Bromley Pageant of Motoring 2015 PICS!

[Lucky]

COMING SOON!































There's some tasters to whet your appetite... see who guesses ten out of ten. And yeah, some are really easy

[Lucky]

Some to be getting on with, then.

Since it's a year since we went last, and I've slept since then, I'd forgotten all about the horrific queues trying to get in. Norman's Park is a big common surrounded by suburban residential streets, definitely not up to the sudden volume of traffic required by hosting Europe's biggest one-day car show. Throw the utter and complete lack of marshalling by either event staff or the police, and the recipe is for disaster soup with a garnish of grated clusterf***. Seriously, like try TWO HOURS stuck in a F*rd Focus with two small kids and see how well your joie de vivre survives.

The only plus point was that we WERE in a F*rd, had we been in either of my rotaries, I would have feared very much for their longevity. We saw all kinds of classics overheat and brew up in the stationary traffic. And it was stationary, as in moving once every five or ten minutes. A Vauxhall Velox just in front of us gave up the ghost, and I went for a walk (and a fag) to see if there was any end in sight. I got bored of waiting for the car to catch up to me, and walked back eventually. At least this meant the Waff was now driving so I could take some photos as we... errr.. didn't move

Broken XK causing havoc



Broken Mustang with AA in attendance. I guess that was the most glamorous job he got all day



Broken Sera. And I guess you really don't want to be under all that glass on a hot day when the aircon's off!



Once we'd finally got in the car park (despite none of the marshals knowing where the disabled parking was... it was in exactly the same place as all the other parking... in a field. With no hardstanding or ease of access or effort to accommodate disabled people whatsoever) the next challenge was to get the gate wallah to understand the concept of a pre-paid phone voucher ticket. Finallt the queue had got so long behind us he gave up and waved us through anyway. Seriously, the organisers of this shebang need executing at dawn. In fact, "organisers" is being a bit kind. They're rather more like whatever the opposite of an organiser is

Anyway, moan over. Once inside (FINALLY) the plethora of motorised stuff of every ilk soothed the frayed nerves, the kids had fairground stuff to rampage on, the sun was scorching, the grass smelled like summer and all in all we could relax into a fantastic family day out. With cars. Hurrah. So here's a whistle-stop tour of some things that caught my eye, in no particular order and a bit lite on words due to time constraints, lol


Datsun 240Z OC stand always has some beautiful examples








And this is a rare survivor now, a 120Y. Needs bigger wheels/moar lows though





A VERY rare beast, a beautifully back-to-front and eccentric two-stroke Saab 93F. You can tell it's an "F" because the doors were hinged the right way for the first time instead of suicide-style. Three-cylinder triple mounts ahead of the bulkhead-radiator and all sorts of weirdness





Mercedes 300 Adenauer brings a touch of class to proceedings



Loved this little Prefect/300 Thames/whatever van. Just enough custom without going too far. Skull in rear window nice touch



Alpine/Renault stand is always another perennial mainstay of the show. Much to love. A110s such a pretty car for one so capable



Loads of GTAs and suchlike. I liked this impossibly clean F40-inspired one





Someone's going to have to tell me what this adorably pretty little two-seater is. My google-fu is weak. Love the ornate sheet metal over the boot and rear wings





The Ferrari stand is always well represented, too. I don't go too much on modern ones, but I always love a nice 308. And I didn't even like Magnum PI







The Nash Ambassador (this one's a Super version) must have looked like the spaceships had landed when it was launched in 1950. You can really see the exuberance of the rocket age and streamlining in its smoothed-in body









Anglia looks impossibly hard on wide dish wheels



Think this fella might have owned this Austin Seven from new?



Unusual Austins amongst the military vehicles... Landrover-stylee staff car things. Driven by tigers, apparently



There are usually some superb commercial vehicles as well, such as this great old Bedford





How nice to see a Subaru that isn't a chavtastic Impreza with 5s stuck to it. Little Brat rocked cool patina and rust-based attitude





I always like to put in a pic or two just for Ada, to remind him what he's missing now he's chained to domestic servitude and can never be bothered coming to show any more. So here's a Karmann cabriolet Beetle just for him. Gorgeous colour



The forgotten supercar... the Berlinetta Boxer. Maybe a more compromised design than the Testarossa that followed it (such as minor details like forgetting to allow for two human-sized occupants in the cabin) but so much more less uglier! And it ain't easy fitting a giant flat-twelve in a small car



Beautiful old 1929 Buick showed how grandiose stuff was when people cared about every single last component







Beastly Camaro had plenty of blower and a NOS plumbing system that was little short of a work of art









Moar to follow

[ian65]

cracking photos and cars there....the work that's gone into those cars is something to be admired.
I've always fancied going to that show...... shame it's so far away from me

[Lucky]

Moar...


