PICS! Retro Show late homework

So, sufficiently denuded from rubbing up against Panteras in an almost sexual frenzy (oooer) it was time to stagger off and try to watch some drag racing. On the way we passed some interesting things what iz worthy of picktchers. Everyone likes a nice tight Pop don't they?



And I always have time for a big American pickup. Loving this Task Force Apache



Seems a trifle incongruous to see modern gizmos charging in a truck that was invented before the computer, let alone the satnav and the USB charger, lol



Rather strangely there was a display of classic tractors here, which I suppose were retro but not maybe what most people turned up to see. Unless there were a lot of people there like Major Tom, but I always thought he was a one-off. In a good way, of course. However, there was an old Fordson just like the one I used to battle with back at agricultural college and this thing which I had to take some pics of, not just because of its brilliantly-shaped smokestack and Lego tractor profile...



...but also because it boasted the best emblem and livery I've seen on just about any vehicle, let alone a tractor. It's awesome! Field Marshall, y'see, see what they've done there?



Can't pass up a chance to take photos of weirdy wobbly worlds reflected in hubcaps. It's what moondiscs were made for



We passsed this Cosworth Capri on the M25 on the way up, think it's built by Toulemin (sp?) Motors. Certainly finished to a superb standard and it sounded excellent burbling along on the motorway



Just across from the grandstand was the rather odd sight of a Rolls Royce Merlin engine bolted to a trolley. No, really



I gather this was doing a display thing, they were going to start it up and run it at some point during the day. I dunno if this happened or not, if it did I didn't hear it, which you'd expect to given the four-inch exhaust zoomies, lol



As engineering Objets d'art go, it's well worth pausing to admire, mind.



So finally made it to the Grandstand. Hurrah, time to watch some dragging. Except someone pretty much immediately broke their rear end and the track closed. ! No, not that sort of ... errr, rear end...errrm



So we abandoned the track while the Pod crew messed around with their mops and rubber-dragging tractor and went to mooch round the Show 'n' Shine paddock. Before we reached it there was the matter of one of these;



A pretty rare thing, a 1958-ish DKW Service van. DKW, as any fule kno, stands for "Dampf Kraft Wagen" or "Steam-Driven Car" and was one of the four marques merged to form the Auto Union back in 1932. This one's seen some action, it would appear. Dunno if this is patination so much as "mullered"



I love the badge on the rear end. Note how they used the "O"s of "Auto Union" to put the screw holes through so that they don't interfere with the purity of the lettering. Only an German can produce this level of OCD attention to detail, lol



Beautifully Spartan interior has nothing it doesn't need and even doesn't have a few things it does need. Fan screwed to "dash"....errrr, non-dash... looked pitifully inadequate to cope with the soaring temperatures.



And while we're on the subject, what's with the sun coming out at Santa Pod? I've never seen such a thing, didn't know what to do with myself and half my photos were overexposed. I'm used to windburn and overcast skies, lol



Alongside the DKW was another German legend of utilitarian transportation. A VW splitscreen truck, very cool.



And then a quick stroll over the crossing through the stationary queue to reach the Show and Shine. This is always a random selection at any event, usually filling the entire spectrum of car projects from money-no-object nut and bolt restos to every day cars which are a bit special and the owner reckons it's worth showing off, to utter abortions people have put in for a laugh, to works in progress and finally those characters who didn't have a stand pass, didn't fancy the muddy carpark and have blagged their way on here. You know who you are, lol. On this occasion the first sight was of a whole row of Beetle noses



the first of which belonged to this rather excellent Beetle rod in fetching Murder Black



Not sure how it gets away without even cycle wings on the but it's all the better for it, looks hard as Ray Winstone's pool ball.



whilst somehow rather incongruously managing to retain the gawky goggle-eyed Beetle charm out in front. Good trick that



I'm sure as many pages of internet drone have been written about patina and whether faux patination is class or , so I won't delve too deeply into it here. Personally I tend to rebel against anything that's too contrived and artificial, especially in the name of just being scene and blindly adhering to whatever the de rigeur trend is. Don't follow leaders, kids. Oh, and watch the parking meters.



Ahh, this is more like it, me thinks.



What is it with these funny little nose spoiler windscreen things, then? There were loads of them clipped to Beetle snouts like little odd Victorian pince-nez. I guess they have no real use whatsoever, but here we are talking about them so I suppose they work on that level, lol



Here's another. Any colour you like, maybe they're like the belts in karate and the colour signifies how strong your mojo is in Beetle world?



