[This bounced once... apologies if this is the second time you've received it]
Dale Cook writes:
> Well here it is British Cars Day in Brookline and I'm stuck here at
> my terminal where I've been for three straight days. Why do these
> work panics come up at the worst possible time? I hope someone will
> paint us a glowing picture of all the great cars I missed. Maybe
> I'll just have to take a long weekend and go for a ride!!
>
> - Dale "stuck in Woodville" Cook
Sorry, Dale, I don't have time to write a long report on British Cars Day,
but here is (hopefully) a quickie response.
Weather and getting there:
The drive up from Connecticut via I-95 was heavy drizzle all up
until about Providence R.I., then it was just cloudy. We eventually
found Larz Anderson Park (only got lost a little bit and got back on the
right track at the next attempt), the time was just about 11.00am. Bloody
hell, it was HOT, HAZY, HUMID. Later, the sun broke out. At least it wasn't
raining.
Britcars list people:
I kept a list of folks I wanted to find and meet. This was my only
disappointment on the day. I hardly found anyone! The *only* person I
found was Duane Walzer with his beautiful red Austin Healey 100-4. (Hello,
Duane!). Actually, the first time I found Duane he was talking with two
other people. I didn't want to interupt, so I went away and came back.
Duane told me that one of the people he had been talking with when I first
went by was Mike Tobin. Darn! I saw you Mike, sorry I missed you. (You're
right, Dale, we *badly* need a way to identify SOL-ers at these thingies...)
I found Bob Leger's pretty Jasmine Yellow TR-250. But no Bob. My
four year old threw up about 50 feet from Bob's car... I looked to see if
Bob was there (how embarassing...), but still no Bob. The barbeque was
about 20 yards behind Bob's car and the whole time we waited in that *LONG*
line, Bob still was not to be seen. Later I went back. Still no Bob. I
asked a gentleman in a black t-shirt with a nice blue Austin Healey next to
Bob's car if he was Bob Leger. "Nope". "Had he seen him?" "Yep". "Do you
remember what he was wearing?" "Nope". I went back to Bob's car a few more
times with no success. I summised Bob had parked it for the day and gone
off somewhere. Later, at the trophy ceremony I returned and Bob's car had
gone. Oh well. At least I took a photo of Bob's car. I also took a photo
of Duane's car.
I was looking for someone to fit Dale's description. Firstly Dale
had promised to wear a dayglo yellow hat... there were a few of them around!
Secondly Dale describes himself as 6'1", 250lbs. I never did find you, Dale,
and now I know why! Too bad.
I meant to stop by the Registration Tent and ask for Tom Watt. I
looked across at the tent a few times while waiting in the lunch queue. I
never did get back to the Tent. Too busy looking at cars! Apologies to
Tom, that was my fault.
Other persons on my list were John Lupien who said he'd wear a
white Jaguar t-shirt (and so did 100 other people...) and a hat with many
colours... and he had a beard. Sorry John, I didn't find you. Ed
Devinney, but I had no descriptions on how to recognise him. And ditto
for Rob Rimbold. I did check out every owner's name (if there was one) on
all of the cars... just in case I could recognise one. I didn't. Too bad.
By about 2.30pm during/after trophy giving many of the cars had
left or were leaving. We left about 2.45pm.
Well this is getting long already.... anyone else want to venture on the
cars? All I have time for right now is to say: FANTASTIC! It was a
great day for British Cars. There were allsorts there. I loved them all.
There were so many I was almost (choke...) blase about many of them...
sacrilege! Its hard to say which were my favourites. I'm an Aston Martin
lover... so I may be biased towards them (there were four). I also loved a
beautiful example of Jag 3.8 MkII. I could go on and on. As I said to
Duane, many of the cars looked brand new, straight from the factory. A lot
of owners have obviously put a lot of time, money and love into their cars.
I was in love with many of the cars, its hard to mention any specific ones.
Well, gotta run. Probably I'll write more on the cars later.
Sorry you missed it, Dale. Twas a GREAT show. Nice to meet you, Duane!
I can't wait for next year already!
- Garry
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