The British Classics XI car show was yesterday, and the Land Rover attended. This show is hosted by the British Car Club Midlands Centre and is held in conjunction with Tartan Day South Highland Games and Celtic. Wow, that was a mouthful.
The show is just over a hundred mikes up the interstate, and the Rover was happy cruising at 65 miles per hour, give or take 5 mph, the entire way there and back. I hit the road at 7 am, got back home around 5:30, and covered 240 miles. We also took a short side trip after the show to visit a local self-service junkyard in search of parts.
The funniest part of the day was pulling up to the show’s registration table and having the woman manning it look at me and then look quizzically at my ride. I told her I was there for the show and had pre-registered. She cocked her head, looked at my ride again, and then said, “OK, but what is it?” Ha!
Now I am used to that kind of reaction when I drive Catherine, my 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 1100, but I never expected that in a modern era Land Rover with the words “LAND ROVER” spelled out across the front of the hood. Guess she was just far more used to seeing MGs, Jaguars, Triumphs, and Healeys at the show. Ya gotta laugh!
Anyway, it is a great show and they had about 120 cars in attendance. I was in the “All Other” class with an MG Magnette sedan, a Turner, and an MGB modified into a 4×4. Strange bedfellows, especially when realizing Catherine would have been in the same class.
One of the attractive things about this show, besides the beautiful weather and it being held in a town where a fantastic lifelong friend is mayor, is that it is held in conjunction with the Scottish games. That makes for mouth-watering food, energetic music, unique shopping opportunities, entertaining demonstrations, and happy crowds. The cross-pollination between the car show and the games is wonderful and gives both groups more to do and exposes them to new things. Converts are made in both directions.
The trip to the junkyard didn’t yield much more than a few trim bits and another radio to play with, but it was successful none-the-less and I will be back if they get more Land Rovers.
All in all a fun day, a trouble-free outing for the Rover, and a few more miles under the belt.