Road trip to Wales for the Marina Nationals

[trigger]

This weekend i drove 631 miles to North Wales and back in my old Marina for the Marina Nationals, Friday morning we all joined up at a friends and convoyed the 240+ miles to Llangwyfan where we was staying.

I managed to lose everyone just outside Crewe after getting petrol so made my own way there via Google maps and the back roads and still managed to beat them by over a hour!

After a few drinks in the village the next morning we drove up to Hawarden airport, home of the airbus and met with all the others for a road run, i wasn't able to get any photos here as we wasn't allowed so had to wait until we got to some craft centre in Ruthin.

I was rather taken by this low mileage Ital with awesome number plates.

After this we convoyed over the Horseshoe pass to Chainbridge Hotel.

[Amishtat]

Great pics! 

[trigger]

Whilst there we also visited Llangollen Motor Museum, home of Shitefest 2015.

I only took these two rubbish photos.

Leaving there we drove over Dee Bridge which was pack and had everyone out watching us, unfortunately at this point i lost the car in front and ended up being the leading car with around 10 others following behind me and i managed to take the wrong turn forcing everyone to do a 3 point turn in the road to get back on route again! ? 

We then went up and over the Horseshoe pass again and headed into Mold for a few photos, here though we stopped at Harleys garage, it's a ex BL garage which closed down around 2006 after the woner died all it still has all the parts locked inside as well as three cars!

 

[wuvvum]

Were there any issues with brakes over the Horseshoe in the end?

[trigger]

13 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Were there any issues with brakes over the Horseshoe in the end?

Not at all, everyone's car was perfect on there, to be honest it wasn't anywhere as bad as i remember it being, i think i may have been getting confused with somewhere in Yorkshire?.

The following day we had our show and shine event at Caerwys so we headed off to that, now it's at this point i admit that i forget to take many photos of the club stand but the important bit is that i won best Mk2! ?

I did managed to take a few photos of the other cars at the show though.

I loved this Mk2 1300 Sport, just nicely done with no  attached bullshit.

Apparently the plate on this belonged to the owners granddads first car back in the early 1900's.

The owner of this Acclaim said he's owned it 17 years and it's never been painted, just polished a lot, it's done 80000 miles.

This J4 was amazing, never restored and under 20000 miles, the patina was perfect.

A reg Cortina 2.3 Ghia S!

The only photos i took of the marinas, i fail.

Then yesterday morning we all headed home again!

 

All those miles and not one car had a FTP, mine was the only one to have issues and that was my points closing on the pass and the oil well in my rocker shaft has blocked making my tappets a tad noisy, I'm happy with that!

[wuvvum]

Like the Fiat 126 towing a trailer tent in the background of that last pic.  Braver man than me...

[Brodders]

Looks like a great weekend; that gold Ital is brilliant.

Quite a range of unusual cars at the show too, especially the Simca and Datsun. Were there many there altogether, or was it mainly Marina dominated?

[Skut]

Mustardmit Mark 1 Marinas are really good looking cars. It's not hard to see why they sold so many despite the bad press. 

When did they drop chrome hubcaps etc on the Mk2. I see yours on an R plate still has the more attractive early 70s look. 

[trigger]

Mine still got them as it was a base model deluxe, the supers got outer rings too until the MK3 turned up around 1979ish which had proper trims.

[Cavcraft]

Brilliant pic's, Trigger. Looked like a fun time and good news on the award!

[Asimo]

Good stuff!  Next year you can take the van........

[trigger]

Funnily enough last year I did take the van over 700 miles to Devon! https://autoshite.com/topic/32448-morris-marina-nationals-and-bonus-car-show/

Never again, the whole experience broke me! A heavyweight van with low ratio rear axle which means it screams it guts out at 60mph, absorbs all the heat in the sun and bounces like mad isn't a experience I want to go through again!

[brownnova]

Can’t believe there were this many Marinas close by to me and it was the weekend I was away with the 2CVers! Looks like an awesome weekend! 

[dollywobbler]

Top content!

[lesapandre]

Thanks for posting - lovely article. Cars look absolutely stunning and given all the 70's and 80's nostalgia about these days really seem to have come of age. Great stuff!!

[ETCHY]

That orange TC is sooo cool, I always thought those wheels really lifted the Marina shape. Is that a TC in the abandoned garage ?

A mate of mine had a white 1.3 Marina in the mid 1980's, it cost him £150.00 from a bomb site car lot.  It was pretty shagged but it was a real laugh. I well remember trying to jack it up & the car not really moving but the passenger seat starting to shift a bit ! Kids now will never know the joy of owning something not on a PCP that's truly fucked