The thought of organising a small local run started back in 2017. I was helping out at Kentwell Hall in Long Melford Suffolk - one of the stop off points for the cars arriving at Dover for the National - and chatting to a couple of local owners we all regretted the lack of runs in recent years. I had been on a great blat in 2015 to RAF Marham – so I knew that it took a lot of work and that a special destination was key.
So later that autumn I plucked up courage and suggested to Steve (one of our local reps) that I could come up with a route and told him the destination. He jumped at the suggestion and we tried to fix a date but after a while it became obvious that I’d need more time to do the route so we decided that Summer 2018 was a good target.
I have to admit at this point that I am a serial offender (I have a couple of classic cars too) and I had created a route before which I thought I could easily ‘tune’ for Sevens. I’m part of the affectionately named Carrotland (covering Suffolk and Norfolk) and although we have some great roads my bit is the South Suffolk Coast and that is not really blat friendly. Therefore I chose the best roads from my earlier route, cut out a few of the more narrow lanes and added a faster stretch where I could.
I have an older 1700 Crossflow which is in the classic colour combination of green with a yellow nosecone. It has a lighter flywheel and other slight tuning tweaks so I’m happy to say it goes nicely, but being an early car it is a bit narrower than some - even with my clamshell wings – and has decent ground clearance. Over the months I did the run a couple of times to check the miles, both in my family car and the Seven and changed the odd section again. Finally I created a route book with ‘Tulip-like’ instructions, plus pictures or diagrams showing the difficult turnings in detail and mapped it with the Ordinance Survey on-line software. I put it to bed and the months passed. Steve co-ordinated the joiners and soon we had enough cars signed up to make it worthwhile.
Of course I had not planned that my car would fail the MOT three weeks before the run (play in the steering rack necessitating a reconditioned rack) nor that I would be away on holiday for a week in the run up - so things got a little busy as the date approached. Luckily I got the car back with a few days to spare and I tested the route once again. This time I found one road was permanently closed for building work and another had planned re-surfacing work for the weekend. I quickly re-did the route (again) to take those changes into account and kept my fingers crossed.
Sunday was gloriously hot and sunny and when I got to the start point several cars were already there waiting. We assembled at Orwell Crossing – a large truck stop with a good carpark, café and toilets. The only problems being that the café was closed because the staff had not turned up and the car park was full of bikers !
Eventually we had the car park to ourselves and after handing out the route books and maps I waved the cars set off in two small groups. The route initially took the cars north through the edge of Ipswich and out into quiet countryside. After that it was to Woodbridge a market town on the river Deben and through the historic High Street (only open Sundays). It then drove back through the lanes until it reached the coast and the seaside. At Felixstowe the route went along the promenade and finally arrived at the historic Landguard Fort, where I had arranged with English Heritage that we were to be allowed to park inside the walls of the Fort itself.
Sitting on the coast at the edge of a Nature reserve, the original Fort was built by Henry VIII to protect access to the open sea where the rivers Orwell and Deben meet and in 1667 it repulsed an attack of 1,500 Dutch marines (musketeers, pike-men, sailors, grenadiers and small cannon) who had landed nearby. The Fort today dates back to 1744, when new red brick walls were built in the form of a pentagon. The last military use was in in 1951, when two of the old gun casemates were converted into a control room for ‘cold war’ use.
On the run of course things did not go that smoothly. We had several cars lost for a while as emergency roadworks sprang up and blocked the route and caused a small detour. We had one bashed sump on the approach to a narrow hump back bridge. Not everyone took the high street and some cars meeting us on the route were in the wrong place due to the roadworks. Finally the lower slung cars did not appreciate the agony of the final set of speed bumps (stick to the middle the book said) to get to the historic Fort.
As for me, I had done the route about ten times so I went directly to the Fort to put up parking signs and help. 
As the cars arrived I directed them to park next to me inside the walls as they were shepherded across the narrow draw-bridge into the courtyard. More and more cars were arriving and parking up, much to the delight of the other visitors that day with some generous owners letting children sit in their cars. I went back outside to help organise the arrivals and looking back at the entrance I realised that for new arrivals it looked a bit tight, getting over the moat and through the entrance gate and narrow passages.
I had hoped the location would make a great talking point and as the later cars swarmed in, early arrivals explored the building and upper levels of the Fort. The noise of the exhausts bounding off the circular walls was great too. The cars seemed to park up naturally in groups of similar colours - the bright yellow, red and blue cars standing out especially well against the dark walls of the battlements. The Fort is also next to Felixstowe docks and the giant container ships made a great counter-point to the small cars.
Eventually all seventeen cars arrived and formed a neat crescent in the courtyard and the latecomers went off to explore as well.
Through it all the Fort staff were friendly and helpful, pleased to see such a delightful spectacle that afternoon. We ate lunch, looked at the exhibitions, climbed the battlements and hid in the shade from the blistering sun. As the cars started to drift away I thanked the staff, handed over the donations we had collected for the run and headed home myself.
So would I do it again ?
Well, I think if everyone has forgiven me I might give it a go.
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