Automotive – WrAnTz

Classic Sunday – Breakfast Club

Last Sunday, 4th August, I visited the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit for the last Breakfast Club of 2024. I was there with my son-in-law Jon.

The Breakfast Club meetings are held on a Sunday morning and are free to attend.

All the vehicles on display are privately owned and driven or ridden to the event.

They are their owners’ pride and joy, the results of many hours of restoration and care.

And, in many cases, the expenditure of many thousands of pounds well beyond the resale value of the vehicle.

Each Breakfast Club has a theme, and this time was no different. Classic Sunday was for cars and bikes that were registered before 1st January 1984.

According to the news letter I received a few days ago, this breakfast club attracted over a thousand vehicles.

Suffice to say, Jon and I only managed to view maybe two-thirds of the vehicles on display in the time available to us. The gates opened to the public at 08:00 and we had arrived about thirty minutes after. The event closed at noon. We would have needed another couple of hours to view the remaining exhibits.

This time, breakfast club visitors were treated musical entertainment in the form of the Chichester City Band

Jaguar Kougar ? Seems like a bit of cross breeding going on here. And there certainly is with the Kougar being a “kit” car of sorts.

The Citroen DS was possibly the most beautiful car of its era and certainly its aerodynamic design and innovative suspension came the closest to the 50’s imagined transport of the future.

This is a classic example of a Rat Rod of which there were several on display. Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder.

There were a number of Corvettes on display. Most of the more usual Stingray style, unlike this example.

The 2CV was introduced to help motorise the large number of farmers still using horses and carts in 1930s France. In addition, it had been designed to cross a freshly ploughed field with a basket full of eggs on the passenger’s seat without breaking them, because of the great lack of paved roads in France at the time.

Somehow I don’t think this bright orange example would meet that criteria.

This pretty rod is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the Rat Rod above.

Beautiful, with so much chrome to catch the eye. So, so stylish.

I suspect that the front of this car would fail so many of the modern day safety rules and regulations. Style has been sacrificed for safety.

Yet another beautiful car. Pretty sure I had some pressed steel clockwork cars that looked like this VW.

Precursor to the James Bond classic DB5

Classic american muscle car. Who can forget that ultimate movie car chase with Steve McQueen in Bullitt. Apparently the real “Bullitt” Mustang sold for $3.74 million.

More muscle …

I remember the NSU from teens. To me they looked similar from the front and back.

Another “rat” or is it a work in progress ?

Triumphs are one of my favourite sports car marques. Love the shape and style of the TR4 although the predecessor TR3 has, in my opinion, the better shape.

1969 Ford Mustang with a 1976 Lotus Espirit in the background.

My preference would be for the Lotus with its superior handling. However my height and bulk would probably prevent me from getting into the Lotus or, more likely, make my exit look like a comedy routine. So it looks like I’m stuck with the yank tank.

Austin Healey 100, so named due to its ability to reach a speed of 100 mph.

Nicknamed Mavis.

Mavis claims to be a wolf in sheeps clothing due to the higher power unit fitted which has been “breathed on”. She claims to look like a tortoise, run like a hare and roar like a lion.

This MGB is another wolf in sheeps clothing. When I asked how he managed to get that lump into the car his reply was that he used some very big shoe-horns and a few cans of WD-40.

Who knew that the manufacturers of the ubiquitous 3-wheeler manufactured such great looking cars.

The Sabre 4 had a 1,703 cc engine

The Sabre 6 had a 2,553 cc engine.

Well I hope you enjoyed browsing my photos from Classi Sunday. As I said previously there were over a thousand cars on display and I have only scratched the surface with these pictures.

Jon and I played a little game between ourselves when we arrived. Jon said, “I wonder how may E-Types we will see” So we started counting.

We stopped at 27.

Till next time. The next breakfast club will be in May of 2025.

Noise – Just For The Sake Of It

Just yesterday afternoon, I was sitting with my wife, watching the TV, enjoying the Italian F1 Grand Prix.

Unfortunately, that enjoyment was somewhat marred by “eejits” tear-arsing along the roads at the back of our house.

The volume of their engine/exhaust systems sufficient to drown out the race commentary.

Sure, I could close my doors and windows, but why should I? These hoons are impinging their antisocial activities on my home from several hundred feet away. I should be able to enjoy a warm summer Sunday afternoon in the comfort of my own home without these eejits spoiling it.

