IWM Duxford Spring Car Show

It had been a cold and somewhat blustery May bank holiday weekend so far, so it was with a surprise that we set off for Duxford in the Alpine with the roof down in the early spring sunshine. The car looked good, having passed its MOT a few days earlier, although I’d have to admit only after the garage welded in a plate to repair the sill and I gave it a quick spray paint to make it presentable, oh and I also fixed the handbrake ratchet. (I’m into my 16^th year of owning the car and I run it all year round - one day I’ll get round to a proper restoration.)

We had been camping nearby, so only had a short run to the show, having chosen a mix of backroads and the M11 for the last stretch as I know the car copes fine on the motorways with the overdrive box. Unfortunately as we neared the Duxford turning the traffic was already backing up badly onto the motorway. However we took a crafty detour at that point, behind the runways and sped along an empty backroad with the Alpine suspension bouncing on the rough single track road as a test. (Did I forget to mention it needed a new leaver arm for the MOT too?)

Anyway, having made it to the right gate for the display cars we found the organisers were overwhelmed and were forcing all cars into the display area entrance which had gridlocked the approach. Although the temperature gauge made a bid for the warm end of the scale in the queue my car was OK - several of other cars having to pull over blocking access and adding to the general chaos.

Eventually getting through the entry gates we quickly made our way down to the area that Rob (our area rep) had reserved and met up with the early arrivals. We eventually had six cars in the line-up, with the planes on display on the infield making a nice backdrop. We also had our new banner to proudly unfurl, which we duly set up.

The cars in the East Anglian group are a good selection, from my series one to several series four and five’s, and we made a well turned out display. Different in several respects it was interesting to show the many people who took an interest the evolution from the more basic S1 to the quite refined SV models.

The show seems to have become an interesting mix of both older classic and quite modern cars. The older contingent were mainly British and American, with the modern’s mostly coming from Germany (BMW and Mercedes) and Japan (MX5). It was probably 50/50 in the mix. One thing we noticed was that there was very few traders on site – only about three stalls – one selling the usual grubby auto jumble, one selling cleaning products and one selling model cars. Given that the IWM has to become self-funding I think they missed an opportunity there.

However, Duxford is an Air museum foremost so we also made full use of the available exhibitions in the hangers. My stand-out exhibit being an engine - the 80 HP Le Rhone, a rotary aircraft engine, produced in France by Société des Moteurs Le Rhône (I learned afterwards) but this one was confusingly stamped ‘Made by WH Allan and Sons in Bedford’.  During the day there were several aircraft in the air and flights in the two seater Spitfire (a snip at over four thousand pounds for the memento) but Alan, one of our long standing members, admitted to having flown one himself in the 80’s which seemed a much better memory.

 

Many of the cars seemed to leave early, but we stayed on to the end – with Rob, Alan and I taking advantage of the space that was released to park under the aircraft for a set piece shot.

Towards the end as the sun started to set we all went our separate ways but I could not resist a second quick evocative picture next to the Spitfire (sadly a replica) outside one of the hangers.

I’d like to say the Alpine performed faultlessly all the four days and 150+ miles we covered, but on the way home the doggy wheel bearing started to fail and I limped back the 60 miles quite on-edge until the squeaking went away. A new one is already on order though to keep me occupied in May.

Thanks to Rob for organising it and sorting out the great pitch – all of the local members we met and chatted to - and I’m sure we all enjoyed it as much as my wife and I did.