Friday 28th Sept:
Briefing complete off we go to our first venue that Peter had arranged upon arrival for the ladies to depart on a separate visit to that of the gents - with the ladies visiting a artisan chocolatier - meanwhile we headed off to visit the Mowag factory - founded in 1950 - now owned by General Dynamics since 2003
Most of our cars lined up in their private car park - Mowog are famous for a wide range of specialist commercial vehicles like fire appliances & ambulances but have firmly built a reputation for armoured vehicles in particular armoured personnel carriers, military reconnaissance vehicles, military ambulances, communication vehicles etc on varied chassis types of 4 x 4 / 6 x 6 / 8 x 8 - aside from manufacturing the vehicles from scratch they then fit them out with drivetrain and complete the vehicle to the clients specification - they also manufacture their own drivetrain system which is exported world wide, undertake refitting / rebuilding / refurbishing of existing vehicles - all done in house within several factory units. Now with this being a military vehicle manufacture & supplier we were not allowed to take any images of the factory production of clients vehicles for obvious reasons but the sights were jaw dropping has to what was being constructed / worked upon
We were however allowed to take pics of this completed 6 x 4 'Duro' outside of the factory
Along with this 8 x 8 'Piranha' which can wade through 1.5 metres of water fully loaded - yours for a mere £1.5 + million depending upon specification
www.gd.com/our-business/combat-systems/european-land-systems
We returned to collect the ladies - Myself & madam traveling in Richard & Denise's Javelin that they had brought over from Holland for the rally - afternoon traveling was to a very different event
Taking in some fantastic scenery along the way
Lunch stop at the Napoleon Museum in Salenstein
www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/napoleon-museum-arenenberg-castle.html
Then onwards
Keith's Jupiter which I rebuilt the bodywork on & painted last year had travelled with fellow club member Scott - over from Los Angeles - they had set off a few weeks ago in order to travel to Spa for the classic and then down to Italy before heading to Switzerland (Although being driven by Keith's daughter Amy with madam riding shotgun in the picture)
More Jowetts alongside the cows - and opposite the field is this
4th generation family artisan cheese maker
So first of all we sat down to taste the wares - along with fresh bread & apple juice - stunning !
Then a tour of the premises with a explanation of the process
Along with the cheese cellars (several)
Then the old man let on that he had something old on wheels stashed in the barn at the back of the dairy
Which turned out to be this 1947 Austin A125 Sheerline - 4 litre straight six - with an interesting history has it had been utilised has a fire engine within it's lifetime - it's now been stood for several years due a broken steering part - I will put him in touch with the UK owners club and hopefully they can assist
Meanwhile the family waited in turn to be taken for a spin in the Jupiters
I think we made their day has enjoyable has they had made ours
Coffee stop en-route back to the hotel was at this impressive fort style venue - normally utilised for private events
schloss-hagenwil.ch/
Off we set back to the hotel / apartment - a quick shower & change then up to the hotel to eat with the rest of the rally attendees - end of the first day of the rally - having barely recovered from the journey there we were all finding it difficult to stay awake after 21:00 hours but a swift G & T guaranteed a good nights sleep - Lots more to update upon tomorrow
Briefing complete off we go to our first venue that Peter had arranged upon arrival for the ladies to depart on a separate visit to that of the gents - with the ladies visiting a artisan chocolatier - meanwhile we headed off to visit the Mowag factory - founded in 1950 - now owned by General Dynamics since 2003
Most of our cars lined up in their private car park - Mowog are famous for a wide range of specialist commercial vehicles like fire appliances & ambulances but have firmly built a reputation for armoured vehicles in particular armoured personnel carriers, military reconnaissance vehicles, military ambulances, communication vehicles etc on varied chassis types of 4 x 4 / 6 x 6 / 8 x 8 - aside from manufacturing the vehicles from scratch they then fit them out with drivetrain and complete the vehicle to the clients specification - they also manufacture their own drivetrain system which is exported world wide, undertake refitting / rebuilding / refurbishing of existing vehicles - all done in house within several factory units. Now with this being a military vehicle manufacture & supplier we were not allowed to take any images of the factory production of clients vehicles for obvious reasons but the sights were jaw dropping has to what was being constructed / worked upon
We were however allowed to take pics of this completed 6 x 4 'Duro' outside of the factory
Along with this 8 x 8 'Piranha' which can wade through 1.5 metres of water fully loaded - yours for a mere £1.5 + million depending upon specification
www.gd.com/our-business/combat-systems/european-land-systems
We returned to collect the ladies - Myself & madam traveling in Richard & Denise's Javelin that they had brought over from Holland for the rally - afternoon traveling was to a very different event
Taking in some fantastic scenery along the way
Lunch stop at the Napoleon Museum in Salenstein
www.myswitzerland.com/en-gb/napoleon-museum-arenenberg-castle.html
Then onwards
Keith's Jupiter which I rebuilt the bodywork on & painted last year had travelled with fellow club member Scott - over from Los Angeles - they had set off a few weeks ago in order to travel to Spa for the classic and then down to Italy before heading to Switzerland (Although being driven by Keith's daughter Amy with madam riding shotgun in the picture)
More Jowetts alongside the cows - and opposite the field is this
4th generation family artisan cheese maker
So first of all we sat down to taste the wares - along with fresh bread & apple juice - stunning !
Then a tour of the premises with a explanation of the process
Along with the cheese cellars (several)
Then the old man let on that he had something old on wheels stashed in the barn at the back of the dairy
Which turned out to be this 1947 Austin A125 Sheerline - 4 litre straight six - with an interesting history has it had been utilised has a fire engine within it's lifetime - it's now been stood for several years due a broken steering part - I will put him in touch with the UK owners club and hopefully they can assist
Meanwhile the family waited in turn to be taken for a spin in the Jupiters
I think we made their day has enjoyable has they had made ours
Coffee stop en-route back to the hotel was at this impressive fort style venue - normally utilised for private events
schloss-hagenwil.ch/
Off we set back to the hotel / apartment - a quick shower & change then up to the hotel to eat with the rest of the rally attendees - end of the first day of the rally - having barely recovered from the journey there we were all finding it difficult to stay awake after 21:00 hours but a swift G & T guaranteed a good nights sleep - Lots more to update upon tomorrow
