BX Club at the NEC - Post-event discussion

[Dollywobbler]

Forgot to mention. A friend let me stay over the weekend and was also hosting the boss of Mehari Club Cassis. A chance to remember how little French I can recall...

Anyway, as I set off for the show on the Saturday he came out and went "ah, my first car was a BX with the digital." I almost fell over. Imagine having a BX Digit as your first car! I told him how rare they are over here. He seemed very surprised.

[Paul296]

what do you see when you look in the mirror Paul? A Maestro or a Princess?

Well, Maestro of course. I gave up all that Princess nonsense when it looked like I might be discovered (phew! close call that one )

[Vanny]

ARGH so confusing figuring out which thread in the BX Chat bit relates to an event!


Shame the FB pictures haven't made it over here! I assumed there would be more

[Caffiend]

Shame the FB pictures haven't made it over here! I assumed there would be more

I think they will now we're not depending on mobiles - photobucket being a completely hideous effing nightmare interface on phones!

I am knackered and have some CATCHING UP to do, so will post my few (I'm no photographer) in the next couple days, in the meantime, I think a beauty contest is in order.

All together now: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; (@ 58 seconds)

[Caffiend]

Damn, naughty double post - I have thanked Ian privately, but not publically for all his efforts this year to make this happen.

It was, as has already been said, a great weekend

[Paul296]

I think a beauty contest is in order.

Right, let me get this straight; Tom, Tim or Natalie Wood (when she was still breathing obviously)? I think it was just such an array of glittering alternatives that the term 'no brainer' was invented for!?

[Tim Leech]

Straight? Dont think so Paul...Tom Win hands down.

Anyway im still "buzzing" from a great few days, DTR is tucked away dry although its still packed!

Vive la BX!

[Tim Leech]

NB. For a first outing we did well! Same time next year?

[citsncycles]

A few more pics - here's the stand:








And they asked for drip trays to be used - I thought that somehow a drip try just wouldn't cut it:




Picture edit - still getting my head round the new Photobucket

[Caffiend]

Jeez, that's a bloody awful photo of me *winces*. Never mind.

Anyway, the story ...

Thursday - Very pleasant break in the journey to Tim's via MK, thanks Mickey for the cuppa, most welcome. Arrived lunchtime-ish, Tim and Tom (who had already arrived) started on the flapjack before I'd taken my first sip of coffee, which was mildly alarming, but Mark luckily arrived sooner than initially expected so we could head off to the NEC for setup. Traffic was appalling: the site is a labyrinth and thoroughly hideously laid out, although once inside, I must say that everything seemed to run like clockwork - vast numbers of people throughout the weekend leading to inevitable queues at food and tea outlets, but very little waiting time at entry and exit points or for loos (or maybe that's just because I was outnumbered about 19:1 most of the time) and all the staff knew what was where, about shuttle buses to car parks, etc.

I got very lost looking for the stand owing to the peculiarity of all the maps facing in the same direction - OK, so "I am there", but which bloody way do I go?! Called Ian, then worked my way back to the stand, reminding myself sternly "stand set up first, shiny things later" (luscious green Jag, hmmmm). A little bit of shuffling until we were all happy with the layout, and a couple of hours of cleaning and polishing the cars (Tim and Tom) and the end result was an absolutely super job, *especially* given our lack of experience and limited (compared with say, the Austin Healey club) lack of resources. Let Tim have a go driving the TZD so I had an excuse to snuggle up to Mike and Tom in the back (no seatbelts required, we were cosy!). Dropped Mike off at his hotel, picked up the parasol from Vanny's then went to McDonalds.