To be fair, I rather liked this ratty example. It seems like it's not trying too hard, unlike some of the others which appeared to suffer slightly for trying to score as many VW scene points as they could. Like the I-Spy book of Beetle Modding Must-haves.



German, apparently. Who knew?



Lol. Maybe so, but I think I'd rather be mates with a decent maxilo-facial surgeon after smashing my gourd into this unyielding metal...



Moving on from Wolfsburg's finest, how about something Oriental? This Zed (260, I think) seems to be a permanent feature here, but that's OK. It's gorgeous



Think these might be Rotas, but we won't hold that against them, they certainly sit mighty fine. Besides, it's not as if it's a wheel style that hasn't been copied by everyone and their dog already



Little 126 is endearingly cute. Sometimes I have to force aside my deep post traumatic stress brought on by 127 ownership and remind myself they are quite cool little things when done right



Piston/flywheel dog is a work of art. Someone needs to weld up the Rotordog from the FDUK hoodies one day I reckon, see if it comes out so well



I always seem to manage to sneak in a picture of an el Camino no matter what the theme of the show is, and this was going to be no exception. 12-second pickup, what's not to like?



"Els" together. I see your "The Road" and raise you "The curse word" lol



Bel Air dash shows how to do patination properly, with an air of well-respected nonchalance. This is the sort of wear that only comes from being over fifty years old



....whilst the outside was immaculate, I love that the owner left little original touches like the cracked instrument glass to continue the identity of the car over post-restoration



Now, I've got this often-stated anti Bimmer thing goign on, but that doesn't mean I'm totally blind to the charms of certain specimens from the stable of the blue and white propeller. For example, it would be difficult indeed to pass by a certain car in the Show 'n' Shine and not stop for a closer look



It's rare to use words like "immaculate" and "superb" and "flawless" and even "awesome" to describe a car and for them to actually be 100% accurate, but this car was all these things and more besides. Honestly, I don't think there's a superlative you could apply that wouldn't be utterly deserved



The old boy who did the work was disarmingly humble about it, but when he showed me through the folder of build photos you could see why. He was happy to let his work speak for itself.



All the more impressive when you see this started life as a narrow-arched tatty and slightly rusty specimen of 2002 Tii and all you see here is basically down to the dude's art and vision



and the attention-to-detail is simply awe-inspiring! The ramps it stood on are artworks in their own right, not just the neatly radiussed cutouts for the tyres, but they even have little billet-mounted BMW logos in each and every one!



For God's sake, even the boot build was flawless, with matching fifth BBS alloy, strut brace perfect in polished alloy, battery box, one-off mats and surround and the neatest folder of build photos ever.



The underside was just as clean and well-finished as the topside. Tell you what, I actually have run out of superlatives. How about I just shut up and let you enjoy some pics for a minute?







No surprise that the interior had the same manic level of prep. Looks like plenty of one-off billet controls and a full re-trim, plus immaculate wiring has gone on in here. Even the mirror adjustors have little billet BMW logos on them!

I love two-stroke bikes, too. The noise, that aggressive crackle rising to a scream; the smell, that Castrol R burnt oil fragrance that hints at barely-contained or understood chemical energy; the sudden leap from docile cat to powerband amphetamine powered predator... the infernal combustion engine in its purest and most bonkers form. Except rotaries, of course. Here's a nice Yam stroker complete with zany spannie alignment



And now for something a bit more pastoral and beatific. I've seen these guys up at the Pod a few times, I guess they're lured in by the leftover remains of dogburger and chips. Whatever works. QI moment; the genus name of the buzzard is Buteo, in fact true buzzards have a rare repetitive species names i.e. Buteo buteo, which is unusual, only a few animals have them, such as fox which is Vulpes vulpes or badger Meles meles, but we digress. When the inventor of a certain popular table football game wanted to cal it "Hobby" he was refused a trademark on the grounds of common linguistic property. So he did the next best thing, and named it after a subspecies of buzzard, the hobby (Falco subbuteo) and the rest, as they say, is history. I don't know if buzzards actually do eat chips but they're scavengy little sods, I imagine they do. Probably even they'd turn their beak up at a Santa Pod dogburger though.



Anyway, even the circling buzzards took a look at what was rolling onto stage next and wisely did one, presumably to find a nice sheltered place to hunch up with their wings over their ears.



Never get tired of watching Fireforce. I can see why the buzzards aren't keen though. The tailwind meant the jetcar was pretty much making its own weather



and I don't care if you're five years old or fifty, if you're not giggling like a child at the sight of a jet engine on wheels that ca shoot out twenty foot flames, then you're not really living, you're just taking up room.



