THE TURNPIKE
The british motor cycle preservation society put on a great show at THE TURNPIKE, between oldham and ashton. Over 70 bikes, cars and scooters of all ages and styles turned up.
The day started rather dull and overcast but that didn't stop the 'show'.
What a marvellous turn out. The bikes took centre stage with over 50 turning up, most staying for the full day. Nortons, beezers, triumphs, royal Enfields you name it there was one there. What a good turn out from the scooter boys too, old and modern 15 at one time. Even five trikes. The custom imp powered trike definatley caught your eye, owened by Alan Medhurst from stockport. It two years to build working at lunch times and saturday afternoons. Alan has run it for twenty four years now.
A BSA A65 Lighenting (650cc) restored from a 'basket case' and is now in stunning condition. Owened by Alan Coates he has rode it to Swtzerland and back TWICE since the rebuild, all for charity.
Amongst the cars, Dean Cooper turned up in his 1971 Hillman Imp, an ex rally car. Dean has owened it for twelve months and says it's a rolling restoration but it looks really well as it is.
Dave Jones from Levenshulme brought along his 1957 Ford Zodiac Mk11 (with six mates and their Mk11's). daves car has appeared on TV and will work again later this year to commemorate the opening of the motorway network.
Other cars that turned up was a rare Hudson (aprox1924), a 1969 Plymouth Fury and a last minuet arrival was a 1955 Cadilac de-ville. Good food and drink was provided by the staff of the turnpike who worked very hard on the day. Thanks to them and to all that made the effort and bring their vehicles, also thanks to B.M.P.S. for putting on the show
MK 11 WEEKEND
WICKSTEED PARK
Friday (not Bernie,s best day!)
we set off Friday dinner time. Bernie, gill, and myself meeting Brian at sandbach services. Bernie had problems from the off, with trouble at home and a permanent red light on his dash. After a little tinkering we gave up as he had no indicators and one brake light. The map was put aside and we set off following his sat nav.
We had decided to take the A5 route stopping off at a truck stop on watling St A5 southbound , as we left the M6 we saw the truck stop which appeared empty, so still doing 50 and checking it out , I looked round in horror to see Bernie on his way into the gates,( forgetting he had no indicators) I dived on my brakes only to hear Brian locked up behind me and about to plough into us, I flew into the furthest part of the entrance allowing Brian a bit of space before he caused a pile up behind him.
We had a brew and sat there pissing ourselves at how close we had come to smashing all three cars up. The rest of the journey was a nightmare as Bernie took us back on the M6 through Birmingham at 5 oclock, with brian threatening to shove bernies sat nav where the sun don't shine lol.
We arrived at wicksteed some 5 or 6 hours later putting our tents up in a force 10 gale and settled in for the night with lots of beer. There were only 8 mk2s there and nothing to do so we decided on an early night... 3am ??.
SATURDAY
We were up with the larks around 7 am for full a English , meanwhile bonnie one of brians 2 dogs had gone AWOL and after much searching and shouting I found her in the next field raiding someones food container, she had a full pack of cheese they had left out to thaw. She was in the dog house for the rest of the morning and we kept very quiet. (If you read this and it was your container) HARD CHEESE LOL ! .
SAT also saw the arrival of dale and moira and mark b in his convertible and later Dave Lesley and dawn making it 7 cars , and the weather improved as lots more cars made the field, Jason had brought all 3 of his cars , his Ute, vert and mays zephyr which gave us something to drool over.
Nighttime was soon upon us and there was no entertainment laid on so we were forced to make our own ,,and drink more beer, Brian subjected us to some bizzare cinderella story (where does he get them) and we made up a few games and had a pop quizz to pass the time. The evening was one laugh after another, with the highlights being, Bernie accusing me of nicking his beer as he had brought 3 bottles in., a full bottle sat in front of him on the table surrounded by 5 empties ??? and mark b capped it off by not being able to unzip the gazebo to get out , after a few minutes he got up and opened another exit, (you had to be there)
SUNDAY
cars rolled in all morning making an impressive sight with the chrome glinting in the sunshine. We had a visit from Wayne and Jackie (ex Mk 2 owners lol) who stayed and helped us pack up for the run back home , which was almost incident free , we ran into a torrentual down pour as we left Kettering, which was scary to say the least. After that it was sunshine all the way back up north. All in all a great time, the only drawbacks were the lack of toilets entertainment and having to fork out £10 per night to kip in a field with no washing facilities for us or the women.
