Well, safe and sound back home this a/m after a 6 day trip to the U/K, what a
experience and what a truly beautiful place to see. Arrived on Tuesday a/m
and meet John McCartney for 2 days of driving the beautifull English
countryside and the many sites that T/R had during it's many years of
production, Jonmac is very big history man and explained each and every site
we visited with great detail, we drove all the many road test sites that the
factory used for many years, what a trip this was driving the same roads they
tested all their cars over, the very small English Villages hidden along the
back roads, the "Abbeys" and churches dating to the 9th century and he
explained each in great detail, the bombed-out churches and factorys from the
WWll raids, the landmarks he took me to you will not find even on a
professionally guided tour of the countryside, what a 2 day traveling
experience I had with this very keen person, if you are ever planning a trip
to the U/K, my best advice is contact Jonmac and explore this drive, it's a
experience you will never forget, and the driver is quite good at handling
these tiny roads that our cars were designed for at speed quite well, this I
can assure you, thanks Jonmac you really made it all worth while. We toured
the "Sports-Six" clubs facilities at "Market-Harbour", the motorcycle museum
in Birmingham, the "Auto Museum" in Coventry and finally the "BMHT" at Gaydon,
this is a must-see place, the tour guide was really tested in his knowledge of
cars by this group of 14 guys who knew their cars rather well but the guide
held up very well, the archives which is open for all to sit down read and
make copies of is a must do, the newspaper and manuscripts are unreal to be
able to sit and read, one day is really not enough and finally the parts show,
we had vendors passes so we were there for the set-up day on Saturday as well
as 2 hours before opening on Sunday, so many vendors and so many people it is
really hard to get around in such a small space, lots of good buys if you have
the time to bargain, but most vendors will not take the time as they have a
large crowd of buyers and not bargain hunters, not quite as much NOS parts as
I expected, but plenty of used parts vendors, I think our group bought 6 O/D
units alone, needles to say we visited many fine "pubs" and there are plenty
of them around, it's a trip well worth the $$$ and time, especially with air
fares so low right now, and lastly the only bad experience that I had each and
every day was those "DAMN" English "ROUNDABOUTS", only got lost everytime I
entered one and had a near accident in everyone, I hated those darn things.
Great time, great people. "FT"
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