Cranleigh Classic Car Show 2015 PICS!

[Lucky]

[Lucky]

Another one I'll try to keep it brief for. I'm backing up here, lol

I'd never been before, which is criminal and slightly inexplicable really, since it's like half an hour up the road. So it seemed long past time. So we wedged the tinies into the F*rd and pottered off to Cranleigh. Which is a very insular and slightly posh little village nestling in the Surrey weald and not at all the sort of place you'd imagine would encourage hoodlums of poor breeding with an accompaniment of noisy and vulgar powered wheeled carriages to descend on their country idyl.

How wrong one can be! The Lions who organise it provide the most helpful, welcoming and downright pleasant marshalling and management of any car event I've ever been to, anywhere. Couldn't be more helpful and when we went up the wrong entrance and needed to turn round to get to the disabled parking, there was no shouting and grumpiness, they just happily stopped traffic right away and got us back where we needed to be. Slightly different to the monosyllabic grunts you tend to get at t'Pod.

As to the show, well it's almost exactly like a tiny version of the Bromley Pageant, only without a lot of the hassle and most importantly, without the humongous queues. A scattering of interesting cars from ancient to modern, plenty of club displays, an autojumble over to one side in a big disused barn thing, an arena in the middle for cars and firemen and such to display in. Oh, and Mike Brewer. Can't have everything, I suppose. Anyway, it was a very chilled atmosphere and the sort of show where you can just wander about and look at stuff, no worry no hurry. And the weather held off too, which is a pleasant change in this wettest August for 100 years

So, given the slightly random nature of the event we'll just look through at random shall we? There was a great spread of Astons, as one might expect given the location. Still like the DB6 best, thanks. Especially the white one, lovely!























However, the AMOC weren't the only grand old British lady in attendance. The Jensen boys and girls were also out in force. Plenty of Interceptors, including rather more louvres than original



A convertible with a bright red roof ought not to work really, but somehow this Interceptor pulls it off with panache



And of course, we need the slightly clumsy and bulbous shape of an original Interceptor just to show how right the second try was



CV8 was a much more pleasing shape



And since we seem to have started with some quintessentially British marques, what could be more British than a Bentley painted with scenes of Empire such as Waterloo, Wellington and Churchill. Not sure I really understand it, but I guess you have to admire the work that's gone into it







I think we need something a bit calmer after that! How about a beautifully clean little 260Z?





I don't recall ever seeing an Alpine 310 in real life before, but this one held my attention for quite some time. I didn't find a single bad angle to photograph it from, which is unusual. Most cars have a "bad" side but this one is pretty stunning no matter which end you look at it from











In fact, I was going to say the only one I've ever seen was on Wheeler Dealers... which brings us to the AlfaSud. When did you last see one? Considering they were everywhere back when I was a kid, they really have vanished from the world. Which is a shame, I reckon





And on the topic of Alfas, the 8C is another car that doesn't have a bad angle. Gorgeous. Beautiful colour, too







CSL was bright enough to light up a dull day.







Love this '70 'cuda. Totally original-looking and just perfect



Datsun. Brown. What could possibly say "Seventies" any louder than that? The "Deluxe" badges did raise a snigger





The craziest Jaaaaag, the one that started the legend. Why would you need a passenger door, after all? This is what a REAL racer for the road looks like, lol



And speaking of crazy, how about a High-Fidelity Delta Integrale just to up the bonkersness stakes a bit?

[spirit r]

I don't recall ever seeing an Alpine 310 in real life before, but this one held my attention for quite some time. I didn't find a single bad angle to photograph it from, which is unusual. Most cars have a "bad" side but this one is pretty stunning no matter which end you look at it from

That must be the more exotic one with the 4 piston engine.They also have 3 hole wheels sometimes at first. The later Version 6 Piston engine and headlight change.
Thanks for sharing!
Thomas

[Lucky]

Allegro Van DenPlas. Perhaps the oddest collaboration between Brussels and England since... well, I'm sure you can write the punchline to that one yourself. Brown, importantly, faux veneer picinic tables, essentially, mock-tudor grille, awesomely, and lack of USP Square steering wheel. Fail





