Hi gang,
Sorry about the lack of updates. Things have been pretty hectic at my end, with a combination of work, holiday, and getting two cars ready (one for sale, one for a trackday) for tight deadlines. Enough with the excuses, anyway.
Robbert - we were in the south last year - you missed it! We're planning to alternate, but we need to move it around so that everyone gets a chance for it to be (relatively) local.
John - very sorry to hear that - I think we were all looking forward to meeting you.
Details!
Date - This has been decided upon for some time to be the 1st-2nd September. Saturday the 1st will be the driving day (likely to be a checkpoint approach, rather than a convoy - I'm very conscious that we tend to make a pain in the backside of ourselves if we convoy), and Sunday the 2nd will be the show. We'll arrange a campsite (and hotel suggestions, for those who prefer some extra luxury) nearer the time.
Venue for the "show" on Sunday - This needs to be finalised in the next few days so I can get it put in the VOC magazine. I don't have a clear picture of the right way to proceed just at the moment, but I'm hoping to get your feedback on a couple of options - preferably "yeah, any of those will be AOK". I think we're past the "suggestions" stage, but if anyone does have a brilliant last-minute idea, do please pipe up! The motor museums all seem to be small / under-development, so I'm concerned that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us...or keep us entertained for a whole day. Beaulieu or Crich, they ain't.
1) North Yorkshire Motor Museum (
http://www.nymm.co.uk/) *and* North Yorks Moors Railway (
http://www.nymr.co.uk/). They're just down the road from each other, so it seems rude not to split the day half and half. Realistically, I don't think there's enough at the NYMM to keep us entertained for a whole day, and I'm not sure if they'd be able to accommodate a pile of cars anyway, but we could all pile into 3-4 cars, leaving the others at the NYMR, or something like that. Keeping the NYMM section in there retains the motoring theme.
2) Beamish. That'll keep us entertained for the whole day, and there's plenty of space, but it's not motoring related, and they might not want us to have a line-up of the cars in a special area, given that it's vaguely Victorian themed. Having said that, so is Crich, and they were happy to have us. Locomotion at Shildon is the emergency back-up along similar lines, but there's less to do.
So...do we prefer option one, or option two? I could do with your feedback ASAP (within 24 hours will be ideal, although I suspect I'll not be making a final decision until early next week). Sorry about the short notice, but I'm afraid this year has not been at all kind to me, time-wise
cheers
James
