A weekend full of surprises, with cars turning up I wasn't expecting, some leaving and others joining at practically every stop so overall a wonderful turnout with a constantly changing selection !
We started at services on the A303 and met Joe S and his wife for the first time - dedicated long-time 480 owner with his current treasure, a racing green turbo. Originally on an M plate, the current H is the private plate it came with. James arrived shortly after, and off we went to Thruxton where a stranger awaited us with a car I know quite well. We introduced ourselves to David Delmonte from the facebook group with the burgundy Celebration our friend Andrew rescued from a scrapyard and completely restored. (The same Andrew who inspected rescue cars R6 and R7 for us as well as hosting R6 until we had space) Then along came Ben (MrH) and so we were 6 for the first photos of the meet.
We said goodbye to Ben and Joe, and went off to Silverstone with James and David to look around the museum. Quite disappointing, not many cars but a lot of interactive displays. I was hoping for something more like the museum at Le Mans, but never mind. Next stop was the Volvo Training Centre where a lovely man called Colin not only let us into the carpark for photos, but also took us over to a unit where there are five of Volvo's Heritage Fleet. He looks after them which of course means taking them out for a spin to keep everything moving - gorgeous Amazon GT drew a lot more attention than the Polestar ! Jeff and Edie plus her son Fox joined us for this one so the lineup changed again.
Apologies to Colin for keeping him from watching a cricket match, but he was really interesting to talk to as well as interested in our cars.
Sunday morning found us in the Toby Carvery where we were pleasantly surprised to be joined by Will (Jaster) in his green GT and Ollie (100) is his two-tone, as well as Andreas from Facebook also in a two-tone. Arthur (oddballer) also arrived, but sadly his lovely Celeb decided to play up after a few months on the drive so he was in his work van. Then a message popped up on my phone from James, who had gone home Saturday evening, to say that he and his wife would re-join us at Rutland Water, where David and Lee Walker were also joining in Pud, the rescue Celebration.
a real credit to David at the Pamper Parlour, considering the first photo of Pud looked like this:
The lineup looked like this
One of the two tones had to move onto a flat hard surface ready for a possible bump start as it was only starting on the key when it felt like it - pushing uphill on wet grass would have been a nightmare.
Lunch at the pub was interesting - it had changed hands since our last visit and is now more of an Italian restaurant. My seafood soup was more seafood than soup and very peppery but absolutely delicious.
We said goodbye to James and Rachel who were off for a long walk, and Will and Ollie turned back south. We continued on our way to a tea break at The Petwood Hotel - beautiful old building in gorgeous grounds, which housed the officers mess for the Dambuster squadron in World War II. David and Al were in their element looking at all the memorabilia they have on display. We said goodbye to Andreas and continued on to Cadwell Park where a track day was still in progress. Again, we were let in for photos with the circuit in the background.
Then it was off to the Royal Oak for our evening meal. We said goodbye to Arthur and Edie and having opted for a late breakfast also said our goodbyes to David and Lee who were leaving earlier (I believe to collect some 480 parts - what else would David be doing on a Monday morning ?). We retired to our room absolutely exhausted but very happy after another successful and enjoyable meet with old friends and new.
I will at some point go through the dashcam footage and look for some nice stills of the varying convoys.