Thought I'd plop up a quick whistle-stop tour of the last Goodwood Breakfast Club what we went to for anyone who's interested. These shows make an excellent start to a Sunday, cos they start early and finish by midday, so you can get on with tedious family nonsense after already having had your motoring fix. And an eye-wateringly expensive coffee and bacon butty. In my case, I elected to take the family along, thus cleverly killing two birds with one stone and also giving me the perfect excuse to spend the rest of the day either sleeping on the sofa pretending to watch the telly or shutting myself in the garage pretending to work on car stuff.
Anyway, as y'all no doubt are aware, each Breakfast Club meet runs around a theme, and on this occasion it was the "Softop Sunday" for any and all cars with a non-fixed roof, from full ragtops to roadsters to targas to veterans. In no particular order, here is some highlights what I liked;
This is a replica of an Alfa 8C 2900Aero Special. These were basically Alfa's Grand Prix car of the 30s, modified by the Scuderia Ferrari team who ran the GP effort, to have twin seats and then campaigned in road rallies, finishing 1-2-3 in the 1936 Mille Miglia. The owner/constructor of this one was a bit of a dude; not only had he done almost all the work himself, including the one-off-bodywork in converting the car from its original Lenham boat-tail roadster, but he was chilled enough to let the kids sit in it, which made their day.
Of course, give a kid a good idea and you'll tire of it long before they do. Fortunately, most of the owners here are very chilled and happy to chat about their cars, and many didn't even mind Lucky Ver 2.0 and 2.1 rushing up and pleading to sit in their cars. Thus the li'l uns got to experience the surrogate joys of Daimlers (didn't actually get a pic of them in there, much to their annoyance)...
...Frogeye Sprites...
(this Sprite is all owner-customised to feature amongst other things a Ford Zetec married to a fully sequential gearbox. Excellent thing, and apparently a better drive than his Ultima!)
...this one baffled them, though. An Audi TT with a mini electric-powered TT to accompany it! They weren't quite sure what to try to blag a go in first
....and one of my favourite Jaguars (even if it strictly speaking isn't), an SS100. Again, so much kudos to the owners for putting up with us. It's a whole different league being happy to show your car and chat about it and letting some total random strangers grubby urchins clamber about it. I mean, I don't even let my kids in my own car, lol
beautiful, beautiful cars SS100s, too. Just one of the most "right" cars proportionally of any era
The li'l man apparently also managed to blag a go in an classic Begently too, but I was off taking photos elsewhere and missed that. So, moving on from my errant offspring, how about some more cars then? The rarity of the cars in attendance wasn't always limited to great age or value; after all, when was the last time you saw one of these on the road? Just as much designed by a famous Italian carozzeria as any exotic supercar here. What a mix of motors, from li'l French hot hatches;
to sumptuous Teutonic luxury in the form of a gorgeous (and humongous) old 220SE
to Blackpool's finest widowmaker tupperware torpedo and this 350S plotting its next victim!
There were, as you'd perhaps expect, and as seems the LAW at Goodwood, plenty of Ferraris. Guess that's a side effect of the Goodwood membership, really. Some are quite pleasant, the modern plastic ones tend to be less so...although I guess if you have to have one a 458 Italia Spider isn't a terrible starting place...
...it's surprising how many of the new Californias turn up. I'm still not 100% sure about these. Nice interior though, I like the simplicity of the dash now that touchscreens seem to replace mundane and olde-worlde things like heater controls. Leather colour with a hint of Dale Winton!
Rather more to one's taste were the older cars, such as this replica 860 Monza. Ooooh, those curves!
Not the only gorgeously curvaceous replica car by some margin. How about this lovely 550 Spider Porsche?
