[Nobbc] [Fwd: Call for entries to the Marin Sonoma Concours d'Elegance May 17th 2009]

[G. Mugele]

I like Rich's thinking here.   About 1995 or 1996 the Land Rover
contingent invaded the Hayward British Field Meet.  Easily the
greatest marque representation by multiple hundreds of percents, the
self-proclaimed Lazy-Bugger crowd showed up early, about a dozen and a
half strong.  NONE of the Land Rovers was concours prepared and about
half had spent the prior afternoon off-roading in some seriously muddy
terrain.  One, the muddiest by far, lost it's clutch on the way to the
meet, just as it was ascending the hill to the site; so it was towed
in by one of the others.   There were some raised eyebrows although I
couldn't hear any dismissive sniffs over the din of the drive train on
my '72 Series III 88" SW.  The group is most congenial and given to
spontaneous campsite pot-luck feasts... often offering amazing fare,
such as campfire prepared paella.  So the group erected the parachute
canopy and set up camp. It looked far more like a safari than a car
show.  BTW we're not talking about Range Rovers or any of those other
sissy cars produced in Sollihull... these were all proper slab sided
aluminum skinned Land Rovers.

It was quite the scene and the Land Rovers seemed to be getting more
attention than the pristine Jags and even more than the '52 Aston
Martin.  One of the Dormobiles ( a special camper version of a Land
Rover) got the peoples choice award I believe.  My favorite moment was
while they were announcing the winners over the PA.  The announcer was
trying to direct the public to the display of Jags and Damliers when
he said that the Jags could be found just beyond the Land Rover
display and then explained that the Land Rover area was the part that
looked like a Ugandan Refugee Camp.   I was at the other side of the
show looking at the Loti and heard the roaring cheer go up from under
the parachute.

What may be even more startling about that is that we were all invited
back the following year, despite the whining from some semi-disgusted
owners of some really gorgeous cars.

I think spirit and a willingness to have fun is most important.

BTW Thanks for allowing a tall car to join in last Saturday's fun.

Gerry


On Nov 22, 2008, at 7:50 AM, rlmossholder at comcast.net wrote:

> I think we should go as a group, invade the show with a smattering
> of non-original cars, and an air of sophistication replete with the
> attitude of a Liverpool rugby team and a taste for mayhem!. We could
> be the second coming of the  British Invasion!
>
> ...or we could go and just have a good time
>
> Cheers,
> Rich

G. Mugele
mewgull at mugele.net

*** Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
  -- Niels Bohr