If the idea of a coachbuilt Allegro is an odd one, then the Ami 6 is simply plain odd. Those lines! Citroen; wonderful madness since 1919





This is obviously a post for the oddities. Here's that weird hybrid fairy/frog/dragonfly/weirdness Alvis mascot again, as seen recently in my Goodwood Breakfast Club thread. Plus a close-up of the most grandiose oil filter housing ever. By way of apology for all my whole-car photos sucking





I keep trying to think of some excuse to by a grungy shoptruck... besides the points that I don't have a shop and have no need of a truck. But things like this excellently grungy Apache really aren't helping





...although this beautiful and pristine Bedford really rocked my world!





I've been seeing this hotrod everywhere lately, and that's a good thing. From a distance, it looks much like any other pretty-well executed rod, it's only when you get up close that you notice it's unique selling point. Rather than a flathead Ford or Chevy small block, this one's running a Desoto Firedome Hemi V8. And that's a cool, cool thing





The Cranleigh Show is not only a delightfully chilled-out vibe around it, but it's also good because people filter away slowly rather than seeming to vanish en masse like at some shows. This means as you continue to wander around dazedly, new cars that you didn't notice before suddenly pop up into sharp focus, no longer hidden in ranks and ranks of stuff. like this Renault 8 thing



...although not like this D-Type which proved unsurprisingly popular all day





Prettiest Ferrari evar. Fact. If I say it often enough with enough conviction, it'll pass into fact anyway



Eldorado. Or the best bit of one, anyway



Here's an unusual one. Remember in the Goodwood Thoroughbred thread I drew your attention to the rare Bond Equipe 2 ltr convertible? Well, handily enough, here's a coupe version for comparison. Slightly prettier than the 'vert (IMHO) but still with totally tragic noddy-sized wheels. Needs moar bigger wheels!



Awesome! Tent shags Escort!



This made me look twice until I realised it was LHD



primer grey seems to suit Cinquecentos



Ice-white Falcon brightened up the day







There were loads of tractors, industrial vehicles and stationary engines (a very bizarre sub-culture of petrolhead where olde-worlde guys set up hundred year old noisy, vibratory things with lots of drivebelts to pump water in and out of buckets). not something that totally blows my skirt up, although strangely fascinating in its own way. The Boy enjoyed blagging sits on the tractors, although the bubble machines proved too great a distraction to avoid







I've a lot of love for this Fairlane. A lot of lines and trim, none of which quite seem to match each other







I always think Beetles look their best either grimy and ratty or as smooth and bright as possible. This is one end of the spectrum



Bel Airs. There are always BelAirs. Everywhere you go! '57 is the archetype year that everyone wants... this olde Englishe Creame colour seems to suit very well



'55 would be the one for me though, ta



although I do love the rounded rump/flanks of the '53. And the toothy chrome grin







Another couple of cars I keep seeing everywhere are a pair of examples of Pontaics' unfeasibly mahoosive Bonneville. The '59 is totally exemplary of the fins 'n' chrome era, the bigger the better... and it don't get better than a car with about eight feet of unused space outside the wheelbase to fill with shiny trinkets, lol. Still mystified as to why soooooo many American car owners seem to think American begins and ends with a Confederate flag though











This (slightly) more restrained '67 might come from an era when the chrome had seeped away and the fins drooped, but it's no less enormous and probably still has just as much shock and awe. Delightfully original, the engine bay is like opening a time capsule and the owner was kind enough to let The Boy have a sit. Reach the pedals? He could barely even reach the wheel!







Rare enough to see any flavour of Borgward (a company where conspiracy theorists will tell you that their products were so good that the bigger German manufacturers with stronger lobbies essentially pressurised Government into ensuring Borgward would go under), but if you do see one it tends to be the more "common" Isabella model. This Pullman was claimed by the owner to be the only one in the UK, and it certainly looks as though it would have made an eminently suitable alternative for the Boss to waft his chauffer-driven way to work in, rather than the more ubiquitous and vulgar Mercedes of the day





And on the subject of chauffeur-driven luxury, you can well imagine a liveried flunky at the helm of this very grand 20s Buick which wasd just stunning in every detail and beautifully redolent of an age of coach-built opulence









Something you'd often associate with older Cadillacs, too, although this one has a decidedly louche and sporty fastback feel to it. Almost brash, and all the better for it!