...and on the subject of Stuttgart's finest, 911s were if anything, even more profuse than the Fezzas. Have a fat-bottomed brown Targa by way of illustration
Austin did offer convertibles back in the day, but to the best of my knowledge, they were on the more executive models and big saloons, not the diminutive A30. The complete lack of any kind of roof on this li'l car implies a home-made one off to me. One of the stand-out cars on the day, I reckon
Cobras are almost always replicas, of course, especially the ones inspired by 427-engined cars which only barely made it into double figures originally. However, there were a couple on the day that I thought might have been original cars. Mainly because they were badged as ACs
and of course, the AC Ace was a model in its own right before the world's fastest chicken farmer got hold of it, and it's nice to see ones that aren't pretending to be anything other than what they are, like this Ace parked in the public parking field
Not sure at all what the hell this is; despite the Scuderia Ferrari decals and alleged Alfa heritage it seems like the illegitimate offspring of many kit car dynasties to me. Answers on a postcard...
The original gentleman's blunderbus express, the Allard J2. Basically as little car as you can get away with to carry as much engine as you can manage
Here's something you don't see everyday...actually, that probably needs a caveat; you DO see Astons most days but they tend to be the vulgar modern ones owned by dessicated old lawyers or gelatinous young footballers... you don't see 1930 Tourers every day. Engine copper plumbing as an artform. This one is apparently called JoJo, too, which goes to show she must be a lady of quality, lol.
From one of the oldest to one of the newest "cars" on the day... if you can call the motorised bedstead of the Ariel Atom an actual car
Beach buggies always have a place in my heart, as a child of the Seventies. If you can get some metalfalke in there, so much the better!
There's probably a good reason that most people don't convert Beetles into pickups. There MUST be a reason, I just can't seem to think of one just at the moment...
Aha, a small section of the very large Bentley that C-man manged to blag a sit in.
When editing these pics I had no idea what the hell this was. I went with Borgward judging by the badge, but the actual car baffled me since it looks half fifties Chevy, half Morris Minor. Thanks to the wonders of Retro Rides I now know it is, of course, a Renault 4CV. No, me neither
Hmmmm, another California. I like this colour, think that's why I took this one
Apparently the convertible version of the new Camaro was commemorated by serving as the pace car at Indy. But then, that's no guarantee of quality; they've used all sorts of preposterous stuff for that over the years from Cadillacs to deSoto Firedomes! I like how the rallye stripes even extend into the interior trim
Anyway, as y'all no doubt are aware, each Breakfast Club meet runs around a theme, and on this occasion it was the "Softop Sunday" for any and all cars with a non-fixed roof, from full ragtops to roadsters to targas to veterans. In no particular order, here is some highlights what I liked;
This is a replica of an Alfa 8C 2900Aero Special. These were basically Alfa's Grand Prix car of the 30s, modified by the Scuderia Ferrari team who ran the GP effort, to have twin seats and then campaigned in road rallies, finishing 1-2-3 in the 1936 Mille Miglia. The owner/constructor of this one was a bit of a dude; not only had he done almost all the work himself, including the one-off-bodywork in converting the car from its original Lenham boat-tail roadster, but he was chilled enough to let the kids sit in it, which made their day.
Of course, give a kid a good idea and you'll tire of it long before they do. Fortunately, most of the owners here are very chilled and happy to chat about their cars, and many didn't even mind Lucky Ver 2.0 and 2.1 rushing up and pleading to sit in their cars. Thus the li'l uns got to experience the surrogate joys of Daimlers (didn't actually get a pic of them in there, much to their annoyance)...
...Frogeye Sprites...
(this Sprite is all owner-customised to feature amongst other things a Ford Zetec married to a fully sequential gearbox. Excellent thing, and apparently a better drive than his Ultima!)
