Burley Vintage Steam & Vehicle Show - October 1, 2023

[iamsuperdan]

Was just ion the UK for three weeks, and managed to catch a few car shows while there.

One of the places we stayed was a little village in The New Forest called Burley. Hotbed of witchcraft and witch activity. But I digress.

Our first day there we happened to stumble across the annual vintage steam and vehicle show. 

It was a gloomy day, but no rain.

Was cool attending a carshow and seeing completely different cars than what I'm used to.

And as usual, some awesome stuff in the parking lot too.

 

 

 

 

I freaking loved this car. So much want.

 

I love, love, LOVE Land Rovers. Seriously looking into importing one.

This one was for sale too.

 

 

Towing with a Triumph!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Capri was dead mint.

 

 

 

 

[iamsuperdan]

 

 

I have no idea what this is, but it was cool.

 

 

 

And I really like seeing cars with a story.

[iamsuperdan]

[iamsuperdan]

I know it's just a crappy old farm truck, but I want it.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Cool stuff, lots of which was still in daily use when I was in England in the '70s.

Hope you get an old Land Rover if you really want one.

Convert it to electronic ignition (if it hasn't been done already), and it'll run forever. They're built like tanks from superior material (a lot of superior material where it counts, like big bearings and shafts, etc.), and as reliable as a brick with the usual fluid-and-filter-change maintenance...assuming it hasn't been abused and patched by knuckle-draggers.

We have a client who brings in sorry ones from South Africa that have had the "used car lot" treatment...cheap shiny paint and undercoating covering the rust and bondo...and most of even those rode-hard examples come back mechanically without too terribly much cost in parts.

But if you don't want to go broke keeping one running, stay away from anything with EFI (the later V8 vehicles), self-leveling suspension, etc.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[iamsuperdan]

1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Cool stuff, lots of which was still in daily use when I was in England in the '70s.

Hope you get an old Land Rover if you really want one.

Convert it to electronic ignition (if it hasn't been done already), and it'll run forever. They're built like tanks from superior material (a lot of superior material where it counts, like big bearings and shafts, etc.), and as reliable as a brick with the usual fluid-and-filter-change maintenance...assuming it hasn't been abused and patched by knuckle-draggers.

We have a client who brings in sorry ones from South Africa that have had the "used car lot" treatment...cheap shiny paint and undercoating covering the rust and bondo...and most of even those rode-hard examples come back mechanically without too terribly much cost in parts.

But if you don't want to go broke keeping one running, stay away from anything with EFI (the later V8 vehicles), self-leveling suspension, etc.

 

The green "Joseph Dovey" steam truck pictured was driving around Burley for most of the week. Was pretty neat to see it on public roads and being driven. Not exactly fast, but still. 

 

I'm not sure I'll go back to the 70s or later for an LR, but will see. I'm leaning towards a diesel engine example from the late 80s/early 90s. Kind of like that last pic, but the wagon version. I've been in touch with a couple of people I met over there, so will see. I actually managed to attend a Land Rover Spares show. Basically a huge swap meet for LR parts. Got my brain working overtime.

 

[iamsuperdan]

2 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

 

But if you don't want to go broke keeping one running, stay away from anything with EFI (the later V8 vehicles), self-leveling suspension, etc.

 

Nope, I want a basic crappy old farm truck! None of that fancy stuff.

Would be happy with this.

 

[Bugatti Fan]

Dan,did you get to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu as that museum is located near to the New Forest? Lots of interesting exhibits to see there.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to the UK. Our local vehicle shows will certainly be full of vehicles that you probably don't normally get to see, and you get to talk to the owners. One of your photos showed an Austin 3 Litre that reminded me of the one my late father in law owned and travelled in many times. When he bought it, I got to buy his Wolseley 6/110 from him. It had very comfortable all leather seats and burr walnut trim. They used to get called 'Poor mens Rolls Royces' over here. Of all the cars I owned it was the most comfortable after a long drive, and had that lovely smell of leather as soon as you opened the doors.

[iamsuperdan]

2 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Dan,did you get to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu as that museum is located near to the New Forest? Lots of interesting exhibits to see there.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to the UK. Our local vehicle shows will certainly be full of vehicles that you probably don't normally get to see, and you get to talk to the owners. One of your photos showed an Austin 3 Litre that reminded me of the one my late father in law owned and travelled in many times. When he bought it, I got to buy his Wolseley 6/110 from him. It had very comfortable all leather seats and burr walnut trim. They used to get called 'Poor mens Rolls Royces' over here. Of all the cars I owned it was the most comfortable after a long drive, and had that lovely smell of leather as soon as you opened the doors.

