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Gaydon 75th

To: <pgillis@cosmedia.ie>
Subject: Gaydon 75th
From: "jonmac" <jonmac@ndirect.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 19:24:59 +0100
Cc: <triumphs@Autox.Team.Net>
>Coming from Ireland as I do where we get very excited at
>the prospect of over twenty triumphs gathered at one time. 
>Attending the show at Gaydon was Triumph Heaven for me
>and my brother. I have just been reviewing the half hour video 
>I shot and it is fantastic, my stab at the amount of cars in
>the grounds (excluding the campers) would be between 3 and 4
>thousand and every one a Triumph.
>We flew over at 7am were on site in our rented car at 10 and left
>at 6.30 pm. Rare cars such as the Lynx, 3 Couriers, 3VC and 4VC,
>TS2 (an Irish car I might add), 

Hey, Pete - you missed the only one of two surviving Straight Eight
Dolomites!

>A standard Atlas,

Yeah, apologies on that one if the owner is a lister. My colleague, Hazel
Gore, is alleged to have had a bit of a verbal battle with the owner by
initially refusing to let him join the other cars. She later claimed she
did this because the vehicle looked too modern! (I suppose when you spend
too much time giving hot water bottles to Austin Sevens, as Hazel does)
anything is bound to look modern.

>Every triumph that has featured in Triumph World (Chris Wittors 2000 Mk1
>did it for me).In fairness to jonmac's crew they did a great job.

Praise indeed - and many thanks. We got pretty castigated by quite a number
of people for the delays in getting on site. In mitigation:
1. We didn't put the Triumphs in the main car park by the entrance for the
simple fact there were more Triumphs than available space - so they went on
the hill to nobly look down on the gathering. This was planned from the
outset and if you didn't like it - titty that is tough!
2. It would be OH SO NICE that a number of Triumph owners who had
pre-registered, pre-paid and had received their tickets had had the
foresight to have had those entry passes on display instead of arriving
with the necessary paperwork in a wallet, in the envelope with the picnic
or somewhere under the floormat or a seat. The vast majority complied with
our every wish, but those that didn't (not too many) caused one h***uva
blonge up by the main entrance.
3. Could the police, who I am informed were going to be 'on station' by
09.00 for directing main road traffic, please keep to that undertaking in
future and not arrive at sometime nearer 10.30am, only to start moaning
that BMIHT quote "couldn't hold a p*** up in a brewery" unquote.
4. Finally, anyone who wants to pay by credit card, because they left
cheque book, bankcard and cash at home, please make sure they've paid their
last credit card bill in time to get their account back in credit. It's not
BMIHT's fault if the card reader rejects the card because the account is
overdrawn beyond the credit limit and you can't buy a ticket. We'd all much
rather the guilty who fall into that category take the verbal abuse from
the general pubic waiting in the queue - and not us.

>All this aside roll on 2023!!

I'll drink to that. MANY MANY thanks to ALL of you who came from all over
the world. I don't have a Triumph car count but it was well in excess of
2000 and the visitors created a RECORD GAYDON ATTENDANCE of 5016 people in
total.
Like disc brakes on British production sports cars and fuel injection to
name but two - it was another TRIUMPH first 

- go on MG, beat that!

John Macartney
http://www.toolbox.ndirect.co.uk/plates     GIVE YOUR TRIUMPH THE "COVENTRY
LOOK"


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