Drayton Manor Theme Park NASC Neils Springnats 2012

Hi All long time no speak.. well have I got some new found enthusiasm for me old web site then?.. er I am not sure but I hope to do the full write up this time... I still haven't done the Sunday write up for last year and that is terrible neglect by me. I just get fed up sometimes and end up doing something else and then the time passes and with nobody saying anything I guess people either don't read this shit or they aren't bothered if I do a write up or not ;o)... but regardless I will try and keep this site updated more and also Lawrence who host's this site for me/us free gratis is on with designing a chat forum for it and so I best try and get some members to join eh ;o).

Well this year I was going to Drayton without me old mate Pudzz and his family, as he has lost a bit of interest in it all as had a run in with someone we thought was a very good mate. That has soured it for Pudzz and his wife so they decided to give Drayton a miss this year and also his daughter is getting married so couldn't justify the expense especially if he was going to be on edge while there.

It was an early start for us around 6.30 am Friday, loaded up with everything we could possibly need for a month away and loads of stuff we don't need but may if there was a Nuclear war and we were stranded and had to survive for a few months in the caravan.... ;o) Yes we were loaded to the gunnels. Me the wife, my 7yr old granddaughter Lucie and our dogs Tess and Frankie.

After a straight run down (well except for ignoring the satnav as I knew best after going for the last 12yrs and ended up in Walsall about 20miles out of our way) we arrived fresh and ready to make camp. My Daughter, her boyfriend and their 10mth old Son drove down later also bringing my other 8yr old grandson. They also managed to get lost even with a satnav but more so as they went through Birmingham coming down from Cumbria that is well out of the way.. Terrr

Drayton is by far the best family Rod Run of the Rod Run calendar as you get free access to the Zoo and Theme Park. The place is very family friendly and a must do run for us, we make it a bit of a family holiday.

The camping area is now run by the caravan club and consequently is superb, complete with hook ups, a shop and proper showers and bogs and kept immaculate at all times.

The club house is also a purpose built affair making the whole venue 2nd to none.

Setting up camp was a fair bit of work for me and the wife as we not only had to set up our caravan and awning we also had to erect a very large tent which battled us from beginning to end.. Arrghhhh

Once set up I had a toddle round and there weren't many traders for such a big and cool venue, which was a disappointment. I just don't know why traders and many Rodders for that matter don't come to this Run.. they are all missing out big time I can tell you.

Graham's a Tattoo artist from Preston get his Cool A pickup some pin stripping from TooTall Paul and I think Les Howletts stunning 32 Sedan was in the waiting room to.

Its great seeing a few Car/Trucks cruising about and with proper tarmac roads its a must! Pro Street Chevy Truck was cool!

Friday was pretty much just a chill out and get settled day ;o).. have a barby mill about a natter and look at a few cars and finish the day in the club house for some music and light refreshments. It is a disco on the Friday Night and I hate discos, but to be fair this one didn't seem to bad and my mrs got well into it with a couple of bottles of Rose sloshing around inside her as she jigged about on the dance floor! It was a great end to a great Day everyone was happy!

Next day was just a case of give the Truck a little wipe over, full English and have a nosey round. Quite disappointing turn out of Rods really. I saw quite a few people I know who have cars but left them at home and others who were noticeable by their absence. In fact it more resembled a caravan club rally in a majority of the the camp site than a rod Run, not as it used to be it used to get hundreds of cool cars. I don't know why they don't come now? But such is eh!

Again this year the NASC guys along with the Drayton Manor management organized a few of the Cars to do a cruise through the theme park. Great looking Fordson is heading the lineup.

Here is my Truck with freshly painted wheels in some very good company ready for the off.

Look even Cool guys cruise the park! ;o)

No apology for showing another photo of Les Howletts stunning Home Grown Hot Rod built 32 Sedan pure art!

Tough looking 32 sedan with modern wheels looked menacing in the line up!

And we were off.

Its a great thing to do and different to anything else done at any Rod Run in the Uk the crowds who line up our drive through seem to enjoy seeing all the wild cars drive through instead of just being static in a show field as is the norm.

A weird one this year, the drive out wasn't until 4pm???? and I thought I bet nobody bothers with it this year as who the heck can stay off the beer until early evening? I thought it was just weird. Anyhow I went with the flow but to be honest if it wasn't for my daughters boyfriend wanting to go I wouldn't' of bothered. But I was glad I did in the end.

It was a short drive about 6miles I think and we arrived at a Go-Cart track "Hum?" we thought what's happening here then? are we going to drive our cars round the track? or have a race in the carts? a few cars were lining up so I thought "Hum?" must be a blast round in our cars. Then I got talking with Frank and he enlightened me. No we were to late in booking Curbourgh so had to find an alternative. This place is £2K for the afternoon but the owner came up with a more acceptable deal if we came early evening, hence the late start for the drive out. They were then going to move some tyres from a bend to give us a longish straight, open a gate at the end just in case anyone going to fast to stop they could use it as an escape route. So the plan was do a burn out and power drive along a short straight.. It looked like it was going to be a bit of a disaster but in actual fact it worked really well with quite a few takers.

Quite a few cool vehicles made it to the venue to spectate like this beautiful 41 Ford Truck .I thought it looked like my truck's long lost brother.

Also they don't come much cooler than a 32 Roadster and even the sun was shining.

I love this Fordson so hence another photo.

A few crazy souls line up to give their driveline a thrashing!

This A struggled to get em smoking, but on a couple of attempts later ( I haven't got photo evidence) it managed to really get em smoking good style.

Beautiful Chevy Truck fried them hides for our entertainment, brave soul I wouldn't do it in mine in case of damage, as if I damaged mine it would have to stay damaged for a long time as I couldn't afford to fix it.

Rays Rods Plymouth did the best burnouts of the day.

Or was it Wobbly Bobs?

There were plenty more crazy people willing to thrash their cars/Vans/Trucks/Rods and Customs I just didn't get any good photos of any more sorry

After the madness it was off back to camp.

On the Saturday it is our ritual to get a Chinese take away, we had about 1/2hr to kill after the Go-kart track so a cool cider on route back was what the doctor ordered to wash down the wind pipes full of rubber and it did that quite nicely thank you.

Saturdays entertainment was a pretty good disco for a disco that is and an excellent band that just finished of a fantastic Day, for me, well done to all involved it was one of the better days I have had at Drayton Cheers