Much as I love the blown Camaro, I've always had a thing for the RS package with the blacked-out grille and lights. This is the one I'd take home with me, ta



Hordes of campervans in all flavours and shades of pastel



Loads of Capris, too, from the hard as nails



To the beautifully immaculate rarities like this three litre GXL







JPS still the best colourscheme ever





And of course, before the Capri as we know it there was.... errm, the Capri. Consul Capri, that is. Slightly weird 50s Americana styling now seems adorably cute and kitsch





The early-model Celicas were accused by Ford of being homage.... alright, copies then... of the Mustang. Hmmmm. Maybe if you squint a bit. Looks more like a Toronado to me, lol







and later ones date from a time when no-one in Japan had any drawing aids except rulers and everything was so straight and sharp you could shave with it



Mr Fuzz Townshend's (compere for the day and PPC columnist, co-host of Car SOS and most excellent Pop Will Eat Itself drummist) favourite hotrod when judging



Regular reader know I love overblown 50s American iron. This '57 Pontiac Chieftan makes me go all unnecessary. Lovely







Much less so 70s American (pig-)iron. Like this '73 Coupe deVille. Ugly like a brick, you definitely wouldn't want one running over your foot...





I don't think this '69 Coronet is a genuine Superbee as the hood is all wrong (amongst other things) and the genuine Superbees were a stripped out homologation special street racer type thing, not really the lush resto that this thing boasts. But what it is, is bloody gorgeous. Beautiful colour. Love the record player "stereo", great touch!











Cortinas were everywhere. Nothing changes then, lol. Plenty were pretty different from how Dagenham envisaged them, though. Such as this impossibly tidy Duratec conversion





And this impossibly clean (sense a trend emerging?) V8 conversion





And some just felt they didn't need to boast about anything



Always good to see the most beloved car of the insurance industry still going strong too. Still boggles my mind how anything as utterly beige and un-memorable as the Sierra could begat something as iconic as the Cossie







Jensen owners club not only sound exceedingly gentlemanly but also always manage to bring some marvelous cars along. Such as this unusual and very stylish CV8



The Goddess! Still lovely after all these years, with her curvy hips and svelte flanks. They should really have named the specials after Aphrodite, Goddess of lurrrve rather than Pallas Athene. Who as ane fule no was Goddess of War. I likes DSs. can you tell?







This, apparently, is an Eagle Debonaire. Nope, me neither, but the blurb on it reveals it to be a Mustang platform with XJS front suspension, Chevy small-block V8 and GM three-speed auto. So now you know.






More following...

[Lucky]

Moar...

I've been seeing this '52 Buick Dynaflow at shows for years now, and I love it more each time. It's not stayed still mod-wise either. The righteous ride height is a new... errr, low for this year, I'm guessing with the contribution of air ride











Eldorado manages presence without a trace of humility







Always a treat to see an RX-7, no trace of bias there *cough*. This one is a particularly highly-modded genuine Elford turbo with the rare bodykit in full. A lot of very rare and expensive parts under the bonnet as well, such as the long out of production Cusco brace and loads of Mazdatrix schmutter. Lovely





More Cosworth goodness, in little bruvvah Escort flava this time. Not sure about the carbon wing wrap. Very much excited by the Compomotives







And lest we forget, this is what Escorts used to look like for those of us to whom they're long since an unaffordable pipedream



As regular readers know, E-Types something I have an on-off relationship with. I want to love them but just when I'm feeling well-disposed to them I catch sight of those stupid pram wheels and end up being sick in my mouth. However, this tough-looking de-bumpered early coupe goes a loooooooooong way to persuading me of the error of my ways



Here's an odd one... an Excelsior. Looks normal enough from the front. Until you get round the back and find it seems to be balancing precariously shy of one wheel