...this one baffled them, though. An Audi TT with a mini electric-powered TT to accompany it! They weren't quite sure what to try to blag a go in first
....and one of my favourite Jaguars (even if it strictly speaking isn't), an SS100. Again, so much kudos to the owners for putting up with us. It's a whole different league being happy to show your car and chat about it and letting some total random strangers grubby urchins clamber about it. I mean, I don't even let my kids in my own car, lol
beautiful, beautiful cars SS100s, too. Just one of the most "right" cars proportionally of any era
The li'l man apparently also managed to blag a go in an classic Begently too, but I was off taking photos elsewhere and missed that. So, moving on from my errant offspring, how about some more cars then? The rarity of the cars in attendance wasn't always limited to great age or value; after all, when was the last time you saw one of these on the road? Just as much designed by a famous Italian carozzeria as any exotic supercar here. What a mix of motors, from li'l French hot hatches;
to sumptuous Teutonic luxury in the form of a gorgeous (and humongous) old 220SE
to Blackpool's finest widowmaker tupperware torpedo and this 350S plotting its next victim!
There were, as you'd perhaps expect, and as seems the LAW at Goodwood, plenty of Ferraris. Guess that's a side effect of the Goodwood membership, really. Some are quite pleasant, the modern plastic ones tend to be less so...although I guess if you have to have one a 458 Italia Spider isn't a terrible starting place...
...it's surprising how many of the new Californias turn up. I'm still not 100% sure about these. Nice interior though, I like the simplicity of the dash now that touchscreens seem to replace mundane and olde-worlde things like heater controls. Leather colour with a hint of Dale Winton!
Rather more to one's taste were the older cars, such as this replica 860 Monza. Ooooh, those curves!
Not the only gorgeously curvaceous replica car by some margin. How about this lovely 550 Spider Porsche?
...and on the subject of Stuttgart's finest, 911s were if anything, even more profuse than the Fezzas. Have a fat-bottomed brown Targa by way of illustration
Austin did offer convertibles back in the day, but to the best of my knowledge, they were on the more executive models and big saloons, not the diminutive A30. The complete lack of any kind of roof on this li'l car implies a home-made one off to me. One of the stand-out cars on the day, I reckon
Cobras are almost always replicas, of course, especially the ones inspired by 427-engined cars which only barely made it into double figures originally. However, there were a couple on the day that I thought might have been original cars. Mainly because they were badged as ACs
and of course, the AC Ace was a model in its own right before the world's fastest chicken farmer got hold of it, and it's nice to see ones that aren't pretending to be anything other than what they are, like this Ace parked in the public parking field
Not sure at all what the hell this is; despite the Scuderia Ferrari decals and alleged Alfa heritage it seems like the illegitimate offspring of many kit car dynasties to me. Answers on a postcard...
The original gentleman's blunderbus express, the Allard J2. Basically as little car as you can get away with to carry as much engine as you can manage
Here's something you don't see everyday...actually, that probably needs a caveat; you DO see Astons most days but they tend to be the vulgar modern ones owned by dessicated old lawyers or gelatinous young footballers... you don't see 1930 Tourers every day. Engine copper plumbing as an artform. This one is apparently called JoJo, too, which goes to show she must be a lady of quality, lol.
From one of the oldest to one of the newest "cars" on the day... if you can call the motorised bedstead of the Ariel Atom an actual car
Beach buggies always have a place in my heart, as a child of the Seventies. If you can get some metalfalke in there, so much the better!
There's probably a good reason that most people don't convert Beetles into pickups. There MUST be a reason, I just can't seem to think of one just at the moment...
Aha, a small section of the very large Bentley that C-man manged to blag a sit in.
When editing these pics I had no idea what the hell this was. I went with Borgward judging by the badge, but the actual car baffled me since it looks half fifties Chevy, half Morris Minor. Thanks to the wonders of Retro Rides I now know it is, of course, a Renault 4CV. No, me neither
Hmmmm, another California. I like this colour, think that's why I took this one
Apparently the convertible version of the new Camaro was commemorated by serving as the pace car at Indy. But then, that's no guarantee of quality; they've used all sorts of preposterous stuff for that over the years from Cadillacs to deSoto Firedomes! I like how the rallye stripes even extend into the interior trim