Saturday is Cruise Day

Keith Freeman gives the Royal Salute on a fine Nats Saturday Morning

Hot Rodders hit quiet seaside town shocker! Read all about it!

Woke up Saturday to a scorching Hot Sunny day, the V8's had been rowdy and rumbling from around 8am onwards, many going to the local Sainsbury's for a good old Full English breakfast, the staff at Sainsbury's didn't know what had hit them. I did hear the local advertisement of the Nats was minimal, a shrewd move, as lets face it, all those that need to know about it, would know anyway, those that we didn't want to know about it didn't  ie: the local Joy Boys, clever eh! That must of been one of the biggest factors, as to why there was a total lack Halfords built Customs cruising the Nats. Sure there were many many daily's but no gangs of Numpty teenagers spoiling it for us old grumps and our fine Rods and Kustoms ;>).... It felt very relaxed around the whole showground and felt safe like a Rod Run should do, when it is for Rodders and their families I say.

There was a definate Buzz/Rumble in the air, you could taste it as everyone with a suitable Car readied for the midday Cruise, which was gonna be kinda special as it was to the Seafront Prom (is there any other?). A mate of mine from Manchester arrived (Keith Freeman aka Crossspring on the ukhotrods chat room ) in his 351ci Cleveland powered Graffiti clone fenderless 32. He decided to camp with us and took the tent bag from his trunk, to find he only had the inner tent and some pegs in there and no sign of a tent????? Oh ho! luckily Trace and Brian Perks came to the rescue... whoops I mean Trace and Crusty Perks came to the rescue.... I gotta get Brian out of my head Ha Ha it's Crusty, lets face it, he don't look like a Brian does he.. sos Bri :>)

Now who takes a spare tent with them on a Rod Run? Trace and Crusty apparently eh. Why? in-case they meet someone they know they can invite em over to stay at their place? or if they fall out they can have separate rooms?? What ever the reason, it sure helped Keith out, what looked like a cold night in the deuce turned into a 5 star tent jobby. Keith readied his coupe for the Cruise, while went for the big shop again ready for the afternoon barby.

Cruise early birds

This was gonna be a weird one today, doing the cruise with no Rod, but at least this time I would be able to watch/film all the Rods on the cruise, which I normally wouldn't be able to. We set off about 15mins before the main cruise was scheduled to do so, as we passed the cruise assembly point in the main show field, the amount of cars already there, was quite mind blowing. I was getting all excited, I don't mind telling ya. The HRG guys again were marshalling and were already at there stations, luckily I knew most of them and so I was pointed in the right direction, cus to be honest without  them, I would never of found the right route... well not before the cruise was to hit the place anyway. We saw Mike Key and a couple of other motors on route, they were ahead of the main cruise just to size up the situation? or maybe same as us, to get a prime vantage point to take some hopefully cool photos.

We parked the 4 x 4 by the prom and My Wife Jackie our daughter Nic and friend Kat along with me'sen, set off eagerly to find the best vantage point to see the cruise rumble by. As we walked along the fairly narrow tarmac prom, we noticed the place was awash with elderly people, enjoying the days Sun and the tranquillity of the Sea washing onto the shore. Which they viewed unrestricted from their presumably rented or owned Promenade perched chalets....... Boy was this all soon about to change.

The amount of those electric powered scooters, could only be rivalled back at Camp Nats, mind you these were for the elderly not the youngerly ;>)..  I honestly, have never seen so many elderly people in one place, in the usual slumped over seating position, driving these things anywhere, they were literally every bloody where.. hey and they had every right, it is there home not ours. But today Rodders from all over the Uk and Europe were about to invade, you could almost hear the Cry "put on your flack jackets and hats the Hot Rodders are coming".

We finally found our perfect place, we would watch all the Rods and Kustoms etc rumble by this outdoor restaurant, where several of Ipswich's elderly residents were enjoying a nice Saturday afternoon Dinner, Lunch to you posh ones. I chose this spot to watch their reactions as the travelcade passed by them so very very close it would rattle there false teeth out for sure.... but hey hopefully brighten their day with some excitement the likes of which they had never seen before.
 

The unsuspecting elderly residents of old Ipswich town, who's peaceful Saturday Lunch was about to become not so peaceful.

The chalet residents ranged from Grandpa and Grandma with grandkids licking ice cream in the peacefulness of the seaside, to some seriously Old Crumblies who looked like they had just been placed out in the sun to warm up, from being so cold in the ground that morning :>) *sorry just my humour going astray there* 

Who let the Rods Out

Take a few young budding Rodders, one energetic willing Dad and you got a Mini Cruise to start off the proceedings.