So, I was somewhat surprised to read this in today’s “The News”. The focus of the article is aimed at the posh prats in their Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Maclaren supercars who terrorise Nightsbridge in London.

https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/full_page_image/page-14-1834/content.html

“The News” is our local paper, and I would expect the articles to prioritise local issues. However, anything that highlights this current blight on society as a whole has to be viewed as a positive thing.

Pat does however point out that the police do have the power to to take action against the hoons.

I understand that the police are desperately understaffed. But perhaps they could alternate from setting up speed traps to setting up sound traps. As I stated in a previous post, the police know where the hoons gather, where they run. As to funding, just how much does a sound gone cost as opposed to a radar gun ?

Jon I Empathise

https://app.portsmouth.co.uk/full_page_image/page-12-1863/content.html

Jon Cole, I empathise with you and your experience. I, too, live in an area plagued by these motoring miscreants.

And also, wish the police and local authorities would focus more time on these “law breakers.” For law breakers, they are, with their modified engines and exhaust systems which are exceeding the noise limits of the original manufacturers specifications.

As to their manner of driving, be it excess acceleration or drifting local roundabouts and motorway slip roads to the point their tyres are screeching, they must be breaking numerous laws. Just by ear, I can tell that they are probably speeding and driving in an unsafe manner.

The police know the popular routes and would only need to make their presence known regularly to make an impression.

So come on, let’s see some action.

Automotive Pests

Since 2020 / 2021 we, my wife and I, have become increasingly aware of the thoughtless, brain-dead, morons tear-arsing on our roads.

We live near a motorway interchange, with nice new tarmac on the feed roads. This is a magnet for these low-lives who see the feeder roads as their own personal race track.

Since the tarmac was laid, the wannabe racing drivers can be heard screeching their way around the curves. Sitting in our home, we find ourselves tensing up, waiting for the inevitable crash. Not only that, but I personally find, much to my shame, I am willing it to happen. Not that I want any harm to come to the drivers. But I want it to reach them a lesson. And, I want it to deprive them of their wheels.

Then, mixed in with the drifters are the worst of them all. The ones with the modified fuel and exhaust systems.

These jerks are just out to make noise, deliberately changing down through the gears to hit the higher revs. We have to put up with everything from a rapid crackle, rather like machine gun fire, thru staccato pops and bangs, to angry hornets. On some occasions, it has sounded like the vehicle is actually in the room with me.

I guess I should point out that this problem is not just applicable to cars, but motorcycles too.

I would guess that every day, we have at least a dozen instances of this antisocial behaviour. At all times of day or night. One particular arsehole regularly delights in driving past at around 02:00 in the morning. His exhaust echoing through the quiet of the night can be heard for quite some time as he disappears into the distance.

I’m pretty sure these folks have a “circuit” they have for some kind of speed trial. We will hear a single bike come past and then return to head up the motorway. A minute or two later, there will be another bike, following the same pattern. When they hit the motorway, they are obviously going flat out, and they can be heard for miles. We just need the police to catch them in the act.

This afternoon, there seem to be fewer hoons in our area. It may have something to do with the police helicopter, which has made several passes in the last hour or so. I hope the police are actively chasing down these idiots.

But, I am a realist. The police can only devote so much time and resources to this problem.

The vehicles are clearly not legal and the style of driving by some individuals is patently outright dangerous.

On social media, supporters of these idiots say, “Leave them alone, they are only enjoying themselves”, “Weren’t you young once ?”, “Why doesn’t the government provide places for them to do what they do ?

When I have suggested that they try the track days at various racing circuits in this country, they cite the costs. But I believe its also that the circuits are regulated, have stringent safety standards and also have to limit noise levels.

I wouldn’t want anyone to think I am an old fuddy daddy killjoy. I am a motorsport fan. A regular visitor to Goodwood for the FoS, Revival, Members Meetings, and the Sunday Breakfast Clubs. I’ve also driven Formula Ford cars around Brands Hatch and been to F1 at Silverstone. I also, regularly, attend classic and custom car shows.

So I understand and appreciate the time and effort that goes into creating and maintaining these machines.

However, as much as I love the sights, smells, and sounds of a perfectly tuned race car, I don’t want it in my home.

If I choose to crank up my HiFi or my TV to listen to some classic rock or watch F1 on a Sunday ….. That’s my choice.

These antisocial cretins are not giving me a choice

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