Hmmm what a bummer. Sat
in school Friday afternoon and it suddenly starts to rain despite the sunshine
before hand. Oh dear, gonna be a damp Steel City show again this year :-(.
Anyway, I went home and got all my tent and other assorted crap together then at
about 6.20pm went down to Reg's. We were gonna be travelling in a hot rod (and 1
motorbike) convoy this year. I was going with Andy in the matt black '27 T
roadster, Reg was in his '37 Ford Sprintcar, Ray was in his burgundy '23 T
bucket, Daz n Damian were in the Prefect pickup, Steve n Tomo were in the sky
blue Pop and Aussie Will was on Daz's motorbike. That's 3 cars without a roof or
fenders then, it looked like it was gonna be a wet ride. Fortunately there was
not one spot of rain all the huge journey there.
We got to the show ground and got our pre entry kit bags / paid our money (£15, what a bargain). The camping ground was absolutely heaving and we had to look for a space to camp, which is very unusual, as not many people usually camp at Sheffield on a Friday, or even Saturday for that matter. The ground was bone dry which was a bonus as we were all in tents (none of these poofter dayvans and caravans for us :-p). I had promised my mate Russ that we would save him a tent sized space as he was travelling down from Scotland on Saturday morning.
Anyway that was us set up so we hit the beer. Actually not just the beer, cos a bottle of vodka and a few cans of Red Bull disappeared aswell. We also got a free burger from the BBQ. There was some weird stuff that arrived that night. We were followed in by a Range Rover monster truck which had about a 3 foot drop bar on, towing a caravan. I joked that nobody would stop him if he didn't pay, good job he didn't take it serious eh. There was also a huge arctic that drove round the edge of the camping field, I had no idea what it was until I saw the huge Toyota Hi-Lux monster truck on the back, he must be an awesome driver to fit round such tight roads with that bloody thing. Anyway, I overdid it a bit Friday, and my memory does not have anything about getting from bar to tent in it. The night was pretty uneventful apart from somebody emptying what they couldn't digest from their stomach through their mouth right behind (or so it seemed) my tent, which then set me off :-(
What a view from a tent this is eh.
Saturday dawned warm and sunny so I was up and about like a hungover
alcoholic snail. I took quite a few pics which was a surprise as my head was spinning
and my eyes were still half shut.
(Left) This '38 Oldsmobile has been around for donkeys years, and is still looking smooth. I think it has airbags on the front IFS and a small block. (Right) Keef Bryants V6 powered Pop is very cool. As you can see the camping ground is very hilly, about 1:2 in some places :-p
This Escort van looks very tough. It has a full tube frame, Rover V8 and the
biggest tyres I've ever seen under the back end of an Escort. It's the old
"Bun in the Oven Bakery" van that was at Donny a few years ago.
Certainly a bit different now.
Anyway I had a good wander round, checked a few cars out, then went back to see how all the others were. Everybody seemed as OK as they could be after a night of drinking apart from Steve, who was composting the grass.
We got ready to queue up for the cruise but with the amount of distance we travelled to the back of the queue we might aswell have stayed near the tents. It was MASSIVE. There was a near constant line of hot rods both infront of us and behind us as we went to the Stock Yard truck stop. People were having a good time watching all the hot rods drive past and (apart from the BMW drivers) everybody I saw had a smile on their face. Even though the cruise destination was not far away by motorway, the cruise takes you on a long windy route to give the cars time to show off. The weather was sunny, cloudless and absolutely boiling hot, and there were a few cars on the side of the road having cooling difficulties. When we got to the truck stop it was already packed with hot rods.
(Left) This '34 Chevy sedan was absolutely awesome. It had all the right nostalgia touches, the paint colour was spot on and the interior was spotless. (Right) The inside of that Pro Street Eccy van, you can see how big the wheel tubs are :-). He's got a bit of anesthetic injection aswell.
(Left) Pete Tyas's gorgeous 40 Ford kustom. The paintjob is
nothing short of spectacular, with not a ripple or blemish in that mile deep
black paint. It runs a flathead motor and the interior is in black leather, but
boy does it get hot in the sun. It still took a while to start Sunday morning
though, which gave me a giggle. (Right) If I could remember the name of
the owner of this stunning deuce roadster I'd tell you it but I can't so I won't
(somebody to do with Sue Tyas I think). It runs all the right bits for a
nostalgia rod, but has that awesome paint to top it off.
(Left) This '58 Dodge is a regular Leeds/Wakefield cruise goer
and was in the top 10 in the prizes.
(Left) Mental chopped Minor was absolutely tiny. I saw the guy who drove it and he wasn't a midget, which I thought he'd have to be to fit in it. The matt black body made it look dead tough, and the boot full of Pinstriping just finished it off. (Right) Jon Denton's (wife's) roadster sits bang on, another nice car from him again (his other is that black Rover 75 pickup)
(Left) Special Delivery indeed, a mate of Lee (with the red pop behind) had just bought this. Ran a independent front (Yorkshire Street Rods?) and a Volvo axle I think. The engine is a blown Rover. (Right) I've got no idea whether anything on this F100 wasn't standard apart from the wheels. It looked very well kept or restored, ultimate parts hauler eh.
Both this 69 (I think) El Camino and Chevy Nova / II are absolutely stunning. I'm not a big flames fan, but those on the El Camino are just awesome.
I took this picture of the cruise venue but sadly I couldn't fit it all in :-(. It get's about 3/4 in anyway. Just imagine all those cars cruising in a line, and you can see why I call it AWESOME.
Anyway, I had a good walk round for a couple of hours and we made our way back to the campsite. I was now quite wide awake, so I had a good wonder round to look see if anything new had turned up. Well it had. There was this absolutely awesome 33 Willys that was only there Saturday I think, as I didn't see it Sunday. It looked very early 90s in style, but the motor was stunning. The attention to detail was aswell, just check the way the bonnet hinges.
Then it was a free dinner, which was Pie, Peas and Chips or Curry and Chips. I had the Pie & Peas and very nice it was aswell.
I had a good chat with my mate Al and had a quick bottle of beer. Well that
went straight to my head (and stomach) so I thought I'm not gonna drink owt
tonight. Anyhow by this time it had started to drip drop with rain, so I went
back to the tent to make sure I'd put everything in. I had so I thought I'd get
a couple of hours sleep and see how I was when I woke up. Fast forward to 7am
and I'm finally awake and feeling great. It was quite possibly the coldest night
I've ever been in a tent. I was wearing every piece of clothing I had with me,
and a sleeping bag and my feet were still like ice blocks. Put this with the
extremely heavy rain and I'm kind of glad I stayed in the tent. Anyway I quickly
grabbed the camera and snapped a load of shots of off the cars around the tent.
As you can see the cars are still very wet, but at least the sun was shining and
it was pretty warm.
Anyway after another double English breakfast it was time to put the cars on
the Showfield and have a look round, which is where I love ya n leave ya to let
Holmsey take over from here.
Finally can I say a huge huge thanks to all the Steel City Cruisers for
putting on such an awesome show, you deserve a massive pat on the back the lot
of you (even Martin ;-p ) We should see some of you at the Northern Swapmeet
which is in October.
See ya
Matt
(Thanks Matt for another excellent write up)