Mike key was the first rod down the Prom..... and I couldn't get my soddin digital camera to work grrrrrrrrr,  Followed by  a group of Tot Rodders and one fit young dad supervising em all there was a big gap then a Cop Van came down... followed by two Coppers (WPC & PC) on foot, with the sight of the full cruise starting to sweep down the unsuspecting Promenade dehind them.....

......and what was leading the start of the main cruise... a Codger in one of them electric scooters .... Man you couldn't of written a script better Ha Ha Laugh... I never thought my pants would dry :>)

Here come the Rods, here come the Rods, all stand up cus here comes the Rods

By the time the cruise got fully underway the unsuspecting old timers at the outdoor restaurant were tucking into their Nosh big style, as the first cars drove by, sorry read rumbled and snorted by. Most looked up in sheer disbelieve and awe and a genuine interest, but one old boy lifted his head, mid fork full of trough, sneered in a sort of, I am not gonna stop eating me dinner (do southerners say that?) for no-one..... not even the 2nd invasion and carried on hurriedly tucking into his Dinner sorry Lunch! Man its hard trying to be bilingual Ha Ha As the wild display of  cool machinery passed on by.. He was one cool Cookie that's for sure. As the steady stream cruised slowly by, the diners started to take more interest and were pointing and waving so from where I was the cruise got a big thumbs up. hopefully that was the case for all the residents, as it must be quite a shock from what they are used to.

Here's that cool A again and no it isn't because this A had the nicest legs, it just turned out these where the best shots... Honest :>)  Fenderless Pop is a change from the norm eh.... I will avoid all temptation to use the caption Pop Prom

Here they come! lock up your petrol pumps and turn down your hearing aids.

More Crrraaaazzzeeee Cars............... Kustom was Coool.

Phil Middleton in that popular Rodders posse... I remember seeing  a photo in Custom Car years and years ago, I think of Simon Lane? in Speed Freak, with his arm out of the window in this exact posse. I will always remember it, if not who it was, as this is just how I liked to hang my arm out of my Mk3 Cortina way back then to look like a Rodder.... did anyone else do that, or still do this?... I know I did it all the time in the 34 and will in my F100 no doubt...... or is it just me and Phil  Ha Ha Crazy mixed up kids!

 
No this Blown Vette has not just sneaked passed the guy leaning on the wall without him noticing, he is actually crying over what might of been had he known about Custom Car years ago and not spent his money on Football.

Care workers lined the Prom I thought it was real cool the old queen in the centre waved at every passing Car now aint that kinda nice eh!

Things were now getting chocker

Yeah it soon became apparent that the usual 300 car turnout for the Nats Cruise was more than double that this year and the venue simply couldn't cope. The Prom was full, so was the lead in road and all the surrounding streets. Some cruisers turning back after sitting for 2hrs in a traffic jam of Rods..... a victim of its own success I fear.. I have it on very good authority though, things will be sorted for next year.... Shame so much is left for so few to sort... never in the field of Uk Rodding has so much been owed by so many to so few.... or something like that Terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr :>)

 
It got to the point where the Rods just had to park and the owners walk up the prom, to see what all the fuss was about. These two likely lads tried to have it on their toes, with what they thought was a old dumped car, though they didn't get far, as it doesn't work on Saturdays..

F100 eh like R'soles every ones got yan....I watched later as these two beauties tried to leave the prom the front one made it up the ramp but the one behind was far to low... I am not sure how or even if, it ever did make it off the prom for all I know it may still be there now :>)

Now then this is in my opinion one of the coolest, though strangest musical acts I have been witness to. The music was brilliant to my ears, proper bazzing stuff. I think it's called physcobilly, mind you what do I know, I like Obie Trice (Hip Hop) so maybe I am way off mark.. It was sort of the Shadows meets the Sex Pistols with a striping... yes I said striping French maid.  The Lead guitar was manic but melodic, the bass was awesome, while the drummer drummed, that leaves only the French maid *hum?*
Now this was remember, a very public seaside promenade, on a busy, sunny, Saturday afternoon... The Maid well sort of cleaned to the beat of the music?......... then she removed some clothes?..... went off ... came back cleaned some more..... and took off some more clothes?.................... went off,  came back dusted a bit, then removed her top ................. to reveal a beautiful set of besonga's with just the tiniest red stars covering her pert..... *whoops* got carried away there sorry :>) covering her nippleodiens... Now that was different, only the Belgium' s or were they French? could get away with it and do it with style.

 They also played Sunday afternoon at the Show field, so I had a better/closer look, all for editorial research of course.. Sorry the photos from Sunday didn't turn out for some reason, the lens was all steamed up?

Some did actually make it right to the end, where the Art Decor Pavilion was, which served a very welcome cool Beer, though the Tetley smooth flow must of used Tetley tea to ferment, as that's just what it looked like, so I had a Lager.. ya always safe with lager!

