Its Sunday - the last day of the 2022 Resto Show at the NEC, sponsored by Practical Classics Magazine. Our stand proved very popular with the show-going public as many visitors came to look and talk about our exhibits. ​

Its Friday 18th March at the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC and the team is back to man the stand for Press Day. It begins with stand mastermind Gar reviewing the stand built by the team the day before, and declaring himself satisfied with a concept successfully realised.

​Today it's time to reveal the stand to the general public and other exhibitors at the show for the first time ...

Finally it's March 17th, the day we get to set up our club stand for the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC, Birmingham.

When the setup was finally complete, Gar said:

The new video below shows the setup in Hall 5 as it happened.

Written by Paul Sweeney.

It was the last morning of a short break on New Zealand's South Island for my birthday and we needed something to do for an hour or so before returning our hire car and heading to the airport for our flight home.

We'd done the whale watching trip that was planned to be the centrepiece of the trip, so I Googled, "Things to do near me" expecting the usual results, but found this place: the Ferrymead Heritage Park right there in the city of Christchurch. The blurb read, "Ferrymead Heritage Park is a museum in Christchurch, New Zealand, housing groups with historical themes, mainly transport related. Formerly known as Ferrymead Historic Park, it was founded in 1964 by groups, local government bodies and other interested parties." My interest piqued, I checked out the photos online:

Luckily Billy had no better ideas, so off we went to the park which was a mere 20 minute drive away. Here is the park's own description of itself:

In the end we had only an hour or so to explore, so I focussed on the historic motoring displays and skipped everything else - so there is definitely plenty to see on any future return visit. I took plenty of photos and some video clips which I afterwards decided to put together in the video below for our YouTube channel followers to enjoy. Unfortunately I didn't have my Go Pro camera with me, so the video isn't of quite the quality I would have liked, but you can at least see some of the display.

For more information, please visit the park's website by clicking here.

"Two fat blokes paint a 1961 Fisher Holivan" is a timelapse video in the style of the silent comedies from years ago and stars Gar with Ian who agreed to help paint the Holivan ahead of its planned starring role on the group's stand for the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC later this month. ​

By Mike Peake

'​Well that seemed a very long winter didn’t it? However, we are BACK! It was time to meet up with good friends and great cars again and our group of intrepid enthusiast was heading for the Inn on the Wye which was to be our base camp for our weekend’s exploration of the Forest of Dean.
 
Let’s back up a bit though and start on Thursday 24th February. I’d originally booked this day off work as I’d promised Mrs FB a trip to the Caravan and Motorhome show at the NEC. This trip had to be abandoned though as a new acquisition was heading my way and delivery was due on the Thursday. Mrs FB hid her disappointment almost as well as my bruises were hidden. I’m saving that tale for another blog though.
 
All this meant that I had time to fettle Poppy and get her ready for our trip. This mainly consisted of changing the brake light switch mounted above the brake pedal. A simple easy fix I thought, but no. The old broken one came off easily enough and then it was just a matter of pushing the new one through the hole in the bracket, making sure the flat edges lined up and then fitting the washer and tightening up the nut on the other side of the bracket fixing the switch into place. See? Easy! I spent HOURS, and I mean HOURS fiddling with it. I was quite nervous about cross threading the nut and destroying the plastic thread on the switch and therefore could not get the nut lined up correctly. 4 hours of fiddling, false starts, dropped washers, nuts and switches later, including a call to my local garage to see if they could fit it in (they couldn’t), I was no closer to success and getting quite frustrated. So I stopped for lunch and a think. The break also coincided with a sudden snow shower. It would appear that our resident Rain Man Gar Cole was releasing the usual tour weather gods early.
 
In the end, I undid the pedal linkage to the master cylinder which meant that the pedal travelled further and gave me more room behind the bracket. It worked! 10 minutes after finishing lunch, the switch was successfully in place and I had working brake lights again. I even remembered to reassemble the linkage BEFORE I had any embarrassing or expensive moments.
 
