BXs en route to/from Le Mans

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Mon Jun 16, 2008 10:03 pm

Saw just a half-dozen native BXs returning from France today after the Le Mans 24 (but considerably more on the way out in mainly rural locations).

Otherwise the exotic rolling-stock count since Thursday has been absolutely sky-high. Saw 10 XMs in a day on Sunday, after encountering a DS and Panhard in the car park at 1.45 a.m., but of course that's only a fraction of the story. One white BX break as part of the "Croix Blanc Secouristes" setup at the circuit, and the odd one in the car park.

On the circuit, the hearing in my r/h ear was repeatedly assaulted by the Corvette team in a way only previously matched briefly by the Buzzcocks in 1977.

To home and to bed - over and out.

tom · Post by **tom** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:33 pm

And the De Tomaso Guara prototype and the Nobles and all the other stuff as well, the seven red Reliant Robins and the Routemaster bus.
The oik in Daddy's Aston (Who arrived behind us by several minutes

) And the thoughtfully placed TVR shaped route markers on the hard shoulders. Four of them. Great fun. Classic Le Mans on between 11th and 13th of July. I'll probably be there for most of the weekend.

mountainmanUK · Post by **mountainmanUK** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 7:40 pm

Classic Le Mans on between 11th and 13th of July. I'll probably be there for most of the weekend.

Heathen!!!

I sincerely hope that a good percentage of members from this (BXClub) Forum, will be in Huntingdon that weekend, at the CCC National!

(Though given the option of LeMans or Huntingdon, I'd probably choose the former myself!)

Dave

tom · Post by **tom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 5:50 pm

I would rather cube a Presidential SM and drop it on their AGM from a great height than support any enterprise involving the CCC. No, Le Mans'll do just fine.

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:43 pm

Odd. They speak very highly of you.

tom · Post by **tom** » Tue Jun 24, 2008 7:53 pm

So they should, having taken my money, given me nothing for it (throwing me out three days later without a refund when I asked what I was getting for their stiffish subscription,) and then using the following Citroenian's editorial (Which I had paid for but did not receive), to perpetrate a thinly disguised libel about people who abuse the club by asking where the value for money, hard earned is. I hope that it has changed; I hear that they now use DTP in place of the manual typesetting that was then costing a great deal of members' money to effect but as I had no opportunity to make my point to the wider membership of the CCC, I have no wish to be a part of their organisation.

Post by **docchevron** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:29 am

jonkw wrote:I have got to post something here after I read that, but I'm not quite sure what it is, I'm still thinking!

Plastic aeroplanes?

JonKW wrote: I am friendly with Adrian Chapman who looks after their website. In fact, I met him on Saturday at Louis Barbour's leaving do, and I told Adrian that we would would be at the National with some 16v's and a selection of BX's, and the guy was genuinely pleased about that.

Adrian is a nice bloke, no arguement from me. And I'm sure he actually is pleased a contingent of ale drinking beardies are going to arrive en masse in kwality Citroën's. Last year the BXC boys had such a "good time" our antics made it into the magazine! All very politley worded of course, apparentley according to Brian Drummond I believe it was, the BX boys are tribalistic and had a party going on well into the night.

Which should have read "we got really pissed, played loud music, had a laugh, actually enjoyed ourselves and fixed cars, then got more

and drove a H van round the field whilst about 5000 times over the drink drive limit"!

JonKW wrote:Part of the CCC problem was that you must own a DS or a Traction, and that is how 2cvgb came about in 1978 or whatever, as a break away. I'm not convinced that is so much the case today,

It is the same today. If you raise the point on the CCC's very stagnant forum all the big guns pop out of the woodwork to say the CCC is all inclusive and they love the BX and isn't it great we all have them yadda yadda yadda, but it's still "the old boys brigade" and BX's are still unfavored. Tractions and D's still rule the roost.
Things will take a while longer to change in that area of the CCC I think.

JonKW wrote: TBH I am not a member,

I am, although I do rather wonder why sometimes.
It's still pricey, and whilst without doubt the mag is better for the revamp and the DTP, it's still by far the most expensive car related club I am a member of.

JonKW wrote: BXC is also an "enfant terrible" but we do have a lot to contribute.