Hang on, what's this? An actual FD RX-7 too, hiding in the one-make field at the end of a dizzyingly long line of MX-5s (Dayam but there are lot of MX-5s in the world!). Hurrah! Two RX-7s in one day, awesomes





Moar Ferraris... almost passé only a few weeks after Goodwood Supercar Sunday, lol. This is the nicest bit of a 430, tbh. I find the rest of it a bit...well, vulgar



But there was one on the Ferrari Drivers Club (or whatever slightly pompous name they give themselves) that was hard to dismiss. Yeah, it's probably the ultimate expression of a nouveau-riche taste bypass and yeah, it spawned a million M*x P*wer Corsas with "replica" bonnet vents and yeah they fibbed about the exclusivity and built more than they should and all that BUT it did have an engine pretty much straight out of an F1 car, and it did go some way to defining "obscenely fast" and for that it's worth a look. As with all the best cars, it's mostly made from the minimum bodywork needed to hold a series of massive holes together













Near one of the gates was a fascinating display of stationary engines. Some of these were truly impressive, not just cos of the amazing array of steam-powered, spinny-belt, big-valve-plunger-thing noises they made, but just in engineering terms. The water pump was found abandoned in a fen and got working again needing only a few seals. Impressive when it was manufactured in like 1928!





The little one didn't like the pops and bangs though, so I couldn't get many pics of these fascinating side-alley of engine evolution as she scurried off and had to be chased down. Found soothing her stretched nerves with a little dandelion therapy, all was well again



How about a nice Fleetline then? So much more exclusive than the BelAir everyone and their dog wants. Look like a hotrod from the factory too, which always helps. OMG, dat ass!





This is Daisy. She's a 1931 Ford, and very pretty she is too





This is daisy-cutting. It's done with a 1932 Ford and very violent it is too





And this is a 1933 Ford. And very grand it is too. No daisies involved. This is a serious business



This is a jump of a few years then. A 1940 Ford waiting like a Venus Flytrap for any unwary prey to poke their head into its gaping maw. Well, in my head anyway... And if they were brave enough so to do, they'd notice a certain bow-tie emblem on the rocker boxes. Small blck Chevy in Ford platform... ultimate heresy or acceptable modding? Discuss.





Stance. That's it, that's all you're getting. Wrong thread, try again please caller



and on a small downward cusp of negativity for a mere two photographs, might I just say that there's entirely too much of this sort of thing going on. Nahhh. Stop it. Stop it, it's ****ing awful, as they said on the Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle



I feel the need for some positivity after that... How about a nice Goat? Always makes me chortle that the designers who bamboozled Pontiac standing orders that big-blocks weren't allowed in mid-sized cars and came up with the GTO named it in honour of the Ferrari GTO. Errr... yeah. Superb car, don't get me wrong, but really? Come one, guys, who were you trying to kid? Not sure if real Judge or not, very rare in a 'vert if it is. Pretty rare to find a drag monster convertible in any flavour, mind







The waff took a shine to the Healey club stand and instructed me to take some photos of Healeys. And because I always do what I'm told...





I always wonder if Honda were surprised when the Datsun 240Z came to market just before their own Z, the Z600. Wonder if they were rubbing their hands at the idea of stealing sales from Datsun in the confusion. Hmmmmm, looking at it, perhaps not



Now, here's something that deserves closer inspection. We all love a nice pert Imp anyway, don't we? But add in wide arch and purposeful streetfighter poise and we definitely likey. Look a bit closer and you'll see it appears to have had an allergic reaction to something and it's engines all swollen up and engorged. In fact, it's got so big it's turned into a Toyota fuel-injected lump and prolapsed completely out of the boot and needs a special subframe to hold it and the re-manufactured suspension towers. This thing shows mucho potential







We all also love a nice H-van, don't we? There's one works outside my home depot station that's been converted into a kitchen selling home-made pizzas and stuff. It's great. It's the future, I tells thee. Not sure about the fire engine though; I don't think I'd want to watch my thatched cottage in rural France burn while one trundled peacefully along at it's top speed of 32mph slowed even further by a huge payload of water. Those crazy French, eh?