Regular readers will be well aware of my perversion towards American Muscle, so it'll come as no surprise I found some pony cars to ogle. This blue '68 Camaro had an very tidy bay and some nice subtle exterior touches... love the LED rear light conversion







Although if blue isn't your thing, you can have a red Z28 (maybe) with rally stripes instead.



My personal favourite was probably this '68 Cougar coupe, though. Essentially a slightly prettier and more upmarket Mustang, it scores massive win points by having hidden headlights and sequential rear indicator/tail-lights. Which as ane fule no, is the coolest things ever

[Lucky]

Sometimes you need to take a step back and remind yourself why exactly some cars become iconic and widespread. It's easy to get blase, seeing the same makes and models all over the place, to kinda forget why they're there in the first place. In the case of, say, Hyundais it's because they cost less than a round at the pub and come with a five-year warranty that bamboozles fools into not realising the car'll be worth less than a tramps shoes when the warranty expires. In the case of, say, Dodge Chargers, it's because they're downright bloody amazoid. And don't you forget it, lol











Is it wrong that I like Contis just because of the wee porthole window? Same reason I like early T-Birds. I thing it's the voyeuristic frisson of being able to see without being seen. Of course, I'd need a chaffeur...



Coupe de Ville would come from the days of the Styling Wilderness and thus upset me deeply were it not for two factoids rescuing it. One being the mad spangly paint, the other being the air-ride. And boom! suddenly it's oozing win from every orifice





Is it also wrong that a page full of American muscle cars illustrates exactly how neatly the MkIII Tina fits in? Albeit, anything with rear window louvres is a winnah in my world







And while we're on about random Fords, we might as well get the inevitable hotrod stuff that I can't identify. Think this is a '32



Think this is a '32 too. Cracking interior





Think this is a '34.





Great patination on this '51 (maybe) truck. Also an excellent hood ornament styled on a Captain Scarlet prop, apparently





Not even going to guess what year this Deluxe is from. Excellent colour, though



And speaking of colour... Because this thread franchises to several forums (lol, how posh), this next one won't make sense on some. But for those reading in Retro-Rides-Vision-O-Rama here's that archetype of scene, that doyen of ultimate cool, that humble street-kid made good, that acme, that zenith that is the #crappybeigemetro



I believe that this extravagant 'rod started life as a '37 Ford, although it's now the kind of sculpture that could easily have been imagineered by Boyd Coddington or Rick Dore. Not my kinda thing, but very impressive as a mobile sculpture







The enduring amount of shock and awe still provoked by the GT40 just shows how form following function can work and create works of art, and also just how right Lola got their shiz before Ford threw the yankee dollah into Slough and made it world-beating. Just look at how many replicas are still being built!







The Grim Wrecker. Arf! See what they've done there? Not sure what the Boy was checking for underneath, ghosts, maybe





Lovely colour and finish on this GMC truck. makes a change from the more usual Chevy Task Force, too



Wolseley. A lot easier to say than it is to spell. This is a FourFortyFour... a bingo caller's dream





Always room for a nice tight Fulvia. Awesomes



Still find this GTX/Superbird hybrid thing slightly awkward and upsetting. But then I keep taking photos of it so go figure





Gazillions of Healeys... I always thought they were a bit of a small-volume niche even back in their day but I seem to be seeing more and more of them. This white-on-blue 100 was the pick for me, especially with the rakish speedster look of folding the screen flat





bizarre but undeniably practical method of spare wheel stowage



The guy with this Daimler Hemi-engined dragster was pretty chilled, letting the Boy clamber about and have a sit in it and everything. He said his old man had dragged it out of the garage, dusted it off and pretty much ran exactly as it had twenty years ago when it last saw daylight





If you're going to give in to the extravagance of the 50s excess of American car design, then why not go with one of the archetypes? 58 Impala, the original and (nearly) the maddest







Moar Lancias. There was one really old Lanica, a bit like a Beetle in shape but with 2CV-style ribbed panels, broken down in the queue to get in. The only pic I got was a dodgy phone one but I'll have to dig it out cos I'd love to know what it actually is