Ran consistent 5.9 second runs too, so it's not exactly just for show, is it?



On that note we went for a wander, partly to see if any of the other Exile crew had turned up, partly because all the discussion of buzzard dietary habits had made us peckish for a dogburger, and partly... errr, what was the middle one again? Anyway, there are always new cars turning up to look at so it's worth walking around a couple of times. Oooh, look, a Simca 1200 coupe. Lovely



We found KiwiDave and Norton lurking around the Panteras looking decidedly furtive (it's hard not to look like a sex-pest disturbed mid-frottage when Panteras are involved, to be fair) so that meant that at the very least we now had TWiR and WankelPop on the stand, so off we went to check them out.



But wait a minute, there was a pleasant surprise there, too. What's that lurking in the middle there?



What must be about the longest continuously-owned RX-7 FB in the UK, the lovely Elford Turbo belonging to Rip-7. Superb car, and a really nice guy, it was a pleasure to meet up and hear the tale of the cars' worthy resurrection



Fifteen years in one owners' hands is rare enough, but to bring it back from neglect and dereliction is worthy of much respec.



The heart of the matter; old-school carburetted turbo setup. Homemade strut brace work in progress



Dave's TWiR looks as good as ever. And worthy of respect since we know from firsthand experience it's as fast as a single turbo FD on the street!



Eat... sleep... rotary? Damn right, except if you work on the railway you can pretty much forget about the middle one, eh Dave?



Three magic letters and evidence that ol' TWiR has seen polish at some point recently. Unless that white deposit is from something else...



It's a shame I let the side down here with my vulgar modern plastic car really. It would have been nicer had my FB been here to make this shot moar betterer



And so to a car I've been looking forward to meeting for ages, and I wasn't disappointed. From here it looks like a "normal" Ford Pop, nicely finished, neat touches, all that



but the special one-off Rods 'n' Sods stickers replacing the more traditional crossed pistons with an altogether more righteous form of internal combustion regulation give the game away



Yes, it's the one... the only... WANKELPOP! All hail WankelPop. A full-fat nasty Old One built bridgeported twin rotor beats as the heart of the beast. Here Madame le Jo is caught giggling at the size of its horn, though. That isn't smutty innuendo or a euphemism for anything, by the way, that's an actual fact. It's got a massive horn. Jealous much?



Nice and tidy in here, and I'm a sucker for a bombslut decal so that was all the coercion I needed to stick the lens inside. Oooh.



All this plus trafficators! Do rides get any more righteous than this? Lol. Sadly, I managed to utterly screw up all the pics of the engine bay, so you'll have to wait till I get round to uploading the video to YouTube for that. Hopefully worth the wait, cos it'll probably be a long one. They're on the shelf in stores next to lefthanded screwdrivers and new spirit level bubbles. On the left, just past skirting-board ladders.



So anyway, WankelPop has in no way proved a disappointment. There we were standing around chatting when a couple of dudes turn up, one on a Raleigh Chopper and asked if we had a spare stand pass because they were stuck out in the public carpark. We did, and since it was alleged they had a rotary, I handed it over. Not before having a go on the Wahhh-hooonk bulb horns on the Chopper, though. There's something just... emancipating about honking a total stranger's bulb.



Anyway, true to word, Aaron did indeed show up with a pretty cool rotary wagon; a convertible FC Turbo II, perhaps one of the rarest models of all Mazda rotangs



I believe this was once Papercutout's doriftuu ride, rocking wide steels and suchlike but it certainly looks tough enough on its new hoops, and possibly even better for losing the daft dildo gearknob



We all wrongly agreed that it looked fine on the Celica wheels... before twiggin they are of course no such thing, lol. If you correctly identify them before the next paragraph you can award yourself several zillion cool points



yep, if you said "Mitsubishi Starion" you are indeed a doyen of obscure Japanalia trivia and wheel identification. Well done you. So, not a bad turnout for such a small club in the end. And all three generations of RX-7. Well done us. Especially when you consider how many of our cars are normally broken, or scattered in parts containers across several continents and seaways. Or both.



So off we went further into the murky depths of the showground. Still baffled by the sun, I was perhaps not at my best and ended up with a fairly patchy set of photos, and certainly strayed into territory I might otherwise not find myself anywhere near... for example, this is a perfectly nice example of Opel Monza, so far so good. Lovely.



But this? No idea? Is it a Kadett? I dunno. Opels and Vaux offerings tended to pass me by for some reason so I'm a bit off my comfort zone. I guess it doesn't matter what it is if you like it. I like it, maybe that's enough. I just don't want to type a load of old pony about it only to find it's something completely different. maybe I should go back to doing those no words... just pictures threads lol



However, there's no mistaking what this is



Quite clearly the coolest, most iconic car in the entire showground, by some margin. In fact, I have a bit of sex wee trickling down my leg just now even looking at the photos.