Yup! Did that on day 2 of my trip. Happened to coincide with the MG 100 celebration, so I have a ridiculous number of pics of MGs. And of course the museum pics. And the Abbey, and the estate.

 

The carshows there are so much different than here. For one, it's mostly cars I never see here. Second, it was a cloudy day that was threatening rain, and there were still a couple of hundred cars. Around here, if it looks like rain, people won't bring their cars to a show. I guess they melt if they get wet? If it's sunny, there will be a few hundred at most shows. If it looks like rain, maybe 50. I attended a show in May. Last year was sunny and had just over 100 vehicles. This year was cloudy and chilly, and didn't even have 20 show up. And half of those left early.

I talked to a lot of people, especially the ones that had a story with their cars, where they could talk about the car's history. You don't see that much here. The closest you see are Corvette guys trying to explain why their car is super rare. "Look, it's the only yellow convertible with automatic, handling package, and rain sensing wipers that was built in July of 2016. It's a 1 of 1!"

[Bugatti Fan]

Different culture over here Dan. Because our weather is always quite changeable, it never puts people off taking their cars to or going to shows.

Did you make it to any other motor museums over here? The Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset is to the West of where you were in the New Forest Area, and there is Brooklands Museum, near Weybridge in Surrey, just south of London too, East of where you were staying. Both very interesting. The Brooklands one has been featured in a TV series named 'Secrets of the Motor Museum' and we have another TV series named 'Bangers and Cash' that is about a Yorkshire Car and Automobilia  auctioneer who gets just about anything and everything coming through the door that I reckon you would find really interesting. A far different auction experience to the auction houses dealing in cars for the mega rich. If you can get them on your TV they will be well worth a look. I have seen programmes like 'Chasing Classic Cars' overt here and 'Jay Leno's Garage' that are a different experience altogether.

[stitchdup]

If you really want an old land rover everything is available to just build yourself a new one from scratch.  All you really need to do is figure out which series and wheelbase you want with the knowledge that the new parts have all been given modern rust proofing. If you can build a model kit then a land rover will be easy enough. Really the only reason to buy an old land rover is to get the registration number to put on a lot of new bits (but to save the registration you need to swap bits over a few years. if you swap bits all at once you lose the registration number as its no longer the same vehicle, but doing it over a length of time you can get away with it. The best british car show is car sos, they rebuild some right snotters

[iamsuperdan]

5 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Different culture over here Dan. Because our weather is always quite changeable, it never puts people off taking their cars to or going to shows.

Did you make it to any other motor museums over here? The Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset is to the West of where you were in the New Forest Area, and there is Brooklands Museum, near Weybridge in Surrey, just south of London too, East of where you were staying. Both very interesting. The Brooklands one has been featured in a TV series named 'Secrets of the Motor Museum' and we have another TV series named 'Bangers and Cash' that is about a Yorkshire Car and Automobilia  auctioneer who gets just about anything and everything coming through the door that I reckon you would find really interesting. A far different auction experience to the auction houses dealing in cars for the mega rich. If you can get them on your TV they will be well worth a look. I have seen programmes like 'Chasing Classic Cars' overt here and 'Jay Leno's Garage' that are a different experience altogether.

Yeah, I spent a day at Brooklands, and a little bit of time across the road at Mercedes Benz World. We were staying in Chertsey for a few days, so were only about 10-15 minutes from there. Brooklands was awesome. Really enjoyed the London Bus Museum portion. And did the Concorde experience too,which was neat.

3 hours ago, stitchdup said:

If you really want an old land rover everything is available to just build yourself a new one from scratch.  All you really need to do is figure out which series and wheelbase you want with the knowledge that the new parts have all been given modern rust proofing. If you can build a model kit then a land rover will be easy enough. Really the only reason to buy an old land rover is to get the registration number to put on a lot of new bits (but to save the registration you need to swap bits over a few years. if you swap bits all at once you lose the registration number as its no longer the same vehicle, but doing it over a length of time you can get away with it. The best british car show is car sos, they rebuild some right snotters

Wandering around that spares event, I had that exact thought. That I could literally buy everything I needed to build one from scratch. Frames, suspensions, drivetrain, every body part, every interior part. Getting it all home on the plane might have been challenging! 

[Bugatti Fan]

Brooklands was brilliant when I visited it about 2 years before covid hit. They were very accommodating to me as I had arranged with them before my visit to research the Napier Railton for my scratch built model. They let me have full access to the car to photograph every nook and cranny and take measurements.

