FOTU 2023

11,466 · July 29, 2023

9 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Sad times. Quite how binning decent survivors like your XM from the cities is the right* choice, I'll never understand. Can't you just clone the plate from Ronnie Pickering's Pickarsehole and drive on?!

sadly its not just the cities, I could live with that. Its the 600 square mile greater London area including suburbia and semi rural areas . all other clean air zones are generally where people choose to go to shop, socialise and eat/drink. The ULEZ expansion takes the zone to one where 9 million people live and can't simply choose if they go in to it or not

7,085 · July 29, 2023

Had a pretty good day, Saab didn't miss a beat even though it looks rough. Actually pretty well received too, had a few positive comments about it.

By sheer coincidence, I ended up parked in a row of unexceptional executive cars...

1,176 · July 29, 2023

Some pics from a great day:

The Gold Standard

Nope, I'd never either...

Someone out 'shedded' my Acadiane with this cracking Ami;

AS royalty!

21,767 · July 29, 2023

29 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

sadly its not just the cities, I could live with that. Its the 600 square mile greater London area including suburbia and semi rural areas . all other clean air zones are generally where people choose to go to shop, socialise and eat/drink. The ULEZ expansion takes the zone to one where 9 million people live and can't simply choose if they go in to it or not

Utter madness and a huge knock-on effect, as you say. It's just a shame that something thinly veiled as a 'this is good for the planet' is in reality just a massive cashcow for the powers that be.

On a slight aside, I remember being at the Motorshow when the XM was launched. '89 I think. I've never been much of a Citroen fan but even I was taken aback at how pretty they were in the metal. I always liked the hidden rear indicator arrangement too - really stealthy! I've still got my XM pin badge which I picked up at the time tucked away somewhere.

58,159 · July 29, 2023

4 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Good to see so many familiar faces there today. We got in earlier so no drama, but the sound of imminent failure echoed across the lanes as, once again, people took too long to get parked.

Still, the bASe got lots of attention (mainly due to being parked next to a Delorean) and I successfully managed to avoid every YouTuber, Content Creator and weirdo who was there. (literally hundreds)

my son takes a truly terrible photo!

I somehow managed to miss both you and the bASe. Oh well, next time. Are you going to any of the ECR meets this summer?

When I left the Dacia was refusing to start, having been both overheating and overcharging on the way in. Hopefully catsinthewelder managed to get it sorted and won't need to wait for the big yellow taxi back to Shropshire...

21,767 · July 29, 2023

Spotted online just now. Is it the '14 from here?

Edit: @MattJY come on down!

33,812 · July 29, 2023

54 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

I somehow managed to miss both you and the bASe. Oh well, next time. Are you going to any of the ECR meets this summer?

When I left the Dacia was refusing to start, having been both overheating and overcharging on the way in. Hopefully catsinthewelder managed to get it sorted and won't need to wait for the big yellow taxi back to Shropshire...

Hey man. We made a dart for it about 1430 as we’d seen it all and I needed to be somewhere else.

It’d be good to rendezvous at ECR; perhaps @Spottedlaurelmight make a cameo too.

16,227 · July 29, 2023

3 hours ago, Soundwave said:

Had a pretty good day, Saab didn't miss a beat even though it looks rough. Actually pretty well received too, had a few positive comments about it.

By sheer coincidence, I ended up parked in a row of unexceptional executive cars...

Wow, you've been busy. It looks great! Well done. Hope you enjoyed the day.

11,466 · July 29, 2023

glad I went, had a great day. And saw the Isle or wight Sana and a Tatra which was a Bonus

5,511 · July 29, 2023

x2 14E Leaders!

33,812 · July 29, 2023

This lady left a zero word review of the Sierra.

5,348 · July 29, 2023

3 hours ago, Surface Rust said:

Nope, I'd never either...

Ahh... So that's what that was going the other way on our way home from Saltburn, my Dad and I thought it was a Simca / Chrysler.

I saw a few old Saabs and Volvos heading north and when I saw this, it clicked that FOTU was today.

7,085 · July 29, 2023

13 minutes ago, grogee said:

Wow, you've been busy. It looks great! Well done. Hope you enjoyed the day.

Thanks, but that's a very flattering pic. Still got door bottoms made of fresh air, and rear arches made of ferrous oxide and wishful thinking.

July 29, 2023

I can confirm I attended. I can also confirm I did not take any pictures. It was very nice to see so many AS cars, and chat to a few owners also. Totally worth getting up at 5, and 310 miles covered. Even the traffic was kind, somehow. FOTU is my favourite event, and didn’t disappoint.

12,898 · July 29, 2023

25 minutes ago, BorniteIdentity said:

It’d be good to rendezvous at ECR; perhaps @Spottedlaurelmight make a cameo too.

Thursday 24th August? That's imminently feasible, might get one or others in the family fleet along as well.

Back to FOTU, I look forward to catching up with pic's.

7,085 · July 29, 2023

I was thinking about starting a new thread with my pics on it, but what the heck. I'll join in here instead.