Not sure if it's any more preposterous than the zany German (we all know how the Germans like a good joke) version. My German is poor, even worse than my English, lol, but I think this says "POWDER" and "Dry machine". Hmmm, sounds like a late 70s disco hit



More quality offerings from the excellent Jensen OC stand. Before the Interceptor, there was.... drum roll... well, the Interceptor, actually. Several of these original Interceptors (still the best model name ever, bar none) in great condition rocked my world.







International Harvester don't only make harvesters, y'know. That'd be dull. Humongous square monstrous thing by way of illustration;



More military stuff. Some genuine WWII-era Willy Jeeps, complete with essential period accessories. Hmmm, Bren and Sten guns. Too many cool toys! And yes, before some pedant writes in, I know that's a Thompson carbine in the backgroud. The Bren was on a pintle, and I thought was in the pic until I just looked at it full-size



A giant, huge monkey. And a stuffed toy.



Off for a fag, hopefully finish this laterz. Hope so, Retro Show tomorrow and I'm running out of time lol

[spirit r]

JPS Capri, never seen one before. Thank you for sharing such nice pictures.

Always a treat to see an RX-7, no trace of bias there *cough*. This one is a particularly highly-modded genuine Elford turbo with the rare bodykit in full. A lot of very rare and expensive parts under the bonnet as well, such as the long out of production Cusco brace and loads of Mazdatrix schmutter. Lovely

Battery care connecting socket is important, cause you does not have a daily driver.

Elford bay_zpsfm4ypkwq.jpg

SV100649.JPG

[A7RXY]

Thomas, the top of your battery looks like a work of art.

Dibs

[spirit r]

Thomas, the top of your battery looks like a work of art. Dibs

There is no money in that PM so you want to spend some
Thomas

[Lucky]

Right, let's see if we can finish this off then


Another one for Ada. Plenty of Ghias around. I prefer the coupes so that's what you're getting



Early 1970 Marcos Mantis is kinda so wrong it's cool. Probably the most "of it's time" car in the entire place. Like a retro version of what the car of the future will look like



...or maybe it's this one that's most wrong, lol. Back in the day a Mumford-converted Marina was an expensive proposition, mainly due to the very high quality of the work that involved the structural roll-over hoop. This was preferable to taking an already feeble car and turning it into a giant blancmange by just chopping the roof off. But really, no-one wanted to buy Marinas in the first place, let alone really expensive ones with rag-tops and violent interiors. Epic fail, yet so heroic a failure it's actually pretty cool







Messerschmitt. Much easier to look at than it is to spell



Normally I'd spend a while roaming through the car parks on the way in since there are usually plenty of cool rides left out of the showground proper. Since we were delayed so catastrophically getting in I didn't get the chance, sadly. However, this Mini+half near the entrance did catch my eye



Moggy Minor shows one reason that they had such an inexplicably huge engine bay. Issigonis was such a visionary that when he designed it, he knew people would want to transplant Rover V8s in there



Did I mention that there were a LOT of MX-5s around? There were at least two stands and plenty in the one-make section as well. They're everywhere! It seems that only a few years ago they were unloved and still struggling to throw off the hairdresser tag. Then a few intrepid souls caught on to their great fun potential and relatively inexpensive modding ability and suddenly almost overnight there are thousands of them.



Several flavours of Mustang, as always. '65;



'67 in superb burgundy colour





and errr... a new one. Not a new new one, the old new one. Cool



Now, I do like a nice estate. Or wagon, as our cousins across the Pond would have it. And probably the ultimate wagon has to be the Chevy Nomad. A couple of superb examples therefore kept me occupied for quite a while. Never mind being able to sleep in one, you could live in one of these!











That mainstay of British 'rodding, the Ford Pop. The waff instructed me to take some of this, as she likes yellow cars. To be fair, you'd probably have noticed it even if it was grey, what with the prodigious V8/blower combo under the flip-front!