Here's an unusual one; the Ford Maverick (which most of us probably think of as a feeble soft-roader thing) was a Falcon-based out-market thing made for Canada, Mexico, Brazil and such places where Ford had a presence but not necessarily enough commitment to sell "genuine" products. I like it a lot; loads of Ford parts-bin pieces on a semi-240Z-esque shape





Mercury being the upmarket division of Ford, it seems a bit odd that one could buy a pickup from them. Which presumably was like the equivalent Ford but a bit more posher. If there is such a thing. Cool hood badge





In the early 50s this Montclair was Mercury's top-flight model, though in later years it was watered down to a mere trim level



Nash was always trying to stay independent, albeit on the back of various mergers. Perhaps it would have worked out better for them if they'd stayed away from the quirky and weird... albeit now the Metropolitan looks an excellently different thing, especially with the funky metalflake



The Mini Jem is the flip side of the Mini Marcos; the alternative version of Dizzy Aldicott's Dart design was marketed as the Jem by Jeremy Delmar-Morgan. This example featured quite a lot of terrifying panel gaps and bondo thicker than Katie Prices' foundation. Maybe some were better than others. Tiny human handily photobombs pic for size comparison purposes!



'Stangs! Always wid da stangs! '65



'67 fastback. Lovely!



Chrysler New Yorker back in 1957 was as good as it got... a money-no-object extravagance (given that Chrysler never actually had any money)







we've already seen some BelAirs... which is nice... so how about the logical extension? With the emphasis on the "extension". It doesn't come much better in the wonderful world of wagons than a Nomad



Ferrari replica was undeniably attractive... although oddly shoved over to one side of the field besides the tractors. Perhaps a more natural environment to find a Lambo in rather than this gorgeous P4 (I think)





Beautifully tidy Ford engine bay

[Lucky]

This is weird.

Like, really weird. In fact, so weird I've no idea how to even go about describing it. I think the numberplate says it all! It has Pontiac emblems and that's about all I can tell you about it. It's like some 70s custom thing but from the 50s. Is it factory or custom? Who knows? write in if you do, lol











I like the amount of work that's gone into this '32 Ford... custom one-offs like the windscreen surround and rocket exhausts





Given how many Buick/Rover V8 engines have been made and how many vehicles they found their way into, it's a bit of a surprise that they don't seem to surface in more rods and sods. Extremely flat 'rod bucks the trend



Given how many Rollers ended up being given away for under a grand owing to the rotten-ness of bodies and the unfeasibly expensive thirst, I'm often surprised more of them don't turn up converted into something else, too. I'd buy one just for the Lady



Unusual to see a Satellite Wagon... even more so in Sports variant. Some more brutally awesomes stick-on wood effect. Some creative Coyote stickering, too





Some Stingrays for Madame le Jo, who claims to love/want one. I try to explain that it's kinda weird for a girl to want the ultimate chest-wig chariot, but she insists...





fun fun fun till my daddy took my T-Bird away



Love this van. Made me want a shop van even more than I was already wanting a shop truck



I was recently reading about the death of the SM when Michelin basically dropped their share in Citroen overnight. A real shame on what was a typically forward-thinking and superb piece of Citroen engineering. Apparently there were hundreds of completed shells in the assembly plant and Maserati had dozens of built V6s waiting to ship, but the new ownership wanted nothing to do with the car they saw as a hopelessly flawed white elephant... the shells were crushed and Maserati told bluntly they could do what the hell they liked with the motors... even dump them into Meraks. A real shame, cos it meant there are a good few hundred less of these awesome GTs in the world than there should be





Posh Imp.



Hahhhhhhnda S800 shows exactly how close to being a four-wheeled motorbike the first cars from Soichiro's mob were; basically a quad-carbed bike engine stuck in a tiny car



There were some genuinely unusual cars around as well. This clean little Saab V4 reminded me not only what a pretty little car they were, but also how damned long it's been since I last saw one!