I'd take that a stage further Jon.
We are the future, and quite frankley, we fuckin' rule.
The spirit of cammorardary, willingness to help and technical ability the BX boys have is unparralled.
Ok, so there's "D Technical weekends" and the such, but not many D, SM, Traction etc owners actually get their hands dirty, know fucking everything about thier cars or travel all over the country at no charge to fix other peoples D's, SM's, Tractions etc.
The BX community is a broad church, and thats what makes us unique, and the best.

JonKW wrote: What you have is the website and this forum, for which there is no charge. TBH It costs the princely sum of £41.12 a month to host this and 12 other sites on a dedicated server, so I will not ask anyone for that !! Jim hosts the database side of it for the forum, and he is a man like me. We do offer (again, for no fee) branded merchandise like the T shirts, teddy bears, clocks etc for BX people, and offer free carriage. So we offer most Club Benefits without any membership fee.

For which we say Cheers dudes!

JonKW wrote: you can say basically what you like...

I do all the time, no one listens though........

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:42 am

Doc ambiguously wrote

We are the future, and quite frankley, we fuckin' rule.

Bring a megaphone to Huntingdon and let 'em hear the message!

just with sheer numbers we could 'ave 'em. Whoever 'they' are.. but we'll 'ave 'em anyway..

mountainmanUK · Post by **mountainmanUK** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:00 am

Phewwww!
Me being the one who initially brought up the subject of the CCC in this thread (about half a dozen posts up), I was thinking thatr I may need to apologise to everyone for opening a can of worms!

Needless to say, the usual adult mentality and broad-mindedness of this grand bunch of "beer-swilling, bearded weirdoes" has worked perfectly, and now some of the newer, less-informed members (myself included!) have a better understanding of what went on between Tom and the CCC.

Fair play to everyone, we are all attempting to achieve the same aims, keeping an odd, potentially rust-ridden, quirky-mechanically, very weird but beautiful piece of French auto engineering, actually ON the road. Contrary to most of the traditional CCC owners' vehicles, I suspect that the vast majority of our Bx's are in daily use, and not just brought out for Bank Holidays and sunny Sunday jaunts.

Yes...we are an odd bunch, made up of people from all different walks of UK life (with the odd Aussie, Kiwi or Euro-based also included! Hi Todd!

), but we all have one common denominator.....the BX.

Personally, I really look forward to the CCC National, the Stratford Meet, etc., etc. where we actually get the chance to meet up with the great people we spend the rest of the year chin-wagging with from a distance on this Forum!
Oh....and a bit of beer-swilling and loud music for anyone that wants it!

See y'all in about 3 weeks chaps! (Except Tom...whose reasons I now completely understand and appreciate!)

Dave

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:52 am

Just my two penn'orth, and talking more broadly about how the Internet has changed things than this particular situation... The CCC has not kept up with the times. I'd far rather have this forum than a glossy magazine as it keeps me entertained every day, not just once a month. Added bonus: it's free (even though I would be perfectly happy to put something towards the running costs: splitting Jon's £40/month between the active members would amount to very little).

A friend of mine is on the committee of the Rover P6 Club and he's got a great idea, which they will probably adopt soon - an internet-only membership. It will be cheaper than the regular membership, and internet members will get the usual club benefits, access to the forum, and the magazine delivered by email as a .pdf rather than on paper. Cue savings for the club and savings for the members.

Now, I like reading about DSs and Tractions, even though I probably won't ever own one, so if the CCC offered this I would consider re-joining. As it is, I won't bother - for me, it's not worth it. A subscription to Practical Classics is cheaper, for heaven's sake, and that's a proper magazine written by professionals.

This method of interaction has led me to meet-ups and to real friendships, not to mention technical help and parts from the generosity of strangers: something that I can't see happening through the letters page of a magazine. Long live the Internet!

To be fair, the CCC did put in a lot of effort on the website a couple of years ago... but last time I looked it hadn't been updated for ages, and the forum was dead quiet.

I used to enjoy the local pub meets when I was living in Kent, but I don't think they're going any more. I'm on Syd Tombleson's mailing list for local events down here, so I still get to meet the people and go to shows.

To be honest the only thing I miss is Adrian Chapman's very funny columns - let's get him on here!