Oh god, it's not even a hatchback, it's a saloon version. Gnnnghg, saloon Chevette, life doesn't get better. Right, I'm off to the loo for a while now. Joking aside, it looked like quite a tool (no, not that sort) apparently having a massive engine conversion (don't ask me what, I'm even more hopeless at telling Vauxhall lumps apart than I am the cars) but it was all well executed and that. (Disclaimer: apologies to anyone baffled by all this. Chevette in-joke that probably doesn't translate very well)



The Retro Rides stands had some superb cars on it (and some errrrm, slightly less if I may make so bold. Modern stock BMW? Wha?) as you'd perhaps expect, lol. I need to make amends for describing this lovely Firenza as "brown" in my Bromely thread. It is, of course, Garnet Starmist. Which is still one of my all-time favourite paint colour names. Lovely. Still missing an "F" though



Hillman Hunter wagon displays the Rules of lows + rims = groovy to fine effect. Plus a bike on the roof, apparently this is important. It is, at least, a much cooler bike than the last one



Datsun 180B wagon. I've absolutely no idea if this was even half-way to being cool back in the day, I'm guessing not. To the best of my memory I've never seen one before. Innit funny how the rarity of a survivor makes it seem pretty cool after all?



This is sorta what I remember of Datsuns from back in their time, though. Rust! Though not usually as arty as this, more the kind that makes your car fall to bits. Oh, and I remember the Nissan Wall that divided Worthing like the black edifice of the Tyrrel Corporation building. The what? Never seen Blade Runner? Shame on you! Wake up! Time to die



A Nissan Laurel! Probably one of the rarest cars in the ground, bizarre but true. Well, in UK terms anyway. I don't think they were sold here were they? Write in if you know



Ah? A VW Down? Aha, see what you've done there. Very droll. Still, got it into a report about retro cars, didn't it?



There were a couple of what I suspect are Retro Rides stalwarts goofing around on drift trikes, I'm sure I've seen a thread about them somewhere. They were certainly an interesting concept. We were unable to decide whether they were achingly groovy and ironic, or a lamentable waste of time and daft way for a grown man to act. Eventually we concluded these were both equally valid and admirable reasons for them, lol



Actually, I may have been fibbing a bit with that pic. They really don't produce that much smoke. And no, all the black lines on the tarmac didn't come from the anyway. To be fair, they probably need video to convey that they actually are quite funky in their own way. Sorry. I suck again



Saw this Trumpet Vitesse at the Gathering, pressing on up the climb. Looks to be a bit of a tool (no, not that kind)



Evil glare on it, that's for sure.

A rather later version of Buick Riviera. You really would not want to get your fingers anywhere near the headlight retractor mechanism on this beast while it was operating!



This is rather more like it, a proper muscle car... or at least one of the forebears to such. An early Pontiac GTO



again, a startlingly mundane dash treatment with strip speedo and few original instruments. Not what you'd expect from such an iconic car. They got better later, lol



I love the hood-mounted tacho thing that Yank cars used to do. Such a pointless yet absorbingly cool thing to do!



Mini with matching trailer and Lambretta was sorta groovy in a slightly contrived kinda way



Manta A knew when it had been tangoed, gorgeous colour



So that was about that for the showground, we wandered back over to the stands to take in some more drag antics, pausing briefly to admire some of the local plumage on the way



...and to enjoy the sight of Santa Pod basking in very unaccustomed sunshine



...in fact, I'm still not sure what that big hot yellow thing in the sky was. I've heard tell of this mystical thing called "the sun" but until this day I don't believe I'd ever seen it within the boundaries of Northamptonshire. Strange pairing here...



....hang about, what was that!? Go back a couple.... yeah, there, hold it right there! Mmmm, nice



By way of complete contrast, the utter legend that is KiwiDave, strutting his stuff! I can't look at this without hearing the Offspring's Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) in my head, lol. Give it to me baby, aha - aha...



*ahem* anyway, some drag racing, then? Nice to see a BMW not stuck to the outside lane its flashing headlights at anyone travelling under 110mph!



