Northants - Lincolnshire Wolds Meet Saturday July 22nd 2023

[dragonflyjewels]

Apologies to anyone who didn't realise we had to cancel the meet in June - it was very short notice so I hope no-one had a wasted journey.
I've now re-arranged it for 22nd July, and hope the date is good for as many people as possible.

Here is the schedule :

TOBY CARVERY, WOOTTON
NN4 0TG
8.30 – 10.00 am

WHITWELL
RUTLAND WATER
LE15 8BL
1st photo shoot & lunch
at HARBOUR CAFE
12.00 – 2.30 pm

THE PETWOOD HOTEL
LN10 6QG
tea/coffee
3.45 – 4.45

CADWELL PARK
LN11 9SE
2nd photoshoot
5.30 – 6 pm

ROYAL OAK
The Splash
LN11 8LZ
evening meal
6.30 pm onwards

As always, everyone is welcome for all or part of the day. 480 preferable, but anything on wheels will do. If you plan to join us for the evening meal, please let me know asap as they get very busy on a summer Saturday. Anyone wanting to stay over at the Royal Oak will need to get a room booked pronto as well.

[WillC9303]

Sounds good!

[jamescarruthers]

Is the cat coming?

[dragonflyjewels]

Is the cat coming

Only the one hanging under the car

[jamescarruthers]

Is the cat coming

Only the one hanging under the car

Hahaha!

I hope to be there, along with Alf to see how much he will tolerate in 480

[dragonflyjewels]

Fingers crossed he's a little happy chappy then.

[jamescarruthers]

I've booked rooms at the Travelodge at the start and the pub at the end and am hoping to break my 480's meeting curse this time

[richard-smyth]

'ow do ? Me son Finlay and me plan to attend in Pudsey the R2 Celebration Volvo 480, starting with the cafe lunch and ending with the pub evening meal. We won't be staying over. Thanks for organising the meet up.
Cheers, Richard Smyth.

[dragonflyjewels]

Thanks for letting me know Richard, be nice to see you and R2 again.

[dragonflyjewels]

Just a reminder....

[GCooper]

Hopefully there's one next year, starting restoration on the 15th

[jamescarruthers]

Prepping for little passenger


Boot is still bloody useless!


But good enough to get going tonight and be in position for the morning

[jifflemon]

At least it’s not a silver cross pram - you’d probably be better towing one of them!

[richard-smyth]

Sorry but will have to see how bad the weather is before setting off tomorrow morning. . .

[richard-smyth]

Not looking forward to driving such a long way all day in the rain, so won't be coming along.
Hope you enjoy your day,
Cheers, Richard.

[dragonflyjewels]

Al and I decided to take Eva, his turbo, and Paris. First stop on Friday afternoon was our bodyshop, where I had taken the Saab for some bodywork and stupidly left my satnav on the windscreen when Al picked me up. They were quite surprised to see double trouble arrive



Well, the weather certainly wasn't very kind to us on Saturday and reduced our numbers to a very mini mini-meet but we still had a great day.
At Northampton, we were joined by James with the smallest 480 recruit in their launch car (wow, well impressed the car made it this time!). WillC made it by the skin of his teeth in his 2litre two tone. Also at Northampton were Jeff driving Seymour, Will Dendy minus his GT and David Delmonte in his very nice Celebration. None of those three were able to come to Rutland with us, so after the inevitable full English breakfasts and exchange of bags of 480 bits between Jeff and I, we set off with Will C and James, leaving Jeff and Will Dendy showing David how to fit a pair of Jeff's repro'd headlamp brackets. Jeff's little shop of horrors to the rescue again !

By the time we got to Rutland, light showers were starting but we got some pictures by the water











Your eyes are not deceiving you - Will actually does have the green strip denoting an electric car on his plates. Done as a joke, he is now tired of people asking about his 'conversion' so I suspect there will be new plates next time we see him.

After a pleasant lunch and chat we set off again for Petwood Hotel, where I was very happy to find new member Paul-b waiting for us despite the rain. I think Jeff was more than a little pleased to receive this photo



It's been far too long since Jeff was able to add a 'live' turbo to his register, and this one is that very rare colour, oyster grey/lavender metallic. It looked a lovely grey in the rain but without the sun we couldn't really see the mauve undertones. I'm sure we will be seeing more of Paul, so fingers crossed it's sunny next time.

Drinks and cakes followed by a visit to the 'dambusters' officers' mess to look at the memorabilia followed, although James and son departed for the overnight hotel after refreshments - a one year old takes quite a long time to feed, wash and get to bed so James needed a head start.

Having swapped James' launch car for Paul's turbo in the convoy, we went off to Cadwell Park, with the rain steadily getting worse. On arrival we found the gates still open, and the guy's car parked next to the fence, but the ticket box was empty, the rain getting heavier and a very cold wind making it even more unpleasant. We gave up on getting into the circuit for photos alongside the track, and settled for a few very quick shots outside the gate.







After a long and tiring day, we arrived safely at the Royal Oak



After drinks in the bar, we said goodbye to Will who had a long drive back to Surrey. Paul, James and baby monitor joined us in the restaurant for a lovely meal and long interesting chat. All three men were engineers of one sort or another so it was a great end to a very enjoyable day. We discovered that Paul's car was bought by his father in 1999, so it's been in their family for longer than I've had Snazzy !

[WillC9303]

Enjoyable day despite the weather! Nice to see everyone and meet a couple new faces too.

And yes you're right, those plates are on borrowed time

[jifflemon]

Wish I could have joined for the full trip, but sadly, having just returned from Prague (work) I'm 4 days behind on stuff - yes, my backlog is now backlogged.....

Also kicking myself for not taking photo's of Davids car mid bracket swap - Could have turned it into a how to. Shall add that to the backlog....

[dcwalker]

Sorry I couldn't make this one - looks as if fun was had despite the weather!

Fingers crossed we'll be available for the next one...

David

[jamescarruthers]

I had a great time although the weather did rather stop most of the 480 admiring. Good thing there was good company!

Thanks for the little freebie Sylvia and Al. It’s up on Alf’s wall: