Bob Lang writes:
> I decided last week that I was going to Bowie MD for the 14th annual British
>Car
> Day. The round trip from Boston (my home base) was around 900 miles. Temps
>were
> in the mid 90's for both legs (down and back) and I spent considerable time
>in
> traffic, stopped). I had no overheating, and everything performed quite
>nicely.
Bob, I must admit I was really surprised to see you at the show -
that really is a big journey. However, I'm not surprised that you
didn't have any problems, since your TR6 put ours to shame, as did
many of the others that were present, but then most of them probably
don't do 900 miles in a year!
> The event itself was very impressive. 700+ british cars, 150 vendors and
>quite a
> lot of cars for sale in the car corral. Of special note: a Triumph Italia, a
> gorgeous 30's vintage Rolls Rotce and an Allard.
Also, other interesting vehicles I recall were a Griffith, a C-type
Jag, a beautiful MG SA, a racing bodied Midget and a Princess - no not
the Austin Princess (the "door wedge" and competitor for the worst
British car along with the Marina), but the large limousine with
the Rolls Royce engine. Apparently this vehicle had been specially
imported to the US for a visit by the Queen and displayed the Royal
Crest above the windscreen. My favourite car of the show had to be a
low-slung 1920's 2-seater Bentley - nothing like a bit of solid metal
(mind you some of the Jag XK1*0's were spine-chilling).
> Of cource there were a lot of
> cars you might expect to see, MG's, TR6's Jags etc. The asking prices for
>some
> of the cars seemed quite high, but most of the cars were reasonably priced. I
> wasn't prepared to purchase a vehicle, but this would have been a good place
>to
> find a deal on some British Iron. There were some vehicles that appeared to
>be
> some possible diamond-in-the-rough type deals.
Yep, I thought you could have picked up some reasonable deals there.
It was really obvious to see the discrepancies in value though. Some
of the ridiculously priced vehicles were easily laughed at when beside
a good deal. I bought my MGB at this show last year, but I think there
were better deals this year - prices seemed to have dropped.
I think the best part of the show for me was the drive down - 4 TR6's
in a row along the highway is kind of fun, especially before the
crowds get on the roads. Static displays are ok, but driving these
cars really is great and as Scott says, why don't we see all these
cars on the roads?
Paul.
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