I recently attended the 10th? annual
Vintage Fall Festival at Lime Rock, CT.
I attended only Saturday (August 31) which
was devoted to time trials.
I have attended about 5 times in the past, the
most recent being 2 years ago.
What struck me was the fact that there were
very few british cars there. In general
attendance was very muted compared to previous
years. In the past well over half of the cars
in the parking lot were "interesting" - Jag XK120/150/XKE,
MG TC/TD/TF/A/B/C/Midget, Triumph TR3/4/250/6/GT6/Spitfire,
Austin-Healey 100/3000/Sprite, Alfas, Porsches, Ferrari, Lotus,
TVR, Cobras,... you get the idea.
This year maybe 20% of the parking lot cars were
"interesting" - it looked like a local Saturday at the
mall.
I can think of a few reasons for this.
1) People were afraid of the effect hurricane Edouard
would have and didn't come.
2) Vintage racing has been over-hyped and people are
getting bored.
3) Many schools started before Labor Day and therefore
people with families were busy.
4) Everyone was working on their car.
5) The "sponsor" of the VFF was Dodge, not BMW as in
previous years.
6) There have become too many "gatherings" of various
types and people are getting bored.
Anyway, I was disappointed, having travelled from TX,
expecting to see some fine (and not so fine) machinery
in the glittering CT sunshine.
Hope next year is better.
greg
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