Pre War Prescott Report

Pre War Prescott was a great event; with an informal atmosphere and a great variety of cars it is definitely an event to put on your calender for 2012, the booked date is the 22nd July. With a Lancaster Bomber display to end the day you couldn't ask for anything more! More info on the event can be seen here:

http://www.prewarprescott.com/

First sketch of the day was done from the gazebo seeing that it poured down for the first hour or so. Here are two Alvis cars side by side the one on the right seemed to be a special of some sort.

Once the rain stopped I ventured out to see what had turned up.

I was very taken by this 1914 Prince Henry Vauxhall.

Later on in the day this fantastic ABC aero-engined special turned up, making a wonderful racket! More info on the ABC Engine can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_8_hp

Photograph by Peter McFadyen

http://www.petermcfadyen.co.uk/

Apparently the upholstery was from a Bugatti!

A lovely installation of the 1200cc parallel twin aero engine into this oddball special

Zenith Carbs!

1930 Brooklands Riley

Enthusiastically run by John Hearne.

Alvis Duck's-back

I wish I'd realised this before I started sketching the front half!

Bentley Special

Alvis

Ford 32 Coupe

Great to see this unmodified, it made a refreshing change.

SU Carburettors Skinner Special "The Red Monster"

An unfinished sketch due to the SU carburettor team constantly taking the car for a spin up the hill, they seemed to be having a great time!

1920 Bugatti T22

An Austin pick-up with Punch and Judy livery.

This Aston Martin had a fantastic, possibly original patina.

BMW Frazer Nash

VMCC Festival of 1000 Bikes at Mallory Park

What a weekend! Loads to see and sketch.

In between manning my stall I went around the site and spent some time with some amazing bikes. Most of my time was spent sitting on the ground and sketching, so much so that at one point a little girl walked past and said

"Look Mummy there's that man with no legs".

Here are my sketches along with some photos of my favourites from the festival.

For info on Upcoming VMCC Events please visit their website:

http://www.vmcc.net/

First up on Friday evening was this 1903 Werner.

I'm getting more and more obsessed with these veteran bikes. The connection with what were called safety cylces (or bicycles to you and me) is still there. You can really feel the pioneering spirit when you look at these bikes.

Also thanks to the guys and gals at Vintage and Veteran for being so accommodating to my sketching habits over the weekend. Oh and for the free bottle of Cider!

With lots of fantastic old bikes for sale I'd recommend a visit to their website:

http://www.vinandvet.co.uk

The next morning with the autojumble taking shape I took the opportunity to sketch this Trojan Mini Motor, gold model a motor powered push bike.

Trojan logo on the filler cap

Also on the same stall was this BSA C15. An ex police bike with extra trimmings.

The Vincents were out in force at this event. This sprint bike took my eye. I like the minimal nature of sprint bikes, small tanks low slung frames.....

The sprint bike theme continued as I was asked to sketch the 500cc Krauser "Frankies Monster" which is ridden by ridden by Alan Tinnion.

This was a fun bike to sketch due to the complex hand fabricated outlet pipes that twisted around each other in order to utilise the empty space between the front wheel and the engine.

The Classic Bike Team were in attendance and looked to be having a great time. I have been avidly reading about Rick Parkington's 1919 Blackburne (or is it 1915 the debate continues) in the build up to the Banbury Run, which by all accounts it completed!

Rick Parkington also bought along his 1927 Rex Acme TT.

And of course the Classic Bike D1 Bantam was holding it's own in the line up sporting a rather fetching tartan seat!

For more Info on Classic Bike which is always a thoroughly good read please visit their website:

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/Classic-Bike/

I couldn't resist another visit to the Vinatage and Veteran tent to sketch this early Peugeot.