JONNY
REGARDS TO ENTERTAINMENT AND TOILETS YOU DO HAVE A POINT BUT IT 'S A LOT OF WORK TRYING TO GET EVERYTHING RIGHT WE LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES AND OUR CRITICS
DAVE AND BRIAN (two dogs)
PARK BRIDGE
2008
park bridge is off Lees Rd between oldham and ashton i didn't know this place existed it's part of the national heritage trail.
It wasnt untill friday night Bri(2dogs) said he was going and asked if anyone else fancied it so i rang around a few members who live local as it was such short notice for everyone to attend.
we arranged to meet at asda car park in ashton. So when i arrived i found bri,Keith,Jim,Jonny and Gill waiting for me so we shot straight off to the park which is about a 2 miles drive.
when we got there the stewards were going to put us in a packed car park but that would have meant splitting us up so Paul who organises the show came up with the idea it would be better to keep us all together so he gave us our own area it was a little out of the way but i think it worked out better for us as it was a small grassed area which was over looked by the main show and had spiral stone stairways leading up to the show car park and a stream running at the side we could fit around 15 cars on
paul also informed me later that if we could get enough cars next year we could have the same area
there was a wide range of cars on show from vintage austin sevens and a hudson essex (al capone style) to capris and cortinas val and berts chey impala and a rare edsel ranger and there were plenty of old british bikes
whilst walking around the cars i saw a consul right in the corner of the car park it was paul and cheryls they must have been one of the first to arrive and looking how they were blocked in i bet one of the last to go but i dont they would of minded much as they got 2nd best post war saloon (well done you two)
MK 11 INDEPENDENT CLUB
BILLING 2008
it was a glorious day to be travelling to northhampton. we met at sandbach services at 6:30 and left at 7:00 the traffic at that time on a sunday was very light there were four cars brian's (2 dogs) jim's (santa) bernie's and mine having one more stop on route we arrived around 9:30 with no problems
when we got there we told jim who went in a different gate to us that we paid £6 instead of the £10 and jim was not pleased with that and after 20 mins of moaning bernie had to let him know we paid £10 because he was on his way back down to the gate (you would have had to be there to find it funny)
after a little detour we found the field where the mk11s were and i wasn't impressed, there were around 12 cars without ours and i thought i drove all this way for this but by noon there were plenty of cars to look round so it was worthwhile in the end
we got talking to the other owners and telling them about our club in the north west then we met a guy from st helens with a zodiac and his mate with a cresta who were keen on attending our runs and shows and may pop down to the meets if they can.
moira and dale were there as was steve toye with his parts stall and a lot of familiar faces from the last time i was at billing
it got to 3:00pm and time to give out the trophies but first it was a prize for the best teddy of the day as the theme was the teddy bears picknic there was only going to be one winner and he was picked brian 2 dogs and he got awarded a plate with a picture of a mk11 on it for putting his teddy on the roof of his car and rigging up a devise for it to wave its paw at people passing by (he is always tinkering) well done brian
the first trophy to give out went to the guy from st helens for his cresta for best non mk 11 ( keith & wayne have competition if he turns up )
the next trophies were 1st, 2nd & 3rd best mk11s and 1st prize went to les the other guy from st helens for his zodiac (so more competition if he turns up )
the last trophy to give out was the best daily driven mk11 and that went to me, what a shock! had we all decided to pick the same car again i'm just sorry mark b didn't get it at leyland museum when we picked his (so i dont have to worry about competition)
the drive home was fine with just one stop to let the football traffic clear so the 3 graces done well again so thanks for turning out again