The rest of the fettling involved nothing more than checking fluid levels and tyre pressures. It being a “not camping” weekend meant that all I had to do now was pack my overnight bag for 2 nights and I would be ready to leave straight after work on Friday. Mrs FB had said that she wasn’t coming as it was “far too 'Winter' for mucking about in a convertible car with no heater.”

​As I came out of my home office spot on knocking off time on Friday, ready to head off down the green lanes, Mrs FB announced a change of plan. She’d looked at the weather forecast and decided that it wasn’t that much “winter” after all and that she was coming with me.
 
I was so pleased to hear this and didn’t mind in the slightest the wait while every hat, coat, jumper, blanket and hot water bottle in the house, as well as outfits for if it’s cold and for if it’s not and more for if it rains, was loaded into Poppy, filling the boot, back seat and floor well to the brim.
 
Eventually though, with Mrs FB sat in the passenger seat, buried under further coats, blankets and hot water bottles, we headed for the hotel a mere one and a half hour’s drive away. Positively local to us for one of our tours.
 
After checking into our luxurious “not camping” abode we all gathered in the restaurant where the serious business of the tour could begin. By that I mean drinking, eating, drinking, laughing, drinking and shenanigans.

​All this singing had a strange effect on Nick Arthur. You could see the feeling come up over him like a tidal wave until he could resist no more and in a surprisingly strong clear voice, broke into a song of his own. To say we were all surprised is an understatement. Though none as surprised as Nick I dare say. We were so surprised that it took us a few seconds to tune into the lyrics of his chosen ditty, but when we did, our surprise changed to shock! You see Nick had chosen to sing a traditional English folk song rarely  heard outside of a rugby club on a Saturday evening and had something to do with candles and wicks and stuff. I didn’t understand it myself but others seemed to find it uproariously funny. I have the whole thing on video, but as it seems to break every group rule I don’t think I can share it here. However, I will happily share it with anyone on the payment of £10 to my PayPal account. Unless that is, Nick wants to come to his own arrangement with me? That nice brown XJ Jaguar for instance?
 
Sensibly and soberly, of course, we all retired to our beds early to be refreshed and ready for the tour in the morning.
 
Strangely, Saturday dawned as one of those bright, sunny but cold winter days with no sign at all of the apocalyptic weather that normally accompanies our tours. A clear sign that Rain Man Gar was off his game. So, before we set off, let me introduce you to the gang and their cars.

The 1st leg of the tour took us to the town of Monmouth via some charming green lanes. I’ve driven through Monmouth on the A40 many a time but have never stopped there until now but it really is a lovely little town. I was particularly interested in the medieval bridge across the wye. It is the last surviving fortified bridge in the country.

​It was built in 1270 in order to defend the town against the marauding and savage Welsh tribesmen who liked nothing more than popping over the River Wye and raiding for a few head of English cattle. I was all for climbing the tower immediately to see if I could shoot a few Welshmen of my own but Gar was having none of it and bodily blocked the only entrance to the upper floors of the tower.

​As disappointed as I was, I could understand Gar’s actions as he was the only one there with known Welsh ancestry. I’m not sure that his actions were entirely necessary though, as that door doesn’t look like it was built with Fatblokes in mind.
 
I was quite excited about the next legs of the tour as they would be taking in a couple of old ruins.

​No! Not Windy and Bernard! I’ve no idea how that photo got in here. The ruins we were going to see were Raglan Castle and Tintern Abbey.
 
The 1st leg to Monmouth had gone extremely well with no one getting separated or lost on the way. I knew it couldn’t last and it didn’t. Having left the Monmouth car park with kind motorists giving way so as not to separate the convoy, the convoy separated like a starburst in a myriad of different directions as soon as we hit the 1st major junction with each breakaway convoy getting smaller at each subsequent junction until there was just Poppy and Lincoln’s Royal Ranger Rover left.