Traffic bad again on Friday morning, but made it to the stand before lunchtime. Just. Why do motorway signs lie? 'Delays possible', pah, 'Delays inevitable' would be much more truthful. At least the queue wasn't boring, plenty of interesting old cars to look at. Once we got there, the show was busier than I expected for a weekday. Fortunately turned out that Mike Brewer could mostly be "tuned out" with only occasional violent episodes of wanting to bitchslap him to Outer Mongolia. Lots of interest in the cars and only about 7 minutes before we all learned that the first thing anyone who stopped would say was a variation on "I had one of these ..." Plenty of opportunity to have a wander about, which I took full advantage of, as everyone who approached the stand appeared to run away as soon as I went to talk to them. I'm not that scary am I? Back to Tim's to collect Paul, then all off to the pub for some good value grub before returning to get some sleep.

Saturday - predictably awful traffic again, and the show was *heaving*. Which was great, because it meant we couldn't hear Mike Brewer any more. Otherwise, much the same as Friday, but busier, and a longer walk from the car park. I'd discovered the previous day that the National Concours judge for Austin Healey was doing concours judging classes at 2 pm daily, which were, apparently, so popular that they only ran on request (surprising, I would have thought they'd be quite in demand). So we trotted back to the stand for cake and fizz - and may I say that I am glad I brought flapjack, because I could not have competed with that Madeira - delicious, thanks to Eoin Sloan for arranging and his daughter for cooking it. Then back to the Austin Healey folks, for a talk from a very earnest German gentleman, who initially seemed scarily inclined to spend 10 minutes on each of the 30 items on the scoring sheet, until we tactfully made him understand that our cars are at rather the other end of the scale from prestige, and we were interested in the principles really as none of us were ever likely to own an Austin Healey. I love learning new stuff from experts who really adore their subject, don't even know how long we were there because I was so fascinated - 45 minutes or so? Anyway, back to the stand, stopping along the way to point out the finer points of an Austin Healey on some random trader's pitch. Lovely to spend some time with John (Jaba) today, although his forum avatar is quite disturbing, and catch up with Mat and meet Lana for the first time. Once the show had ended for the day, excellent Italian food in great company, never heard of Belle Italia before but would go again.

Sunday - as Ian had had to head off, he'd given me the Envelope of Responsibility with the Special Armbands of Specialness the day before, so we made a concerted effort to be *on time*, and managed it. Traffic not nearly so bad, and the day was much quieter than Saturday. People had apparently got used to the idea of there being a girl (gasp) on the stand and I had a nice chat to a guy who has a BX14 he's restoring, who will hopefully join us at some point and a few other people. Had a wander in the 'other direction' to the autojumble, then back to the stand for the rest of the day. The show closed at 5.30, and the announcement telling members of the general public to go away now, please, was largely drowned out by a chorus of horns, which Mark had discovered is an annual tradition and made sure everyone's batteries were reconnected in time to participate (see, this is why he's deputy organiser for next year. I never knew that. And I forgot to go back to the office again later when it was closed on the first check, he didn't.) We'd already craftily taken down most of our posters etc, as we didn't think there'd really be too many health and safety issues with doing that before the public had all left the halls. Cars that drive get to leave first, so we were all out by just after 6, Mark dropped me back at my car, and I was home just after 8 yesterday.

So lovely to see and spend time with everyone, and too many thank yous due to list them all and make this post even more excessively long than it already is. Really hope that I - with (more than) a little help from my friends - can do as good a job next year if we get a stand, thanks for setting it all off this year and doing most of the hard work yourself Ian, and to everyone for making this such a great few days.

[Dollywobbler]

That sums it up nicely Sandre. Lots of interest in the cars and I know Eoin spent a lot of time talking to a chap who used to run a minicab firm using BXs.

[Birotor]

"LETS DO IT AGAIN NEXT YEAR!"

[mds141]

Fantastic inaugural BXclub stand. Made all the better by those who attended and visited our stand. Had a nice run home, at one time competing with a Gilbern Invader for bassy exhaust, before remembering I had a caravan on the back, oops!! Here's to the BXclub stand 2013.

[electrokid]

That was excellent - many to all who rolled up sleaves and contributed to its success. M40 was something of a car park towards London but the M25 was better than I've seen it for a long time - 70mph / lane 3 for most of the way.

[Jaba]

I just want to add a huge personal thank you to Ian Dollywobbler for making all the fun possible.