More Renault stuff going on, never let it be said I let my prejudices blind me, lol. This Spider looks like a Transformer caught in mid-change



No idea what model of Riley this is, cos they were all named after numbers and I can't count. I love how grand and rakish it looks, though, and especially the surprise when you get closer and find it's got an interior re-trimmed in leopard skin







A Rover V8, unusually, in its natural home. An SD1 in fact. That I seem to have failed to take any other photos of, oddly



We made a lot of time for this Shoebox '50 Ford. Couldn't help it... the owner was a very nice but very earnest guy who proved very difficult to get away from once he'd started talking to us, lol. You know the type. However, he did have some interesting stuff to say about it, some of which I knew some of which I dunno if I believe. The car did really save Ford, albeit it was really a Studebaker design pressed into mass production. However, I don't know if the elaborate falcon hood ornament he had in the back was really the prototype that never entered production due to cost issues and thus the cars had the rather truncated glass and chrome "Sphinx" thing. But then, the guy was Canadian and Canadians are honest and scrupulously truthful, aren't they?









Nice to see that the Sera we'd seen broken down in the traffic managed to make it in eventually, and was pulling off its party trick with the funky door thing. Proof if it were ever needed that even a firm as dull and stolid as Toyota every so often have one of "those" design meetings when you wonder if the Pocari Sweat had been laced with hallucinogens (and who the hell calls bottled water "Pocari Sweat" anyway? Ker-azeee Japanese!)



Speaking of bonkers... one of the maddest cars even from the archetype of insanity that was Citroën in their heyday. Maserati V6, hydroneumatic suspenders, on/off brake switch, loony tune styling, glass bumpers... Really, how can anyone not love the SM?







In 1958 America, if you wanted to call something "Super" you really needed to go all-out. In the context of ever-huger cars bedecked with fins, chrome, 1000-piece grilles and more luxury trimmings that Liberace's bathrobe, Buick couldn't afford to be shy. So they weren't. 1958 Buick Super; it's actually really rather super







Another piece of awesomeness from the lovable loons at Citroën. In it's day the Traction Avant was miles ahead of anything else on the market in many ways. Nowadays I still can't understand how they've never caught on in 'rodding circles. I mean, it looks like a hot rod out of the box. It's just gagging for a roof chop!



If the Marcos Mantis was the epitome of 70s kitsch, the TSO is a very different animal. Right up to the minute and a very serious piece of kit, this is actually what the car of the future looks like right now





We all like a nice Corvette don't we? Just as well, as there are so many to choose from! Like Pokemon, there's one for every taste. Two from the day; a tidy C2 Sting Ray;







And my fave, the ultimate chest-wig chariot, a C3 Stingray (one word now. But you knew that cos you've read these threads before and committed such trivia to mind to amaze your friends and bamboozle your enemies. No? OK, be like that).



Wolseleys, rather like Messerschimtts, are hard to spell. And like Rileys had an irritating aversion to giving their models names. This is a 25HP, which is a more romantic name than most of them got





Jaguars are a funny old thing. I guess a bit like MX-5s, we may be on the cusp of a modding boom for certain models. And that might mean some get modded in a manner slightly ahhh... shall we say unsympathetic to their normal ouvre? Love this or loathe it, drenched in so much metalflake lacquer, you certainly couldn't ignore it!





Ahhh, that's rather calmer. Gorgeous XK140 that was troubled in traffic looks serene in the show field



And little sister XK120 looked ready to bite





Ford were kind enough to produce some Z-cars purely so those of us whose Photobucket albums run alphabetically have something to aim towards. This is a Zephyr Zodiac. Or is it a Zodiac Zephyr? Not sure. Lovely though, innit?







Except that's not quite the end, because as you know by now my ol' Granny always told me to end on a high... and she was pretty damned high herself a lot of the time so she should know. So there's one last thing from the show that I absolutely fell in love with, a car I didn't even know existed up till then. Which is always a nice thing to discover, something new. I still don't know much about it, but I damn well know I want one just like it when I grow up. If Mad Max had been Swedish...






Phew! made it, finally. Thanks for sticking with it! Now I'm off to sort through the Retro Show photos and try to get that finished before Goodwood this weekend. Stay tuned, groovers. Until then, go away

[codge]

Zephyr Zodiac 'tis.

A plea for the next show Nik. Mark 2 Ford Consuls. Model 204E - I think there's something in ones advancing years about seeing the machinery layout that you lavished care on as a yuf.
There is the side of a Green White Two-Tone Zephyr or Zodiac 206E in the pics but it's not full-on pictured. (Fords split the name Zephyr Zodiac for the Mark 2 cars and didn't use Zephyr Zodiac as a combo name anymore).

Lots of man-love for all your effort & work YET AGAIN......