Head to them there Hills
Got up feeling a little jaded, but a nice sight greeted me as I downed my 3rd cup off coffee, Dusty had come round to see us in his cool A coupe sporting its new filled roof panel and holy visor and Tony Grayston and his Hi-Tec Dooster was parked right in front of us with Julian Atkinson (Acker) A sedan parked next to him..
Julian Atkinson's Steel 29 A Sedan with Late Corvette Running Gear. Tony Grayston's Dooster, the quality of work Tony has done to this is mind blowing.
I had been swapping e-mails with Julian (Acker) for a while, he had sent me some great old photos for my web site and felt I knew him before I had even met him. Tony I knew of but again had never met to speak to before this weekend. I find it kinda cool getting to know people who own such ace cars..
Both cars are real works of art and so much time and thought gone into both of them, you have to talk with the owners and spend some time looking at the cars to really appreciate what has been done. Unlike Custom Car who put a caption under Acker's Model A sedan.. something like 2 1/2 years to build 2 minutes to walk past, even though it was a fresh out car it looked dated, was their parting jab... what a horrible thing to say I thought. So I had made my mind up to prove them wrong and found out all I could about the car and its build.
Sits nice with a well executed paint job to my eye and built of a style.
Ok first yeah it is a tad 70/80's, but it is a genuine steel 29A sedan.. ahh haa now that changes things don't it. So it's a genuine steel car.. also it gets better, it was built in the states (Florida) and does follow the flames theme, which to be honest is a Yank thing. Acker loved it soon as he saw it and its his wonga that was paying for it, so only he had to like it really. And like it he did, and what makes it even more tasty is the corvette running gear oh yes Corvette running gear, professional looking interior and a great mirraflake paint job.. anyone who dismisses' this Rod as not worthy of a closer look, is very very wrong and missing out... and anyway the 70's look is the next style trust me ;o) More info just in...Motor is a 350 LT1, closed loop, multi port injectors, 52mm throttle body, ally angle heads. trans is a 4L60E 4 speed, with lock up converter & shift kit. As the ex builder/owners, Greg Gruner from Brooksville, Florida. Show board says, three years to build. This was the final push, before that it went into hiding, due to a divorce and the ex wanting half the value! Altogether it was built over a longer period of time. So not 2 1/2yrs to build after all. Funny how a car built with a 40's 50's 60's style or theme is looked on as cool and not at all dated Herrr burrr ;o).. yet a 70's style is???
See that Mirrorflake shine.
Corvette running gear.. Ta da!! not worth looking at eh! I rest my case!
The anticipation of the Saturdays drive out you could feel in the buzz as people talked in the field where we were all assembling. The amount of nice Rods and Cars was really apparent now as we all waited for Craig to get us organised. ;o)
He had printed a superb set of instructions and map for the drive outs nobody should get lost with them .. should they.
Real Nice 40 Ford my mate Pudzz really does have the hots for this. V6 Cossie Powered 4 seater.
Even this wild 32 Coupe was up for the Drive over Kirkstone pass.
I just loved this 29 A Roadster probably my Favorite Rod of the meet.
I saw the older guy with the tweed jacket on stood with his arm resting on the
Door sill of Craig's Roadster and saw a great photo opportunity as I set up the shot some bright spark
shouted " Mind ya backs someone want's to take a photo" and bugger, everyone moved and fuked the shot right up. arghhhh
I love to try and get people in my shots here is one as we assemble for the cruise.
couple a cool tat'd up dudes. Wish I had the bottle to set up shots of interesting people like these.
This was one seriously nice looking 32 Roadster.. very nice!
Here we are setting off on the Saturday drive out.
Even though we set off in sunshine it didn't take long and the Lake District rain started.
Kirkstone to be honest is a nice easy pass but the scenery is stunning.
There are some very scary pass's like Wrynose and Hardnott amongst others google them and see.
Though no way would I try and take our kind of cars over them. So Kirkstone is a nice drive out with just enough adventure feel to make it seem like you done something cool in your car.
You get a good idea on this shot just how narrow these roads that the romans sorted out for us are. I love the dry stone walls that cover the hills how much work must have it of taken to build them all. One roaming artist in the 19th century said of the people who live in the lake District that they were lazy and lived in mud huts and ram shackle house's... it was probably cus they were so knackered from building all the sodding walls... !
We did a re group stop on the summit of Kirkstone,
but many were still on the climb up, about the same amount of cars is over the summit in this shot and had to do some serious hill starts.....
Starting the descent into Windermere
Craig had organised it so we could all park on the Glebe at Bowness, which is owned by the council. Only stipulation was the air ambulance guys would be there for us to give a donation to, which I think we all did.. Bowness is a very touristy place so there were loads of places for us to go see or eat at, right on the side of lake Windermere. Must add cars were still rolling in as I took this shot.
Gives you a bit of an idea what the view out over Windermere is like. usually full of Japs and Asian tourist's.
My mate Pudzz went all Hot Rod and removed his hood sat next to a very nice Pop with some 37 ford looking front metal by the look.