On Sunday morning I spent some time sketching this 1938 Excelsior Manxman works at Paul Ingham's stall where he was promoting his latest book "Excelsior the racing years": A fantastic book depicting the racing history of this legendary mark. The book presents a good balance of text and photographs, many of the photos in this book have never been seen before. If you are interested in the Excelsior then I would strongly recommend you pick up a copy of this book (limited to only 500) from the following site:

http://www.excelsior-manxman.co.uk/

Bonhams were showing some of there upcoming auction lots with some rather drool worthy bikes.

One of only 4 ex-works 1954 AJS E95 Porcupine

estimate $750,000 - 950,000

Unrestored Barn Find, c1955 BSA 499cc Gold Star

Estimate £3000 - 4000

Even when packing up my display I was seeing bikes leaving that I hadn't got round to seeing on over the weekend. This truly is a festival of 1000 bikes.

A fantastic early Indian.

There was a lot of Motoring events on over the weekend. Of course there was the Grand Prix but I got more excited seeing this pull up at the service station. It runs in the Nostalgia class, a late 60s style slingshot dragster. Apparently running a Buick V8 at around 11 second times.

I'm attending another event Coming this Saturday and definitely not one to miss:

Pre War Prescott

This is it's first year but with over 200 cars confirmed and a Lancaster flyby I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday. More Information can be found here:

http://www.prewarprescott.com/

Hope to see you there.

UK Roadster & Pickup Nationals at Twinwood Airbase

On Sunday (3rd July) Twinwood airbase played host to the UK Roadster and Pickup Nationals, hosted by Dave, Lesley and Paul Brown at Clapham Classics.

An incredibly wide range of cars and trucks made the journey out to this lost gem of a WWII Airbase to enjoy the sunshine. Here's a few snaps and sketches from the day.

First sketch of the day was this Sherpley Sports known as "Beastie".

It was an apt crossover from my visit to the Bentley Drivers Concours D'Elegance last weekend. The car started off as a 1983 Freight Rover dropside truck. The build took 5 years and was based around the chassis and running gear from this truck. The engine and gearbox came from a scrap 1965 Vanden Plas 4R, the engine being a Rolls Royce 4 litre, straight six. The owner said it would look silly with anything smaller, and I must agree.

Second Sketch of the day was this fantastic early morris rat rod.

This I must say is possibly my favourite build, due to the execution and inventiveness that has gone into it. The owner is constantly changing bits on it as he said "I get bored". Since I first saw this car in Custom car it has had a new morris grill and bonnet installed, along with a fantastic use of an old oil tin to cover the air filter poking out of the bonnet.

Morris cars obviously run in the family as the father bought along his morris van too.

Third sketch was of these conveniently place early rods. Looking great against this period airfield building. obviously attracting a lot of attention.

The fourth and penultimate sketch was of the front end of this 40s Ford pickup. I love the art deco details that they put into the grills in these models.

The final sketch of the day was of this Vanguard Woody. A great little car with a one off woody body. There was a contingent of Vanguards on display, apparently owned by just one person. Hats off to the owner and his friends for bringing them all along.

Here's the full line up.

Had to include this early Ford pickup a real favourite

as my wife and I are currently looking for one!

As well as all the cars there was also the Twinwood Museum chok full of old stuff.

Whilst at the event I met Tim and Paul two very friendly artists from Raygun Industries. I would highly recommend visiting their website and checking out their artwork, DVDs and t shirts:

http://www.raygun-industries.co.uk/

Clapham Classic Events are running another shindig in the same location in September. I'd urge anyone who has an interest in cars to attend this event as Sunday proved that any type of car, truck or even bike was welcome at this all inclusive event. More info can be found here:

http://www.claphamclassicevents.co.uk/

Last but not least I'd like to thank Dave, Lesley and Paul Brown for organising such a wonderful event and making everyone feel so welcome.

Two more events to go in my 5 week Marathon:

VMCC 1000 Bikes Festival 8th - 10th July (this weekend)

http://www.vmcc.net/1000bikes/index.htm

Pre War Prescott 17th July

http://www.prewarprescott.com/