We made it to Rustival!!
(this old man with thinning greying hair persuaded my daughter to take a selfie with him lol (after asking her how to do it
))
Rustival was a new car show organised by youtubers 'Furious Driving' 'I drive a classic' and 'hubnut' (the last of which I hadn't come across before, but I've been watching furious driving for a few years) and hosted at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon.
When I saw it advertised again in early Feb, I thought it looked like it could be quite fun, but was uhmming and ahhing about it as the car had just started making that clacking noise.
Emily persuaded me in an ironic 'will you take me to mount splashmore?' kind of way -
'Dad, I want to go the the rustival, I want to got the the rustival...' In the end I said sod it, it'll be fine and booked the tickets. Great value at £17 for the two of us including entry to the British Motor Museum.
It was very well organised, our group were told to arrive 'from 10am' we got there at 10:08 having left at 7:30, and there was no queuing at all, some very experienced marshalls directed us and we were parked up in a matter of minutes. My brother also came all the way from Fishguard in West Wales, 4-1/2 hours, so he arrived about 1pm in his S80 (that used to be mine)
It was an anything goes show, pre war to modern. I'd say there was 15-20% modern (to me, anything from 2001 on) out of the around 1000 cars there, so easily 800 what I would call 'retro' or classics there. We started at the back, and worked our way along each row stopping at anything that caught our eye. For me, I was attracted by a lot of what me and my mates had as teenagers - Mk2 Cavalier, Peugeot 205 gti, Citroen BX's, Volvo 480 (all volvos of course!) and I also have a serious wish to own some pre-80's american metal - there was a gorgeous Plymouth Fury there driven by a very young couple (20's I guess, fair play!) that I took a load of pictures of.
It took us until about 2pm ish to get round everything in the car park before we even touched the museum. There really was something for everyone and plenty for us!
The car ran faultlessly, and it seems to have fixed itself! No sign of the clacking exhaust manifold so I'm minded to leave those studs well alone for a bit longer.
And my word, was it better on the motorway on the new tyres! I don't think the old ones were actually round...
Up the M5 to 11a, then across the cotswolds to get there, then after the show we visited my sister who lives about half an hour away (on some utterly awful condition roads, I ended up straddling the white lines when it was clear and slowing to a crawl when not in order to avoid the worst of the ruts and potholes) for a pub tea before leaving there about 9pm and getting home at 11:25, with pretty much bang on 250 miles done.
A long day but well worth it, and Emily says she really enjoyed it, which is great as I was worried she might have got bored being a car nerd with me.
Got talking to a nice guy from a club called 'Nordik Rides', asked us to go to a meet up in Derbeyshire at the end of April. Seriously considering it, I might well get persuaded
Obligatory Volvo Content. There were a few 740 estates, but aside from 'furious driving's' E reg, mine was the only 740 saloon there.
I think I've lost a few volvo pics between my phone and here, but enough to give you a taste.
Nordik Rides convoy:
480 with no rust on the rear arches:
I covet this blue 144!
I think this is only the second Volvo 66 I've seen in real life:
Had a lazy morning today and watched a few walkarounds from various people on youtube. One guy said he ddin't think there was much there to look at, but I guess he came to the wrong kind of show?
Thoroughly recommended from us, anywhow.
After a trip to see Mum this afternoon I gave the car a quick swoosh over to remove 250 miles of salt.