So without further delay... time for a thread hijack. 😁

After a rather rushed job of replacing the Saab's rusted out wing, I went over it with a jet wash and decided that was good enough.

Set off on the 60 mile journey to Grimsthorpe, this 120 mile round trip is the longest journey I've taken the car on. And of course, it was mechanically fine, it's a great cruiser on longer trips too. Got there in good time, although it took an additional 30 minutes from getting there to getting in. I didn't mind though, just before arrival I'd noticed a slight clonk coming from the front of the car, so the stationary traffic gave me a moment to investigate. Easy fix, and totally not the car's fault; in my rush to put the car back together, it seems I hadn't fully cinched up a couple of the wheel nuts and they'd worked a bit loose! Thankfully the centre cap design means they can't back out fully, a quick tighten and all was well again. Always check your nuts, kids!

As mentioned above, upon arrival I ended up being parked next to some other executive class cars... I don't think it was intentional, but made for a good display!

Then, it was just a case of wander around and take photos of whatever took my fancy. Didn't take as many as usual, partly because I wanted to actually look at the cars for myself, and partly to conserve phone battery. One of the downsides of phones being a camera and a sat nav in one, need to make sure I leave enough juice to get home! Anyway, here they are...

Some might call this exceptional, but I don't care. Was bloody lovely, and RHD too:

It's like an early 90s car park:

Unos have been conspicuously absent from FOTU until this year. One of three in attendance:

Believe this one did the rounds on social media, an ULEZ scrappage escapee:

Is it wrong the first thing I thought of when I took this pic was "Hehe... the BX numberplate says "fap". Fnarr fnarr."

7,085 · July 29, 2023

Bit of Italian flair:

Nineties shades of red:

A Florino van which hasn't disintegrated? Blimey. Also that's an incredibly beige Rover.

Off-white Metro, in ultra luxurious* City X spec.

Luxurious onion-carrier.

Which decade? All of them.

7,085 · July 29, 2023

R8s and 205s were both well represented as usual, although perhaps not quite as much as previous years. Volvo 900 estates and Citroen BXs seemed the most numerous this time around.

Mad to think there's only a decade of difference between these two:

Low mileage Laguna:

I have a soft spot for Avenger estates, I was bought home from hospital in one of these, albeit an orange one. Explains a lot really.

2.3 Granada. All expenses spared!

Cars in colour...

7,085 · July 29, 2023

One of two early Alpines in attendance:

Soft spot for this as well, my mum had a 216GSi on a G plate. Tin worm ate it in the end.

A not-so-teenaged Starlet:

A very late Simca pickup, so late it's wearing Talbot badges:

I'm always divided on two-tone cars made after the 1970s, but this special edition Fiesta rocks it.

A not-so-musical Maestro, resplendent in zero cost option blue:

7,085 · July 29, 2023

I struck gold in this part of the field:

Nothing to say here, I just really really like this.

Genuinely didn't even know there was a 504 estate until today!

I was Cordia-lly invited to take a photo of this. Actually I wasn't, I was just trying to shoehorn that shit pun in.

Obligatory:

Best(?) of British(?):

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7,085 · July 29, 2023

... ending on a Triumph-ant note, hope you enjoyed the pics. I'm going for a lie down. Walked bloody miles today! Enjoyed it, caught the sun a bit on my head, but it was a good day as ever.

Oh and a special mention to a lovely metallic red Renault 19 I had a good nose around but didn't photograph, which I believe is someone's on here. Would have photographed it, except my phone battery was on "pLeAse kiLl mE, eNd mY suFfEring" by this stage.

58,159 · July 29, 2023

16 minutes ago, Soundwave said:

Oh and a special mention to a lovely metallic red Renault 19 I had a good nose around but didn't photograph, which I believe is someone's on here. Would have photographed it, except my phone battery was on "pLeAse kiLl mE, eNd mY suFfEring" by this stage.

Here's the 19, the 14 and the digi dash 11 TXE all lined up together, with bonus Trigger photobomb.

58,159 · July 29, 2023

Mine was one of three Carina Es there this year. There was a metallic brown auto, and a silver 1.8 manual - the latter drove past me just as I was getting my bottle of water out of mine and we had a brief chat about what excellent cars Carina Es are. He bought his last year just to "do a job" (he needed a 5-seater with a big boot for a week and it was cheaper than hiring a car), but he was so impressed that he kept it and it became his daily, and he's done 14K miles in it in the last year.

No Renault 6s this year, but there were three Renault 4s (including Mr Lobster's F6 van) and there was even another brown Y-reg Visa Spécial - I hung around for a while trying to spot its owner but I missed him unfortunately.

5,792 · July 29, 2023

Another really enjoyable FoTU. It's the sheer variety of cars that you get to see that makes it for me. As others have alluded the hipster/YouTuber/influencer crowd become more apparent each year or perhaps I'm just getting older and grumpier?

My Fabia was directed into the classic and unexceptional display so I was able to park up with my fellow Celts, L-R = @juular @davidfowler2000 @blackboilersuit @MrsJuular @captain_70s