0 Comments
Written by Gar Cole. 20-22 September 2024
Written by Gar Cole. Tour Dates: 8-9 June 2024
Written by Gar Cole.
The official photo gallery from the 2023 Fat Lamb 3 Tour is now online - click the image below to view the gallery.
The official photo gallery for our 2023 group tour of Anglesey & Snowdonia is now available to view - click on the image or the button below.
More photos are still coming in and will be added as they become available, so keep checking back for more. During April, the group's touring section enjoyed a driving tour that took in some spectacular scenery to match the spectacular classic cars taking part! The photo gallery is now online - just click on the image below to view it. Thanks to Tony T-B for sharing his photos.
The full video of the event is in the works and coming very soon - watch this space! The touring group is safely back home having enjoyed a great weekend of classic car touring in beautiful Devon; the official photo gallery is now available on our website and can be viewed by clicking on the image below.
Watch this space for the first new touring video of the year coming soon! Written by Gar Cole. Following the huge success of the 2021 driving tour in Cumbria, we will return this year on 8-11 October. It’s a package deal for our club; 3 night stay for 2 people with breakfast and evening meals included, plus a guided tour by the owner across the very best scenery the area has to offer. It’s a lovely old building and the food is way above normal standard, we’d go as far as to say it’s exceptional. There are just 5 rooms remaining. The cost is £450 per room for the 3 nights. A deposit of £50 must be paid directly to the hotel on 01539623242, with the balance to be paid on arrival. When booking in please quote you are with the ‘Enthusiasts car club‘ - strictly first come, first served. If you havent been to the Fat Lamb before, you can watch the video from our last visit below. Organised by Gar Cole - any queries to him via Facebook. Written by Gar Cole. Tour Dates: 17-19 June 2023A fantastic 2 day driving tour of some of the most stunning scenery in Wales.
Saturday will start from Trewan Sands and tour the island of Anglesey, taking in stops at the motor museum, go kart track, Beaumaris Castle, Trearddur Beach and other local beauty spots. Sunday the convoy will cross the Menai Bridge and head into Snowdonia National Park, climbing the striking mountain roads up-to Llanberis. Treat yourself to some of the best scenic driving roads in the UK; it’s free to join and everyone is welcome, you just need your fuel and accommodation. The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show is only months away now - 11-13 November 2022 at the NEC. The theme for the show has just been announced and we are now starting the search for well presented pre-85 British classics that illustrate the show theme to represent us on our club stand. Here is how the organisers announced the theme, titled "Part of the Family": Our theme for this year is 'Part of the Family'. Classics bring families together, whether that’s purely through the love of classics or childhood memories. If you own a pre-85 British classic that fits the theme and would like a chance to display it with us at the show, complete the entry form below. At this stage we are looking to see what is available - definite selections will be confirmed later this year. Please note exhibitors are responsible for transporting their cars to and from the show. Displaying at the show is at your own risk - we can accept no liability for any damage however incurred. By Gar Cole. What can I say apart from ‘ Wow‘! What a fantastic weekend at the Restoration Show; the team worked brilliantly together to bring my ideas to life. I am a worrier and get stressed because I care about the group and how we are perceived but I need not have worried - everyone checked with me every step of the way if it was how I wanted it. Special thanks to Mike Peake and Ian Woodward for being my right hand ‘henchmen‘ all weekend and keeping my inner Diva under lock and key. Also huge thanks and respect to the other car displayers Jim Scott and his Cortina who drove down all the way from Gretna Green and Andy Perman who drove the VDP all the way from Portsmouth. Now that’s dedication for you! My appreciation also goes to Eric Dalton, Lincoln Hunt, Anthony & Pat Osborne and Liam's Page who all provided banners and memorabilia which greatly enhanced our stand as well as giving up time and helping assemble the wood support frames. Finally massive respect to Head of Admin Paul Sweeney. Despite living in New Zealand I would film the day's GoPro footage and upload it to the cloud. Over breakfast his time Paul would edit the videos, vastly improve them and have them ready for us to watch the next morning. The technology we have now blows my mind. Have a good rest guys, you really earned it.
The Festive Season is well behind us now and Events Supremo Gar Cole has been busily planning some great events for 2022 with the help of some other keen sorts (take a bow Mike Peake and Anthony Osborne) to truly make this a year to remember.
The current events line-up is shown below - click anywhere on the image to go to the Events page of this website where you can access details of each event and how to join any that interest you. Details are subject to change so please check before travelling. Club Discount tickets are now available for the 2022 Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show. To save £3.50 per ticket, click the image below to reveal our unique club discount code for use when buying - note the code is visible only to members of our Facebook group.
Group event - Saturday 23 April 2022
Organised by member Anthony Osborne. A group visit to the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, taking place on Saturday April 23rd starting at 10am.