​We finally made it to Raglan Castle only to find it devoid of any other classic car enthusiasts. Had we taken so long that they had been and gone without us? No. They wouldn’t do that would they? It turned out that the Royal cross country route was a rather effective short cut and we were actually the 1st to arrive. After a short wait the main convoy of classics, having continued on the road we lost confidence in, turned up.

​Chats were had, photos were taken, Raglan Castle was oohed and aahed at and Mrs FB got cold so we all headed for the Wild Hare at Tintern to fill up with food and warmth and to meet up with the remaining stragglers who had elected to skip the castle and go straight to the pub.
 
Hunger pangs sated, and bodies defrosted, it was time to leave the pub. The plan was to walk down to the Abbey for a look around but it was cold and we could see it from the car park. So, having seen the Abbey we headed off for the final stop of the tour.

​The Perrygrove steam forest railway. Who doesn’t love a steam engine? The train set we were going to play with was a rather fine narrow gauge one and I have to say, I now want a bigger back garden so I can have a train set just like it.
 
The convoy managed to hold together and we arrived at the railway only to be told we’d missed the last run. Well I’m not ashamed to say that my bottom lip was trembling with disappointment at this announcement and I wasn’t the only one. I think the ticket office girl noticed this, and not wanting to see 15 grown men cry, she went off the see if the driver would do one more run just for us. On the news that he would, 15 grown men suddenly turned into 15 excited little boys as we rushed for the platform gripping our tickets.

As soon as the train was in, I made a beeline for the best seat on the train, right next to the engine so I could be up close to all the noises smells and sights of a working steam engine. We settled in and got comfy only to watch the engine uncouple and head for the other end of the train. I might have sulked a bit, but only until we got to the halfway point of the ride when the engine came back to our end and I was able to fully enjoy the ride back to the station.

That wasn’t the end of the experience though. The owners allowed us all back to the engine shed to see their other engines and watch as the put the last one to bed for the night..

​That just left an enjoyable drive back to the hotel for another night of frivolity and laughter before a hearty breakfast and morning departure back to my new acquisition that I had been so rudely torn away from mere hours after her arrival. No. you’ll have to await my next blog for those details. Oh go on then. Here’s a clue.

​What a fantastic start to the 2022 season with the usual massive thanks to Gar Cole for organising yet another great weekend and thanks to everyone else there for making it so much fun. My face has only just stopped hurting from all the laughter.
 
See you at the NEC for the restoration show. Gar has got a fantastic stand planned. Our best yet so don’t miss it. As a member of this group you get discounted tickets and free cake too.

by Paul Sweeney.

Thanks to all those who braved the freezing cold - you did us proud with your beautiful and diverse British classics and gave Gar a birthday weekend to remember. We hope you enjoy the video - please remember to comment on YouTube, then click 'Like' and subscribe to our channel if you've not already done so. That lets us know that our efforts are appreciated.

Finally, my personal thanks and appreciation go to Gar - on top of organising the tour including all the hotel bookings, driving routes and places of interest to stop, he also managed to think about filming events as they unfolded using our new up-to-the-minute Go Pro camera technology which he had never even seen just a few shorts months ago. Pretty impressive, I think you will agree!

Our only previous attempt to film a group driving tour was the Fat Lamb tour in late 2021; we were pleased with the end results, but Gar and I were both determined to continue developing our skills and to do even better  this time.

• Gar wanted to hone his newly-acquired camera skills, not to mention getting to grips with the various new bits of hardware I had bombarded him with! 
• I am learning how to manage the dozens of video clips and around 500 photos that came tumbling out of the weekend (special thanks to Nick, Anthony and Paul C), then selecting which ones to use and finally editing it all together as a (hopefully) coherent and enjoyable short film.

​It's amazing how the two of us located on opposite sides of the world manage to collaborate as well as we do - the technology is amazing when you think about it; what we're doing now would not have been possible even just a few years ago.