A Day out at Boston Classic Car Show

Half a million quids worth of cargo loaded and ready to go, the man himself on the right.

Malc had asked me if I could help Russ deliver a couple of cars to the Boston Clssic car show held at Hubberts Bridge, just outside of the town. We have been there the last couple of years, it's a fantastic show, this year it attracted over 600 entrants, a very varied gathering of just about every car you could imagine. We took Fiona's BTCC Astra and the ex Didier Auriol Lancia Delta Integrale group A car. The integrale went on to the transporter, the Astra on to the trailer, it only has about 2 inches ground clearance so that was the only way we could do it, it's a difficult operation but one we have performed many times before.

Russ and Malc had loaded the cars the day before so in the morning all we had to do was open up the workshop, hook up the trailer and leave for the display field, it was an early start but a lovely morning. I decided to take Betty bentley for the drive to Boston, always a most enjoyable experience.

We offloaded the Astra in front of the Boston club marquee, took the trailer off and then offloaded the Integrale, which had to go to the other side of the field as that was being displayed on the Witham Oils stand. Sadly, that meant it had to be driven over there, a job that I was assigned. I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would ever get to see such a thing,let alone actually drive it. Malc being Malc instructed me to "give it some", an order I declined given that the field was ull of other people and tens of millions of quids worth of highly cherished vehicles. I put it slightly sideways to keep him happy but only when it was safe to do so. It's detuned now to about 380 BHP and it's quite easy to control, at it's full 600 plus turbo charged fury it's a different beast altogether. Anyway, I dropped it there, opened the bonnet and then toddled back so we could move the trailer to the parking area. Russ drove the transporter back to the bowl and me and Malc went for a wander. It's always difficult being with Malc, everybody knows him and he knows everyone so progress is slow. We spent some time talking to Annie and Pete with their fully restored and totally immaculate Austin Van in Holland Brothers colours. It would be a familiar sight to old Bostonians as it is in Holland Brothers colours, a very well known dealer from 50 or 60 years ago, it always gets a lot of attention.

We had quite a long chat with the guys from Witham Oils and an even longer chat with the guys from Mablethorpe and District Motor Club, who we know well, we both used to be on the show committee. It really was a feast for the eyes, it's just a static show but there is so much to see and for the first hour or two vehicles were streaming in faster than we could see them, I was disappointed that there was only one Bentley there, a shocking state of affairs that made me wish I had taken Betty there.

We went off at lunch time to grab some nosh, Jo's Cafe, a hidden gem in Boston's back streets being the venue of choice. It's run by a really lovely Portuguese lady, Boston has a significant Portuguese population, I don't know why but it does. She does a lovely coffee and really tasty snacks and cakes, which are all too sugary for diabetic Dave but it's a nice atmos in there and Malc goes pretty much every day.

Anyway, then it was back to the Bowl to do a few little jobs and attempt to start 3 or 4 of the cars that haven't been run for a while, that didn't work too well though as the jumper pack was as flat as a witch's tit, as were the batteries in the cars. Oh well, we tried. We decided to go back to the show a bit earlier than planned. We were a bit too early relally as they were still doing the prize giving when w got there, which meant we couldn't really do a lot, the marquee where the prizegiving took place was next to the Boston Car Club stand so there were too many people around to make loading safe so we had to wait a bit.

I had a most delightful surprise when we were relocating the transporter, I spotted a Bentley flying B out the corner of my eye and was amazed to see it was adorning the bonnet of the Turbo R that I so very nearly bought. We had time so I asked Russ to stop while I jumped out of the cab and had a word with the owner. Last time I spoke to Mike he still had it but it had now been purchased so I had a nice, albeit brief, chat with the new owner. I rather enjoyed that.

Loading back up went smoothly, we have done it enough now so we don't need to talk to each other much, it's all kind of automatic. I do enjoy our conversations but it's nice that we know the process so well that we just crack on and get it done. By the time we got back to the Bowl we were both somewhat knackered, I don't enjoy these 5 am starts. We just put the BTCC car in the workshop still on the trailer, I drove the Integrale back in to the museum, we locked up and came home. Tired but thrilled with a brilliant day out. The fact that Malc had got a bollocking for touching the boot of a Mustang somehow added to the day's merriment, an incident that happened mid morning but being friends we banged on about it all day and will most likely never let him forget it.

Malc has a different attitude to most car owners, while they sit guard and insist nobody so much as breathes near their cherished motors, we spent a lot of the day letting kids in to the BTCC car so they could have their photos taken. The joy on those kid's faces really make the day, they are the enthusiasts of the future, the ones that will preserve and cherish these cars when we are gone. I guarantee those kids will remember Malc's cars long after they have forgotten that the other ones even existed. We had wanted to fire it up but it's only running on 3 pots at the moment and we didn't have time before the show to sort it out, I'm hoping to find some time this week to go have a look. It's a pity because whenever we do fire it up it pulls massive adoring crowds, it would have been a very popular thing. Oh well, never mind, there's always next year.