More ridiculous tailwind enhanced burnouts. Always good for impressive-looking pics



I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the mix of cars at this show. Beforehand I was expecting that it would be a melange of any car you like so long as it's a Ford. And whilst there were indeed a huge number of Fords of different flavours, there were also plenty of other marques representing. Which was nice. Not that, you undestand, I have anything against old Fords whatsoever. In fact, here's another 'scrot to prove it



Got to include another one of the deranged Moggy Minor Alteration. With the bonne t removed you can really respect how much damned engine they managed to cram into such a wee little car



I always wanted a proper old perimeter-framed oil-boiling GSXR when I was *ahem* growing up... until I got one and then I couldn't get rid of it quick enough. Terrible things, handle like a greased giraffe. Awesome engine though, no wonder so many ended up like this as drag weapon of choice, or streetfightered into Spondon or Harris or Martek "proper" frames



Speaking of oil-cooled GSXR mills, this funny little thing showed potential since it basically seemed to be a Gixer-powered gokart!



Perhaps as you'd expect the little tiny wheels meant it got off the line like a cat shot from an ion cannon, but lagged a bit towards the end of the strip. Hilarious to watch, though



Nice to see the old-school drag humour of daft decals and silly-looking cars that still go like almighty $£@#! hasn't quite died out yet



And on the subject of old-school, these immense and insane things didn't disappoint



I guess when you look at it now, you can see why they no longer build front-engined dragsters. If/when that engine goes, you ARE going to get it right in the face!



But they certainly do look pretty damned cool. And they take me back to all-too brief grainy snippets on World of Sport. Yeah, with Dickie Davies and all...



Shiny-impossible-to-photgraph-painted Mustang didn't disappoint. Mopar Nationals in a fortnight, maybe I'll find the Holy Grail of how to get it onto film then...



Another hundred cool points for spotting what's odd about this one;



(just checking there's anyone still reading out there, lol. Nearly done, stay with it). Second loudest noise of the day award (second only to Fireforce) went to the frankly insane Top Fuel bike demo.



Honestly, I know I always bang on about it, but if you've never been to the Main Event and seen proper Top Fuel bikes and dragsters run, do it. Seriously, these things are genuine bucket list stuff



I don't know if there was a problem, but the rider shut off around the eighth marker and still ran an eight-second pass! This didn't affect how quickly it got off the line... one second it was there the next it just simply wasn't. It's like the Infinite Improbability Drive



As always, I'll try to end on a high. It was finally time for the Go Hard!!! thing to do a run (someone, OK, Derek, has identified this for me as a Fiat Toppolino-based thing that appeared in magazines back when. No, really. Odd but true. If you know any better, let us know)



Was it worth the wait? I dunno, you judge for yourself. You might want to check out the state of that back tyre struggling desperately to contain the power and the fury before making your mind up though




That's it; top show, even my eyeballs were sunburnt, excellent cars, superb racing, top company, and my Rex made it there and back without blowing up. What more could anyone want out of a show? Thanks for hanging on to the bitter end with us, appreciate your time and effort reading through

Now, go away

I've been waiting for thees to appear. so much to get excited about. Thanks for sharing Nik.

Cool pics!

Glad I left mine in the public carpark then

Great pictures and report. You even managed to pap me in one of them.

If by this:



You mean this (to the left of the background):



Then 1) It's mine, B) It's not stock at all, ridiculous lows & massive wheels is a hard combo to achieve.. & iii) The 'Retro' I spent all of Saturday morning polishing exploded a CV joint as I went to leave


Anyway, lows + rims = groovy, right?


Awesome show, awesome show report, awesome pics - thanks for taking the time to share. & I've recently purchased an FB RX7 project, so I might be as cool as you next year

Eh? No-one's as cool as me I'm sure I'd have been told.

Nahh, I'm not having a go at anyone/anyone's car specifically so please don't anyone take any comments personally. It's just the way I am, it's meant to be self-effacing irony rather than outright personal criticism but is probably just me projecting my own paranoia outwards anyway. I felt guilty about having to take the FD rather than the FB even though there's only seven years between them and despite that the "modern" plastic car is now 21 years old it still seems too recent to be "retro". There are so many amazing builds on here I sometimes forget that people have normal cars too. Besides, never mind Bimmers on phat rimmage, there's a VW Up to consider, funny graphics notwithstanding. I like all these things personally, but whether "retro" is the car you drive or a state of mind is open to debate. As for stock rides, I walked through the entire tedious half mile of Goodwood Festival of Speed's Moving Motor Show yesterday and out of all the cars there the only one that inspired me to take a photo of it was an utterly bone-stock XR2 Some cars are just right straight off

...I reserve the right to shudder at the sight of anything French though. Might as well cut out the middleman and just chuck them straight into landfill. *puts on tin hat and ducks for cover*

no pics of my car!!! lol
the black mini is rwd cossie turbo