I don't even remember ever seeing a Simca 1204 before, conversely, although there must have been some around! Maybe they were just slightly less memorable back int heir day? Little French Chrysler is funky









And I absolutively, definitely, posilutely have never seen one of these before.



Yeah, the lost Subaru; the SVX is very different to what we tend to associate the marque with... which sadly nowadays tends to be chavved-up monstrosities charged around on sink estates to the accompanying budgie-like chirrup of HKS dump valves or entire families at shows in identical matching 555 liveried fleeces, t-shirts, baseball caps and umbrellas. This thing is a big luxo-barge styled thing more akin to a Lexus than an Impreza, except perhaps the dodgy window apertures. I like the idea of the six-pot boxer though. And so did Dr Ferdninand, so there







Moar T-bird



Moar fake stick-on wood. I LOVE this Torino Squire. I love the patination... the genuine patination... on it. Three of us were poking around it at Brooklands recently and some blazer-clad old gimmer with a Brooklands Museum ID watched us for a bit before asking whether we'd rather not see nice cars that were restored to shininess. Our communal reaction is best abbreviated to "hell no" and even once we'd explained the cliche to him that they were only original once, he still didn't get it and just wandered off shaking his head and muttering in bafflement. I guess if you need it explained to you, you're never going to understand







Trabants. Lovely. Again, if you have to ask...



T-Bucket. A lot of great engineering goes into making something look this daft and impractical



Mmmm, tyreslut. Makes a change from bombsluts



Nice little X1/9 shows what we're all missing nowadays... file alongside the Alfasud under "all gone back to the soil"





Another very rare car; to the best of my knowledge I've only seen one before at the Classic Car Show. I really wanted to show of the fantastic mental door opening rountine to the Boy, but the owner was nowhere to be seen and my moral compass led me to believe It Would Be Wrong to just press that tantalising button...





I don't generally like much the 2nd-gen Camaros, but this tidy Z28 did kinda suck me in a bit



It's a good thing that the most righteous and awesome engine ever conceived by hand of Man was represented (the rotary of course, need you ask). It's a shame that it was represented by an FC RX-7, which is always a bit of an upsetting car. Still, nice to see there are still a few 'verts that haven't rotted down into mushrooms





Volvos. Depending which forum you're reading this on, you'll either probably never be persuaded or already know full well how cool old Volvos are. Yeah, I said cool old Volvos, live with it. If this 544 doesn't persuade you...



...or this awesome P1800 ES wagon then maybe you might want to go and check your pulse? It's possible you may not actually still be alive





Compare and contrast this 280ZX with the earlier lovely 240Z and it's easy to see where it all went wrong. Talk about your middle-aged spread!



Right, we're just about at the end now. As you know, my old Granny advised that you should always end on a song. And the song today is the La's Timeless Melody because I'm feeling nostalgic and whimsical after watching the Dark Crystal with the little ones... Mmmmm,, Skeksis... but for all those who haven't spent a quiet Sunday afternoon watching inspired 80s muppetry and don't want to listen to the best sound to come out of Liverpool since... hmmm... can't think of another decent Mersey group. Anyone? Anyway, let's end on a high instead shall we?

How about some utter lunacy so bonkers, so zany, so downright peculiar it could only be French?



Another one I don't believe I've ever seen outside of pictures before, the superb Panhard PL17. In the model name, the "P" stands for "Panhard"... that's easy (yes, that Panhard that all those rods are named after).. the "L" stands for "et Levassor"... the visionary other half of the original company, one of the oldest in the world and one with a considerable number of engineering firsts to its credit. The "17" refers to the sum of 5+6+6... five fiscal horsepower, six seats and six litres/100km fuel economy. This is an early example, too. The later ones stored the spare wheel around the air filter (if you remove the wheel trims, what appear to be the wheel centres are actually the brake drums) so as to free up more rear luggage space. In the utilitarian ethic of small French cars, the rear bench could be lifted out to make a huge load bay. This car wasn't all about economy and practicality, mind; despite the seemingly archaic and compromised air-cooled twin engine, one of these one the 1961 Monte Carlo rally! And as for the styling; how French! How mad! How wonderful! Love it















Right, made it to the end (finally!). Thanks for reading as always. That's the door behind you, yeah, right there. Bye