 

 

To be honest, the old duffer on the gate at Cholmondeley Castle is a miserable old get who often complains about cars coming he doesn't like. 

[fordperv]

its a bit of a pee take it should be allowed to shine with the rest of them. 

 

was it this fella on the gate?

 

i 'ate you princess

[richardmorris]

I have sympathy with Brooklands - it's the old duffer's on gate duty like Corsaviour says that are the problem. I went to one of the first "soft top sundays" at goodwood in the fiat. Guy on the gate stopped me going in by saying it's convertibles only. I politely said that it's a targa (it was raining so roof on) and he replied "well I don't know what the hell it is do I".

 

It's really the mindset that says classics can only have wire wheels and look like Gumdrop, anything else is far too modern. I'm not a huge fan of BL products myself, but do enjoy seeing them at car shows as they're  rare now compared to porches, Ferraris and MGs.

[Partridge]

Exactly. The response on Facebook was a tad overboard, with some militant MGR lickers talking of go-slows (like the opposite is possible for BL users?) and even flipping blockades FFS! Its embarrassing by association quite frankly. Sure email Brooklands, mention it on their Facebook page but using multiple exclamation marks and calling them Wankers just makes you look like a flipping helmet.

That sums up cars and Facebook brilliantly.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Here's my 1988 classic at Brooklands (although that's auto-italia not breakfast club). There's always been a hierarchy of sorts with the expensive posh stuff near the clubhouse. I was turned away from the ace café classic night once in my CX Pallas as the gorilla on the gate said "well it's not a classic is it".

You obviously didn't have your West Ham tattoo on show,either that or your CX wasn't on 5 1/2 j Lotus Cortina steels.

[DS20]

You left out muslims on benefits.

 

 

 

And let's not forget teenage pregnancy rates. I mean, will no one think of the CHILDREN?

[Partridge]

And let's not forget teenage pregnancy rates. I mean, will no one think of the CHILDREN?

So it's settled. This can be traced to too many pregnant teenage Muslims on benefits who probably have Ebola for good measure, which sap YOUR money to pay for treatment and now they want to ban BL WEDGES.

[Pete-M]

How many of us in here like music? Quite a few I suspect. Imagine you get tickets to go and see a load of brilliant 60's and 70's bands, Fleetwood Mac, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Kinks, maybe Peter Gabriel or whoever. It's your gig of the year but you've got to travel 250 miles each way to get there and it's gonna cost you a week's wage by the time you've paid for fuel, hotel, few drinks maybe and a meal. It's your highlight of the year, you're getting to see your heroes play live, in the flesh. I imagine you'd be a bit excited about it, playing your favourite tunes all the way there, telling your friends you're finally going to your personal gig of the year.

 

Then you get there, you've travelled all the way, sorted the hotel, got changed, been for a meal and you get to the venue. You queue to get in, the stage lights come on, there's a huge bank of speakers and people waiting for Mick Jagger to strut on stage... But no, there's a strange out of tune howling noise coming from the stage. Mick isn't there, the act for tonight is PJ Proby's alcoholic third cousin's LSD addled step brother from Wolverhampton, he's trying to sing "Brown Sugar" whilst urinating into a speaker cabinet. Keith Richards hasn't turned up so they've found someone who once saw Pirates of the Caribbean and given him an out of tune acoustic guitar with a string missing.

 

I doubt you'd be amused.

 

To me, having the Princess rock up at a Goodwood classic gathering is no different. That's not what the whole thing is about. If you go to see Bentleys, Ferraris, Jaaags, Delages, Packards and Bugattis and are instead confronted by a field full of Marinas, Vivas and Princesses then you're not getting what you went for. You're getting something completely different, old cars rather than the cream of the crop classic stuff. I'd be pissed off if I'd spent 10 years restoring an E-type or DB5, driven hundreds of miles to a Goodwood Classic meet and been stuck with a load of bearded Plugholers in a field full of Allegros.

 

It would be different if it was pre-66 meeting, but it wasn't. It was a classic meet that the Plugholer tried to get an old and not-classic car into. If Goodwood do pre-80 breakfasts then I'm sure anything from pre 80 will be allowed in, no matter how shit it is.

 

There are hundreds of meets every month where the Princess would be welcome, it seems that the classic exotica Aston type stuff is sneered at by a lot of the "Practical Classic" brigade because it is too expensive for them and reverse snobbery is rampant in old car circles.

 

I wouldn't have let the Princess in either. An A35, TR6 or P6b by all means, but the dismal end of BL's 70s offences isn't something to celebrate at a Goodwood classic meet - it's more suited to a Plughole Day at Gaydon, or the AS Cholmondely stand.

 

Turning up at a Goodwood Classic meet in the Princess is the 'classic' car equivalent of going to a concert against child abuse and getting Gary Glitter to hand out "Jim Fixed it for me" badges.

[Richard]

 

Turning up at a Goodwood Classic meet in the Princess is the 'classic' car equivalent of going to a concert against child abuse and getting Gary Glitter to hand out "Jim Fixed it for me" badges.

 

 

I would be very surprised if that has never happened.

[Angrydicky]

It's Brooklands the Princess was turned away from, not Goodwood Pete. Goodwood is a fair bit posher, and rarely, if ever has BL stuff at its meets. Brooklands, pretty much anything goes usually. They even have an Austin Morris day there every year, with plenty of Metros, Maestros and Princesses.

 

I wouldn't like to try to get a Princess into a Goodwood event mind. The Goodwood Classic Breakfast is laden with cars like Jags, Astons and Bugattis. The Brooklands one is full of MGB's and TR's.

[Pete-M]

Ah. Brooklands isn't quite the same.

 

Still. If it upset a militant plug holer, I'm all for it. They're worse than VAG fans for sense of humour failure.