Leeds Cruise April by Matt Smith

Finally, hot weather, light nights and cool cars. April is generally the first big Leeds Cruise, and this one was worth going to. I went with Andy in the T, which was wearing the T grille for the last time, which has now been changed (see May Wakefield Cruise report). Reg took his new Model A shorty pickup, which although not to everybody's taste looks cool in my eyes.

  We pulled into the carpark, parked the car and then had a walk round while it was still light. First thing I spotted was my mate Al's new Sierra Pro Streeter. This is one mad car, and has a long and unusual story to go with it. He bought it unfinished from an advert in the paper, and it was in a garage next to a bakers in Barnsley. Turns out the guy who was selling it had built it in secret, without telling his wife!. He had literally just bought something and stuck it in the garage with the rest of the stuff. Eventually his wife found out, and forced him to sell it, meaning Al got it for a very good price. It has a full Hauser tube chassis, a worked 454ci Chevy engine, narrowed 9" axle with 15x15 wheels and ally interior. Al has done a great job of building it up, including adding all of the Cossie body parts. It's painted in Subaru Impreza blue, and the cruise was infact its first time on the road since the MOT. Although it wouldn't run above 3000rpm on the way to the cruise, he did some testing on a local dual carriageway the "Mad Mile" and got it pretty sorted.

Al's old Fordson van was there with it's new owner. The new owner has had many problems with it over the winter, including reversing it through his garage doors by accident, and then when that damage was repaired he was rearended by a woman driver. Thankfully it's now sorted, and he's loving every minute of driving it.

There were some tough Mopars there, as shown by this Dodge and Bill Billadeau's Charger.

Chris McCullough was there with his old Rover V8 powered Mk2 Cortina, and his new Mk2 Cortina powered by a 302 Ford? (which I forgot to take a pic of)

El Caminos...........

Chevelle looked tough on fat slotty's. '62 Impala wagon is just awesome.

This 60s F100 pickup looked cool with the Rock Garage decals, but the early trials bike in the bed just finished the look off perfectly. Chris Osborne's 100E has wild taillight treatment, and also lengthened front panels. It runs a 3.5 Rover V8 and auto.

Another standout car of the night was Jon Beardmore's Morris Minor convertible. The engineering work on this car is second to none. It features a full round tube frame, mid mounted Lancia twin cam and is very, very, very low. It was a bit dark by the time I took the pics but I'll try and get some good ones later in the season.  

Richard Coles 60's Mustang is a regular at the cruise, and is currently for sale I think. I have seen the '34 Coupe at a few shows and cruises this year, looks excellent.

Right we've had 2 cars owned / previously owned by Al already. Well this is one of his older cars. Its a err........Fiesta. Not much left standard tho, as you can see with the scoop and wheels. It runs a turbo Rover V8.

Anyway that's about all the pics that came out well, the rest were too dark or too blurry (forgot to clean camera lens *oops*).

See ya
Matt 

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