Thought UKHotRod fans might be interested in a few pics from the All Ford Rally at Abingdon on 26/9/04. This one-day event has been held in the area for several years and is open to all Fords built before 1965. It attracts hundreds of vehicles and plenty of stands/autojumble type stuff.
My sedan and Brian's A made an early start in the Sunday morning mist, only an hours run up to Oxford for us. One guy on the gate complimented Brian on his straight bodywork - 'that’s cos it's fibreglass' says Brian!
We were also joined by Brian's neighbour in a late 50'sFairlane which stores the roof in the trunk, giving the bus-size car a luggage capacity of 2 toothbrushes! Don't try this on the move
Fellow Victory Wheeler Ray had an uncharacteristic lay-in and arrived later in the Ranchero with his daughter + her beach cruiser
The site has huge areas of concrete (it’s a military barracks) and areas are marked out for the different ages of vehicles. Rods & customs are welcome, though they do take a back seat being in the 'anything else' parking area and not parked up with the relevant age stockers. There were loads of very tidy A's in attendance, mostly sedans as I guess they were the most popular (practical) in the UK when new? Some of these would make great rods….
This great looking stripped down A gow-job was parked with the stock A's - being pretty close to stock, but featured some neat old tuning parts and a hotrod rake with bigger rears and the splash aprons still on. Looked a little odd compared to the rows of stockers but (to our eyes) the coolest there
Create your own 40mph model A jalopy?? with this tidy rolling chassis……. And this tidy steel A pickup body asking £2,000….
How about rodding this straight '34 , or this gorgeous woody, or this one already on whitewalls, .
or this 32 cabriolet….
Many of these cars would look good at a rod run with just a dropped front end, and the prices for the old stuff don’t seem too crazy either (except for the problem that even the best UK stuff has seen some tin-worm!)
Each class has a turn to drive in/out of the main arena, with a running commentary given on each car. Was this how the Ford factory car park would have looked in the early 30's? Beautiful drop-top shoebox ….
Classic Yanks too - do you want red white or blue?
Loads of later models including rows of shiny Pops, Anglia's, Z cars etc. Many of the 60's cars were modified in some way, lots of lowering, Lotus bits etc.
In the rodding corner quite a few familiar cars had come out to play (oddly enough no Chevys!) You could tell when a hot rod arrived or left cos of the V8 rumble over the put-put-put noise of the stockers.
Blown yellow 32 pickup which debuted at Billing as I recall… Lovely red coupe
Brian Lucas' superb 32
roadster + another……. Brian proudly showing off his polished flathead (I
couldn't open my hood with a Chevy in there!)
Super-straight Thames van on
Keystone wheels…… and a superbly presented coupe from John Hall, in many cases the rods
outshone the restored stockers for finish & attention to detail, or am I just
biased?
Gary McCormack had a 3 hour run down in his bitching 5 window 32. This car has all the good stuff, including a 409 which must have been painful on the wallet. A real hot rod, drool….. Gary & his mate in red roadster
Kev Rooney was up from Portsmouth in his daily-driver Pop. He's now getting excellent MPG but the engine is over-cooling with its modern BMW rad - did you find a muff Kev?? Not sure what the base car was for this little Kustom but it always looks cool
Probably my favourite car (apart from Gary's) was this lovely 5 window A on wires - just looks so cool, and the green on green combo is great
A few rod-related traders
were there, notably Mr T, Harris hotrod parts and Pop Parts Plus - with most of
the traders hawking old bits, no billet! Seemed to be less pre-war autojumble
stuff than in prior years for some reason though.
Its worth a trip to the All-Ford rally, especially as it puts off the end of the season for another week! Hope you enjoyed the pics,
Simon Phillips
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