There are a couple of pics of my model in 'Let'x see some scratch built things' on this forum.

Chertsey where you were staying allowed short trips into London, so I guess you might have done that a few times? The old AC car factory was at Thames Ditton, and very close to Chertsey.

Lots to see and do in the capitall. Such a variety of museums, galleries theatres and well known sights besides the more commercial attractions

Edited October 19, 2023 by Bugatti Fan

[iamsuperdan]

1 hour ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Brooklands was brilliant when I visited it about 2 years before covid hit. They were very accommodating to me as I had arranged with them before my visit to research the Napier Railton for my scratch built model. They let me have full access to the car to photograph every nook and cranny and take measurements.

There are a couple of pics of my model in 'Let'x see some scratch built things' on this forum.

Chertsey where you were staying allowed short trips into London, so I guess you might have done that a few times? The old AC car factory was at Thames Ditton, and very close to Chertsey.

Lots to see and do in the capitall. Such a variety of museums, galleries theatres and well known sights besides the more commercial attractions

No, we didn't head into London at all. We stayed in Chertsey because it was pretty close to Heathrow. Our flight left at around 9am, so we wanted to stay relatively close to the airport that last night so that we didn't have to get up too early! Well...was still pretty early, but if we were still in Burley or Boscastle, we would have had to be up much earlier!

[Tom Geiger]

Great pictures!  Interesting to see cars you never see on our side of the pond.

When I was a kid I lived on a US Army post in Germany. We had car shows which were a mix of local German cars and what Americans brought over.  

[Bugatti Fan]

Trust you had a great stay over here in the UK Dan, and a good flight back to the USA or Canada wherever you live.

Did you get to visit any other places over here that you have not mentioned already?

[iamsuperdan]

8 hours ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Trust you had a great stay over here in the UK Dan, and a good flight back to the USA or Canada wherever you live.

Did you get to visit any other places over here that you have not mentioned already?

Was an awesome couple of weeks!

My parents moved here to Canada in '68 after they got married. Growing up, we'd go back every few years to visit. And then once my sis and I were moved out, my parents went every year to visit. 

I hadn't been back since 1990.

Mum is getting up there and isn't sure how much longer she'll be able to fly. Her sis is 81 and has dementia. The rest of my aunts and uncles are all getting older too. So we decided to go back while everyone was still there, and while mum could.

 

Stayed in Beenham for a few days while visiting family near Reading. Then a few days in Burley, visiting family and friends in Lyndhurst. Then a few days in Boscastle, where my uncle and aunt are living. Back to the Southampton area, staying in Chilworth. Lots of family here, so we spent quite a bit of time here. Then Chertsey to round out the trip.

 

Made sure to do a lot of tourist stuff too.

• Beaulieu
• Stonehenge
• Port Isaac. Mum was excited for these, as she really likes the Doc Martin tv show, which is filmed here.
• Durdle Door
• Lulworth Castle
• Tintagel Castle
• Drago Castle
• Corfe Castle
• Went on the Hythe Ferry, just to say we did.
• Went to the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, which was interesting.
• Did a lot of exploring in towns and villages, just looking at things.

 

Found a couple of good hobby shops of course!

AC Models in Eastleigh had a nice selection. Found a couple of kits I've never seen here.

Addlestone Model Centre was great. Found a couple of more kits here. Again, things that would be somewhat hard to find here.

 

 

[Kenmojr]

Some very rare and cool cars...Thanks for sharing....

[Bugatti Fan]

Dan, I know Beenham  quite well where you stayed. I was born and brought up in Reading and when I got married I moved to Newbury. Beenhsm is sort of between the two a little North of the A4. All that area was my neck of the woods until my job moved me to the Bedford area back in the early 70's. West Berkshire is a nice area of the country to be staying and there are a number of nice villages around the Beenham area. Back in the day I used to play football in a local league team and have played at most of the villages in the area at some time.

Looking at your list of places visited you certainly got around a bit during your two weeks. I too have visited most of them over the years. If your mum likes Port Isaac in the Doc Martin series the village is also featured in a film Fisherman''s Friends that was released a couple of years ago It s a heart warming story about how a group of fishermen in the village were discovered for their sea shanty singing. I think you and your mum might enjoy that film too.

I enjoyed visiting Canada a couple of times in the past. Once on the East coast on a cruise up from Boston to Quebec, and the second time the West and did a coach tour out of Vancouver around the Rockies and did the inland passage, Vancouver Island and Victoria. Very memorable.

Glad you enjoyed your stay in the UK.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Bugatti Fan