Classic car show - April 2009

[Irish Stu]

We had rain forecast for this Saturday and Sunday, which didn't bode well for any planned outdoor events, but come the weekend we ended up having two beautiful days of sunshine, so I headed off to the neighbouring town of Chelmsford for the annual Classic Car show in the town's Hyland Park.

I love cars so I find an event like this truly exciting, and I'm in awe of the amount of time and dedication these enthusiasts put into restoring and maintaining their beloved vehicles. There must have been over 200 cars representing many current Bristish manufacturers, bygone marques such as MG, Austin, Morris, Rover and Triumph, many classic Fords including Zodiacs and Zephrys, a single Citroen DS and a handful of Porsche 911s representing Europe, and a strong representation of American vehicles which have a large following over here. Sadly, some owners, in spite of the numerous shows they must visit every year, do not realise that visitors actually want to take pictures of their cars so sit on chairs right in front of them eating their picnics or generally just enjoying the sun, so there were several wonderful vehicles that I did not even try to get a picture of :

'... shaken, not stirred'













The Austin 1100, designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, this was a revolutionary car in its day as it was the first British hatchback. My mother had one of these when I was a kid :





The Mk I Ford Capri... Britain's equivalent to the Mustang (often referred to as the 'poor man's Mustang'). I bought a 1979 MK III Capri when I was in my early twenties... it was my dream car :





You all probably know more about these next few than I do :









































A 1909 Daimler. 100 years old!!









A 1930 Ford Model A :









A Ford Lotus Cortina and a Ford Consul :





An investment for Gary?





MGs of all ages were represented :





















Our telephone repair men used to travel in such style!!





A Rover 3500 TC. Fond memories... my grandfather used to drive these :





There were several Mustangs. These were two of the best examples :









I've always wanted to own a Triumph TR6. Maybe one day :













Nice ride huh? And the car isn't bad either...



Simon

[innit Geezer]

NICE pictures! Great variety of machines and the colors really stand out, love it. Also, I didn't know that American cars had any following on your side of the pond Si.

As car shows start here locally I'll add some photos too.

As far as the investment pick you were spot on. I have a 65 GTO but it doesn't have the "triple 2's" as the red one in your picture showed.

My father gave it to me when he retired and moved (it's a long story), but it's all original just short of the tires which were installed in 1968.

[Ardbeg... innit]

Great shots there Simon, if I could have my choice it would be the '09 Daimler or the '30 Model A, bringing back the challenge to driving if not the speed.

[Chicago Jake]

Nice selection, Simon. Thanks for posting.

Somewhere, I have an old photo of me standing next to a 1958 (the year I was born) Corvette on the beach. I was 20, and so was the car. It was driving slowly in the beach promenade at Daytona, and I ran up, leaned against it to block the view of the driver, and had my buddy snap the photo. I'll see if I can dig it up......Jake

[Irish Stu]

Apr 26, 2009 21:32:19 GMT -6 innit Geezer said:

NICE pictures! Great variety of machines and the colors really stand out, love it. Also, I didn't know that American cars had any following on your side of the pond Si

There are a lot of classic American car enthusiasts over here, many companies that will source and import parts (though Ebay has made that easier) and a couple of specialist magazines. Personally I've always loved muscle cars and Mustangs, and had been thinking about importing a 'Stang before this recession started to hit my pocket. A friend of mine has an '89 Trans Am which he recently bought and a 1975 Trans Am which he is restoring.

Simon

[Irish Stu]

My friend Tim came over this evening. We've been trading advice and information recently... he's an amazing photographer with very strong Adobe Photoshop skills so I've been helping him market himself, whilst in return he has been helping me hone my photographic skills and learn more about what I can achieve with Photoshop.

So tonight we've been doing some Photoshop work. Since we last got together I've been using my new found skills to improve the pictures I've been taking, including the classic car show pictures I posted yesterday. My favourite was the first of the American car pictures, the Buick. Below is the original as downloaded from the memory card. It looked very dull and grey to me :




Below is the version I posted yesterday after adjusting, amongst other things, the contrast, brightness and saturation. I was very proud of it :

Apr 26, 2009 17:38:33 GMT -6 Irish Stu said:

Finally, this is the version I now have after Tim took me step-by -step through what I could really achieve with the image if I knew what I was doing. Time said the original picture, and my version, were too blue... I can see that *now*... so we used the 'curves' function to adjust the contrast between points that we set so as not to ch-ch-change the contrast across the whole range of colours, we reduced the colour saturation of the red 1909 Daimler on the right of the Buick so that it stopped competing with, and drawing the eye away from, the Buick, we increased the colour saturation of the American flag to make more of a point of interest and a feature of it, and we cleaned up the oil stains and marks on the ground :



Obviously you will not see these images exactly as I do because all monitors will display them differently depending on how they are calibrated, but nevertheless I hope the differences can be seen. It all goes to show how you really cannot believe anything that you see in newspapers and magazines... and on the net.

Simon

[Chicago Jake]

That grille really pops out at you in the third picture! It looks like it is about to take a bite out of your face.......Jake

[innit Geezer]

My photo work is done with a very easy and user friendly Microsoft Home Publisher. It lacks "in depth control" but it gets me by. Your adjustments to the Buick came out very good, Si. Much sharper focus and better paint, the chrome is better too.

On to the cars -- when I was a rambunctious teenager, a good friend of mine had a 1970 Plymouth Cuda' with the a high winding 340 we had lots of fun on the parkway and Sundays at Raceway park at Englishtown. At the time I had a 1968 GTO and both these cars ran side by side at the track.

The picture of you with the early Vette and GTO could be anywhere in the states, especially with the MLB All Star shirt.

[innit Geezer]

A long time friend of mine still gas his 1965 Buick Riviera G.S. This car was always local and was special ordered without a/c and other luxury items. He restored it 25 years ago and it still looks great.

I drove this car when I was 17 years old and when the twin 4 barrel carbs rolled on together, it gave quite a sensation. We never took it to the track though. I have pictures of it somewhere.

[innit Geezer]

We had a huge show this weekend at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Unfortunately it was a rain out today but yesterday while checking out the cars for sale I came across this 1952 Mercury Monterrey. It was completely rusted out, dented and missing many parts. The steering wheel was a Vise Grip locked onto one of the broken steering wheel spokes.

Those are bullet wholes in the windshield and there was also shotgun blasts that you can't see. The picture was taken with a camera phone.



Here's what it would look like $100,000 from now.



Modified to say:

I forgot the punchline, the old rusty classic was $6500. It was very amusing to passerby's.

[Irish Stu]

May 3, 2009 18:37:34 GMT -6 innit Geezer said:

We had a huge show this weekend at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. Unfortunately it was a rain out today

Not good news for the Monterrey!!

Simon

[innit Geezer]

I like 60's A-body cars. You know the classic group of GTO, 442, Gran Sport Buick and the Chevelle.

This turquoise Olds' looks great to me and ready for a weekend trip somewhere. (can you see how ready I am to get away from it all?)

[carbuff]

For my 16th birthday, my older brother let me take his few months old 'Cuda out on the town. It looked quite similar to the one you snapped Simon.

Trace