Suzy with Her and Pikes new 36 Truck (was Pete Dempsey's)
Suzy with Her and Pikes new 36 Truck (was Pete Dempsey's)
Managed
to get on the road to Drayton by 5.50am this year, Considering there was my
Misse's, my Daughter Nicola and her friend Rosie aka Lilley Savage to get ready,
not to mention me old mate Pudzz, his two girls and wife. You would of said we
would of been fighting a loosing battle to get them all ready in time, Hey two
Fella's and 6 women how did we every get them ready not only in time but early
in fact.... I will never know how but we did it.
First pick up was young Jason (21yrs) in his recently acquired V12 Consul, this was to be Jason's first ever Rod run in his own Car and he was really up for it. We kept the pace leisurely at 60mph as I had four adults in the 34 Sport Saloon and the mandatory Family size caravan... Luckily this year though, Pudzz was using my wife's daily Nissan Terrano, so we lugged that up with all our heavy stuff that we usually have in the boot of the 34 or dragging inside the Caravan.. We saved a good 100lbs of weight this year.... though by all accounts I compensated for that with my newly acquired big belly (more later).... though Drayton is not a massive drive for us, it was 10am before we got there... though I did have a little cruise on my own when I took the wrong exit from the services on the new Toll Road and headed back up the way we had just come Terrrrrrrr I had to pay £5 to get off the Toll Road so I could get right back on it, so I could go in the other direction to catch Pudzz and Jason up Grrrr Damn sh*t B*gger I thought... a few minutes late, a few extra miles and £10 lighter we arrived at Drayton. The hard working volunteers, who make this all happen from the NASC greeted us and were nice and friendly and couldn't do enough for us and made young Jason feel real welcome for his first Rod Run, which I was real impressed with.
The Wood slowly fills
Every year we have been to Drayton, when we have arrived it has always been packed, with very little room left to pitch one Caravan, this year we had 2 big caravans and three tents to find room for. We needed to be there in my opinion by 9am at the latest, to stand any chance of a big enough area for us all. With trepidation we ventured into the expectedly packed, Drayton Manor camping area..... *huh?*..... it was almost empty??? Now a day or so before one of the guys I know from London way had said him and his family weren't risking a weekend at Drayton Camping as the forecast was for storms and hail stone... so I guess many more had thought the same and were staying away. The Wood was our Oyster, we found a prime site right next to the shower block and water supply etc etc so we was suited.. Camp was soon struck, just the previsions needed getting now so we trucked off to the local Asda to stock up for the evening Barby..... now me and the miss'es always buy to much food dont know why we just do and today was no exception we were only buying for 4 of us, for one barby and the bill for the food was £63 jeez that's most peoples bill for a weekly shop.. Oh boy was I gonna have some food today! Back at Camp we soon got he cool Tins 0ut, the Sun it was a shining and the Rods they was arriving.. Heaven!
Nice Pop with Modern wheels and right on Stance
Phil Middleton's Gorgeous Chevy Truck arrives and a Cool Pop with Dalek
trafficators
Dally Arrives with his wife Mad Sonia and their Family... Also a Great
looking A Delivery
As we listened to my recently bought 1watt CD Player... I kid you not yes it was 1Watt and was advertised as if this was a great feature .. bought purely on price I add as it was just for this weekend... Daly and Mad Sonia from the Wirral arrived and set up camp with us. Daly, Sonia and family had arranged to meet up with us as we had got to know them through the uk-hotrods e-mail group. Daly and his wife this was to be there first Rod Run also, they had come from the wild biking scene with the likes of the Bull Dog Bash as one of their past foray's which is a Crazy weekend....so I hoped this would be their scene as Daly has just bought a Rod for them to get into it all.. Oh and he has a long term project of a Willy's aswell, but we dont talk much about that...Once their tent was erected they soon got into the swing of it. It may of just been early afternoon but we were having a Pardy and a great laugh... while the Rods trickled in :>).. The NASC had arranged with the Drayton Manor people for us to get free entry into the park and Zoo on the Friday so we took advantage of that.. Mind you one of the NASC guys had to work his butt off to make it happen and keep it happening aswell, as each time they changed the gate staff they tried to change the rules and charge the Rodders and kids entry... But we all got in for free had a good look round which passed on a few hours and kept the women and kids happy.
Fantastic A Sedan with Turbo'd Caddy Northstar Motor .. wild
Then to keep us men happy, we got our first look round the Rods and sods that had made Neil's Springnats there destination for this weekend... instead of staying at home and watching telly cus it might rain Terr Oh or going to Hemsby which is a viable excuse but only if you are an out and out Rocker Billy! Must admit I was really disappointed at the turnout, but still you can only put on an event, you cant make people go there. To me though Drayton Manor Springnats is my favourite meet of all, the atmosphere is second to none, it seem so much more like a big Rodding family get together to start the season... enjoying it all together some how.. Steve Enright who helps organise this event along with the other NASC volunteers said they had actually more people booked in this year than any year previous... they were just not coming? I just hoped that Jason, Daly and family who were attending there first Rod Run thought it was a good event as first impression count.