Hi All due to the underwhelming response I had there were just 5 entrants so here are them all.

The exhaust? A couple hundred yards back, wrapped around a manhole cover!

Ya, I vonce vas ze tail gunner in a Heinkel, but zeze days, vork ist so hard to come by, you know? From Nessie.

Here's a caption contest for you. send all entries to website@uk-hotrods.co.uk I will stick the best ones on later.

These Happy Rodders sat and enjoyed a quiet time, before they got back into the Caddy, to take em back to camp Nats, ready for the Saturday night revelry.

Back at the Showground, the cruising was in full flow, I parked and went for a look round the trade stands, while the miss's and them went for a shower. I took my old F100 Drums and some springs I had sold to Kerry Tate who I had originally bought the truck off, bought some stuff had a crack then ventured further. There were all the usual suspects there, Geordie Paul with Duksville, The Big fella with Reality Hot Rods, the afore mentioned Kerry Tate with the Originals Hot Rod Parts who had a very cool Tin Model A coupe for sale with chopped top and Hemi for £2.5K looked good to me. Geordie Paul at Duksville has a new catalogue out, with all, or most that he can offer and Man is that a complete book, he can get you anything and they are all real genuine and nice guys, who are really into our Hobby and share our Obsession so give them your custom. Pop Parts American Mags etc etc etc.. they were all there.

Peter Angels Sedan still cool as ever cruises the showground

What I also thought was great, was the fact that a few Rods had driven up and parked by the stalls which gave it all a great atmosphere, there was a separate food vendors area, with all sorts of different foods to tempt us, right by the beer/entertainment hall shrewd move. The place was just alive where ever you went, with Rods and Kustoms driving everywhere. I went back to where we were camped and had a ride round in Keith Freeman's Graffiti coupe with open headers of course..

Then Me old mate Gaz O'Conner came round asking if we wanted the drive tarmac'd, we said no and so sat had a beer and a crack while we watched the rolling Rod Run pass us by. Soon it was Barby time, shower time, then Beer time. The beer tent/shed/entertainment complex was buzzing when we got there about 9.30pm. We park joined Toad and his family, then just enjoyed the whole atmosphere which was more Rod Run like than wild pissed party as I found it at the last Nats, we went to in 2002. The Band were a Status Quo tribute act and were real value for money, not my kinda  music but I enjoyed em, as I like live music no matter what type really.

I can remember looking through a drunken..ish haze at one massive bouncer/security guy late on, who Toad had called over, to ask him, to throw me out, as he said I was annoying him... yeah his sense of humour eh :>).... I looked at the big guy stood there.... I went *hic* looked him straight in the eye..  . I said "Bring a Friend" *hic*..... Ha Ha luckily he also had a sense of humour and made a big joke of it.. Then we all collapsed laughing, as we all knew, he could of picked me up, swallowed me and spit me out in bubbles :>)

We all had a real good night, Oh yeah the wet T-shirt competition was on that night aswell, my camera is crap at night photos so sorry I don't have any..... well I have one that has been sent to me, I will put it on here with a password link again give me a day or so. All I remember about it was, a young lad chatting to us said whoooo look at the size of them norks... I looked and hadn't realise the Wet T was on, shows what a good time I was having. I did recognise one of the entrants, who I think went on to win......... Sandra Walker How totally out of character for our San to be getting her clothes off ;>)

We ended the night back at Steve and Sandra's for an action replay later aswell,  with one from Steve aswell eeww... On the way back, we passed what I thought was the French camp, I shouted "Bonjour" mind you it was night time and I have no idea what good evening is in French so Bonjour had to do, "Tres Bien" I said pointing at there cool cars... "What"  was their reply? I said "Bonjour Tres Bien"  "Oh good evening" was their reply, and we were soon surrounded by what must of been the tallest gang of Belgium's in the world... Oh Sheeet I thought. They then proceeded to take the pee, are you and him partners, pointing and Toad then me.... Ha Ha Ha.... Lets get out of here Toad these guys are clearly quite Mad and pissed, we had a bit of banter but got outa there at the first opportunity.

I saw a foreign Nostalgia 27 T float by, Matt black, drop beam the works .... and .... get .... this...... Neon's shining away from underneath... I thought how bloody fantastic. Everyone says don't stick to any rules build your rod just how you want it.. then sneer when someone does so and actually breaks them unwritten rules, this guy was obviously, oblivious to the rules, or was doing it for a laugh, for what ever reason Rock On I thought... er well maybe not, but it did make me chuckle... Hit the sack at a fairly sensible time, this night after a great time with Toad Steve and Sandra Walker........ had a wrestle then fell asleep... what a great two days so far. I cant wait until Sunday show day can you :>)

Sunday Show and Shine Day

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