Louis Turner graced our presence with his stunning steel 34 Coupe.
Just the best looking front of any Truck I wager.
This puzzled us a bit but we think it is a Y type done into a coupe a nice dinky looking Rod.
Yella Coupe was sweet to.
Odgie gets into what he does 100% and he is a great lover of this run.
He has this amazing outlook to life, that I admire and I just love talking with him and hearing his earth wise slant on everything. I look on him as a Guru of life and he speaks wise words always.. Never heard him be a twat ever and that's hard to say about anyone... One of lives true individuals. I missed a story out from the Drayton Manor meet, were I said to Odgie have you seen Reggy and Ray in their single seater cars? He said Oh yeah I really wanted to meet those guys, and he was in awe of their life style and when he finally met them... ya know they said exactly the same.. wow they had really wanted to meet Odgie. I love stuff like that. I best stop as I will only embarrass him as I could go on and on.. x
Well once we had done our thing at Bowness we headed out to Keswick.
The run was a straight forward one with again some stunning views but much easier roads. The road forks at Keswick and there was a choice. Right a smooth run back to camp or left and do an amazing run out to Grasmere and round back to Keswick a further 28mile if you needed more driving. Well worth it if you wanted to see some even more amazing roads and scenery that the lakes has to offer. I think about 6 cars did the extra loop, though I was leading the way back and I think most were just following me and I didn't want to do the extra loop, maybe next year I will.
Got back to camp had one can and got a call from Craig, we have two break downs. One was Chris and the lovely Michelle Hay in their stunning 36 Dodge a brake pipe had fractured, so they got a breakdown back to camp ok. Other was this big lump of a 56 F100 ;o).. Craig said to ask about Acker's Trailer, but he was no where to be seen. so we got armed with a tow rope and headed out to the stricken F100. initially the place where the truck had broken down looked so dangerous we thought get him towed to a safer place and try and fix it there. I asked if he knew how to be towed, he said he had been taught how to be towed at age 12yrs so I thought we will see. But true to his word he really did know how to be towed and we soon decided to go all the way back to camp in one run about 10mile ish. Hard to tell from this photo but this is as we arrived back at camp with the F100 still attached to us!! It is actually a pleasure to tow someone who knows how to brake you and keep the rope tight and this guy knew how to do that no worries.
Well the nights entertainment was put on by Craig and featured the Catz. Last time I heard them 2yr back I loved them and I was really looking forward to them this time. But to be honest I found them real corny at first, with shit like shake rattle and roll "Yawn"... they did so many cliche songs I was getting very embarrassed and irritable.. but as the night went on they got better and better and sure can play even if the song was shit. Many were up rocking as they do put on a great show, interacting with the crowd.
 
Hard to tell from this shot but the place was rammed, loads stood behind me. I was slowly getting into the tunes, I love hard Rock a Billy now but soft 50's R & R just don't do it for me.. I love a Rock a Billy slant on a Rock tune or Cajun that gets my boat rocking. The crack was great round the club house and we had a great laugh with everyone around us, the Scottish guys are ace and really are up for a good time.. Then the Cats after the bar was shut decided to do another set... and kicked off with an AC DC Classic, "Fire all your guns" and sounded fantastic. I was so into it I started to video them and the dance floor was rammed. Then all hell broke loose as someone socked Craig's Mrs... and she socked em back good style, I thought it was a moch pit ;o). Then the guys jumped in, Craig was in like a ferret up a drain pipe to save his wife. and the little numpty who's wife had socked Tara was in there two. mucho scuffling was going on.
Friday day time me and Pudzz where talking with a bearded Scottish guy, who was telling us he was a bouncer and we took the piss out of him.. so much so, when Pudzz walked past him Saturday Morning he looked him up and down and said "Bouncer my arse" ;o).... but you could tell he was, cus he was in and sorting it out like a whippet or maybe a fat old scottish guy out of a trap ;o). He looked at the club bouncers and said "are you guys gonna sort this out or are we?"
The afore mentioned Capped numpty who started it all, had a 50's style cap on and I thought he was one of our crew, but it turns out he was with the Min camp (about 100 mini owners were camped in the next field to us). When it was all clamed down he spouted at Craig " you are in trouble as I am connected".. and Craig retorted " Well these guys will fucking unconnected you" "what's that mean?" he said " these guys here are from one or the toughest part's of Glasgow now fuck off".... Hey that was the end of that. so back to camp for us, Shame as I felt the Catz where about to do my kind of tunes!.. Mind you I don't mind a good clean fight to... and to be honest it was all
sorted in a few minutes.
Back at Camp Tony Grayston and his family were letting off chinese sky lanterns and they are cool. but man were we making a lot of noise and it was around 1:30am and all around us were asleep, well apart from those we woke up that is.
I can vouch his Mrs is wild by the way in case you were wondering. well that was the end of the Saturday Fun and we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. No show and shine tomorrow "bliss" just another day of enjoying our cars.
Sunday run out click here
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