​Places need to be pre-booked and pre-paid at £32 per person; this includes dedicated parking, tea/coffee on arrival, a guided tour, buffet lunch and access to explore the museum on your own afterwards. This is a purely social event - there are no restrictions on the cars you can use to attend.​
What's to see at Gaydon?Book your placeBy Paul Sweeney. Some months ago, the then Graham Adams and Sue Clamp (now Mr & Mrs!) very kindly organised a driving tour for the group, which they named, "The Staffs Oatcake Tour" - no, I didnt understand it either. Anyhow, the tour had an excellent turnout and was a huge success. I've been sitting on the photos from the tour ever since, and only just realised I also had a nice little video clip someone (perhaps Tosh?) had filmed as the gang were sitting around on the campsite enjoying a hearty meal that I suspect may have been the work of a certain Mr Gar Cole (does anyone else cook for everybody on tour?). Organiser Graham also turned up trumps with two previously unavailable video clips that I was keen to share. So anyway ... it was too good to miss, so I've put it all together in a video that you can view below (and please please remember to comment, Like and Subscribe on YouTube!). I hope those who were there will enjoy it as much as the rest of us who can only imagine being able to take part. Someday I'll make it! It was a cold day in early November 2021 and some Enthusiasts were invited to a tour of the fantastic Everards brewery facility near Leicester. Our guide for the day, Nick was a brilliant host and a great time was had - thoroughly recommended for a day out. Click below to view the short video of their visit on our official YouTube channel - and please remember to subscribe while you're there! by Gar Cole. This tour aims to take in some of the best driving roads and scenery Yorkshire has to offer, leaving base camp at Filey we will first cross to Thornton le Dale and visit with Matthewson’s auction house and see what’s being processed that day ( bidding optional ). From here we head north towards Hutton-le-Hole and visit the chocolate making shop that was closed last time ( booo!), from here we head towards Rosedale Abbey via the 1 in 3 climb to Chimney bank, refreshment stop at bank top kilns viewing point.
We leave chimney bank and cross through the heart of the moors national park on the Knott road towards Castletown, then pass through Ainthorpe, Danby and a further photo stop at Scaling Dam. We reach the coast road at Sandsend, before following the coastal road down to Whitby for local Fish n Chips , turning on and off the A174 we will pass through Robin Hoods bay, Crowdon, Cloughton Newlands before reaching Scarborough sea front , after photos a steady run along the coast road back to Filey and base camp. By Gar Cole. Back by popular demand, we return to the Peak District for the 3rd time, building on the best of what we visited previously, so you can expect a beautiful driving route taking in such favourites as the Ladybower Reservoir, the Goyt Valley, the village of Flash and other stunning sights.
Start and finish point will be base camp at Middlehills Farm camp site. The admin team will be camping from Friday to Sunday. You are welcome to join us at camp, stay in local accommodation or just visit for the day, as ever our events are free to join and Pre-Millennial cars are welcome to join us. By Paul Sweeney. As some of you will already know, we recently invested in a Go Pro camera to record our activities out in the real world in glorious sparking 4K High Definition quality, the idea being to share our tours and events with all those who like myself cannot be there in person for whatever reasons. After some practice, Gar and I were ready to have our first try at filming for the Fat Lamb tour which happened over the weekend of 9-10 October this year. Gar volunteered to do all the filming then sent the raw footage over to me to edit down in New Zealand and hopefully make something watchable out of it for you all to enjoy. It was quite the joint effort and definitely a steep learning curve for us both, but Gar and I had a lot of fun working as a team across time zones. We both feel we've done our best but also that this was only the first time and we will definitely improve with practice - we hope you will look at the end product with that in mind!
I'd like to express my personal thanks to Gar; working alone on this project here in NZ was great fun but a fresh set of eyes on what I was doing as work progressed was invaluable. Some of the little touches you might notice in the video happened entirely due to his imagination and enthusiasm - many thanks for that, Gar. The results of our labour will be available from 7am tomorrow UK time on our YouTube channel and below - please watch and if you enjoy it give it a Like and Subscribe to the channel. We intend to do more at future events, the next being the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show at the NEC next month, so watch this space! Who remembers April 2021? Fresh out of lockdown, Gar Cole and a keen group of enthusiasts were keen to dust off their classics and get back on the road at last - and where better than beautiful Dorset in the South of England? Not only was the scenery as stunning as expected, even the weather was good for once (we don't have the best track record with weather on tour!). For reasons that will be revealed soon, we have been practising creating YouTube videos using old photos and footage from past group events - the idea being primarily to improve our skills. We were doing this yesterday using the Jurassic Coast Tour as practice. When it was done, we thought "That's not bad - why not let our members see this?" So here it is - not originally intended for public consumption, but why not? We hope you enjoy it; if you do, please give it a 'Like' on YouTube and also subscribe to our channel so you get notified when we post new content there in the future. Completing the online coverage of our recent Welsh tour is this short (7 mins) video featuring selected photographs and video clips from the weekend driving tour. Our thanks go to all of the photographers for sharing their work with us; the video has been rendered in 4K quality to show your work to best effect. You can choose to view it below or on our YouTube channel here. NMM Press Release. NMM “Live” Open Day – Sat 30th & Sun 31st October 2021After the cancellation of the 2020 event due to Covid-19, Saturday and Sunday will see the museum return to hosting our 7th annual free open day when everyone will be invited to visit the museum collection free of charge*. Now one of the largest events in the biking calendar, there will also be a host of other free attractions including Henry Cole and Friends live on stage! *Car parking charges apply.
Parking: Car parking for the event is just £10.00 per car with motorcycle parking absolutely free. Food Court & Bar: Fantastic catering provided by the museum’s chefs will be available in our Premier Suite food court & bar area. Getting Here & Parking
The final batch of photos from our 2021 Welsh Tour has now been uploaded to our website - click the button below to view the gallery.
Earlier this year Group Events supremo Gar Cole had been made aware that one of our favourite touring/meet locations was in financial trouble due to the pandemic switching off the usual supply of paying visitors, so it was decided that we would schedule a group visit to lend them our support as soon as pandemic restrictions allowed it. Who? The National Tramway Museum at Crich in beautiful Derbyshire, of course! The visit was a resounding success despite changeable weather and has already been documented by Bosun Mike Peake in his amusing blog about the weekend - click here to read it. For those who didn't see the photo gallery here or like to enjoy their memories with music attached, a new video rendered in gorgeous 4K quality and containing photographs from the weekend is now available on our group YouTube Channel - you can view it below. Please click on "Like" and subscribe to the channel if you enjoy it - we have plenty more content planned in the months ahead. |
EditorsPaul Sweeney |