Nicely Put together F1 Truck we spied as we ventured to the Theme Park
We had the bonnet up on Jason's 57 Consul, showing a few people its V12 .... Mike Key looked in the open Bonnet gave an approving smile and nodded acknowledgement to me also as he walked by :>).. Ya know I was so chuffed I couldn't stop smiling to my self as I kept thinking about it..."Mike Key acknowledge me" Ha Ha I was Chuffed I can tell ya!.. He has been into Rods for so long and at such a high level I look upon him as Thee Master... I know I am probably just being a Numpty but ya can't help it if that's how ya feel.. Everyone must have people in the scene they revere and he is one of mine that's all, along with a couple of others I would probably crap me self if I every got to speak to them.. Anyhow I digress!
Mike Noble and his Bird arrive in their newly bought Jerry Denning 32 absolutely
stunning or what.
It
was time to do the Drayton Manor walk... Opposite us was a Mad blown 100E and a
Cool A Delivery I had seen evolve into a real cool machine over the last few
years. I saw this A for sale a few years back when I was looking for a Rod, I
was really tempted to buy it at the time but I just wasn't quite ready then.. I
saw it at Doncaster soon after and a few of the Runs over the years but this
year it looked so much better and really looked like the new owner had done some
nice work on it.. The new wheels make it, but the screen and surround were all
sorted now and along with the other mods made it look much much better.. Turns
out the guy who owns it also reads this web site though that has no bearing on
my compliments on here :>) I do like this A for real.. I was real
chuffed when he said "I read your web site every night when I get home
from work".. Hey how cool is that to hear.. Ya know I love it when
people who actually own Rods tell me they read my web site.. it's Ace! I wish I
knew more about the scene so I could write more accurate and professional
reports... maybe I will get better as I learn more.
. Then I hear "Holmsey.. HOLMSEY" "What" I Reply " Are you putting a bit of weight on?"....... "er.. maybe" I said.. *Hum?*
This Mad Fordson was from just up the motorway a tad from me all the way down
from Carlisle.. complete with baby seat in-between the rear tubs and roll cage
what a great way to remember ya child hood eh! Superb 55?57? Chevy Truck was one
of my favs
Pike all smiles as he is now the new proud owner of Pete from Fleets owd 36
Truck oh yes!
Had
a good look at Phil Middleton's Chevy Truck man that is one beautiful, beautiful
Truck.. as we did our Rod walk round the wood. Mike Noble was in his newly acquired
Jerry Denning Built 32 what a fantastic looking 32, this is one of the very best
I have seen, it looked superb as he drove it round ... er and round.... and
round .. and round. and if Mike wasn't in it his Bird was :>) they just didn't
stop driving it all weekend.. hey and they had just driven up from Plymouth.. That's
one thing about Mike he enjoys his Rods and he damn well uses em aswell... In
the dumps a few years back... now a changed outlook, nothing a remortgage and a
new Rod couldn't cure though, along with a splattering of Eminem song lyric's aswell that is :>)...
Yep the crap weather forecast didn't stop great cars like these turning up. After the quick tour of the camp site Rods, we did a quick shufty round the trade stands but most were shut as Sunday is their main day! The trade stands were definitely up from previous years and there was some good stuff on show with a good choice.. From the stainless Man to Duksville.. Weird'y Watts Striping to Mobile Phone accessories.. there was all sorts to keep even the hardened shopper happy.. American Auto mags was there and Pop Parts to name but a few.. But the Barby was calling us, so we made our way back to camp to get into some serious scoffing I was starving!
Crazy looking Y and equally crazy Blown Viva
Seriously Modified CF was really well executed
Blown 32 was oh so right
Well after the feast, I was stuffed but the night was young and everyone was getting into the party spirit, so we thought we should stop drinking the 50p a can stuff and get into the £2.30 a pint stuff in the Hamilton Suite.. at £12odd a round for me, I was in for an expensive night! I had a few people say "are you putting a bit of weight on Holmsey?" I was starting to get a bit conscious of my sticking out belly now... but I also smelt a rat?? *hum?*
We all had a really great night, the DJ was Ok once he got going.. I dont remember ever laughing so much as we just all seemed to get really into it. The place was pretty packed aswell, which didn't seem to reflect the mount of cars in the camp site.
A great night though I would say was had by all... but over all to quickly.. Now last year we partied back at our caravan until around 5am if I remember right. with people coming and going all night. This year everyone seemed to just disappear?? I thought I aint ready for any sleep yet and stuck on me 1watt stereo. Jerry Robb from Scotland and a couple of his mates came over and we just had a real good crack. The security also came over, but not to join us, in fact they came over twice... asking us to turn my 1watt stereo down, as it was keeping the camp site awake??? I said "why have they all got work in the morning or something?".. Jeez how loud can a 1 watt CD Player actually be?? Still I did let sensibility guide me and I crashed out at a very reasonable 2.30am this time... *yawn Night night*