July 4th - 6th 2008: Historic Vehicle Gathering at Powderham Castle, Kenton, Exeter [Details]
July 20th 2008: Wadebridge Wheels, Royal Cornwall Showground [Details]
August 3rd 2008: Mount Edgcumbe Rally - Mount Edgcumbe Country Park [Details]
Classic Ford Show - Sunday 1st June 2008
Club members assembled for the journey to Santa Pod at Chiverton Services at 0500hrs. The day started misty which didn't bode particularly well but seemed to brighten as we set off.
After stopping for breakfast at Bridgewater, we arrived at Santa Pod at 1130hrs after a good clear run.
The gates were opened at 1200hrs and we continued through to the campsite (AKA "The Quagmire"). Finding a dry enough spot seemed to be the challenge of the day, as the field was obviously drenched and muddy from previous events.
Once we'd found an island to pitch the campsite on, we ventured off to sample the delights of the pod on a warm and humid 'Run What You Brung' day. The rain managed to stay away allowing some good runs down the strip - arguably the most memorable being the huge motorbike that covered the quarter mile in about 6 seconds - equalling the time the jet car completes the run in!
The evening wore on and after much beer and merriment we eventually managed to catch a few hours sleep before the main event.
Sunday morning broke and with the club stands field too wet to use, the stands were all moved to the opposite side of the strip, on the tarmac area. Much better and hopefully where they will stay for future events, particularly as the Duchy stand was a minute's walk from the cafe! Ideal!
The joy of this show is the sheer variety of Classic Fords on display and even thought there seems to be an increasing number of more modern Fords it's good to still see the older metal so well represented.
From Concourse to stripped out Nitro cars, there really was a little bit of everything. One of the more notable entries were 3 Taunus Transit vans (never sold in the UK and bearing more than just a passing resemblance to VW Camper vans). These had travelled over from Europe especially for the show!
Rain did stop play for a short while during the day, which meant a couple of hours of drying out time but once accomplished, the drag strip re-opened, allowing a couple of runs for the ever-popular Jet Funny Car.
We eventually packed up and headed for the gates and the long drive home at 1600hrs. The most arduous part of leaving was getting out of the pod itself!
Once on the motorways, we again made good progress and all were home by midnight at the very latest.
The best show of the year and we cannot wait already for next year!
Organised by Tony and Steve, we met at Portreath Car Park for 1030hrs. It had been raining overnight so everyone was quite nervous about the weather but fortunately all our fears were unfounded as we had bright sunshine for the whole tour!
Once assembled, we set off down the North Cliffs road through Hayle and Carbis Bay and down to St Ives, where even numerous sets of traffic lights couldn't break up the entourage!
We paused briefly in the car park above St Ives and continued back on towards Penzance.
By the time we had emerged at the dual carriageway near Penzance, the convoy was split, so we tried to catch up but Tris ruined everything by blatting past everybody who had by that time managed to get back in line. (He was apparently intending to go round the roundabout and rejoin the group) but by being in the wrong lane, confused everybody, who then went into the wrong lane and ended up eventually in the B&Q car park!
a bit of confusion ensued but we managed to get back together for a cruise along the promenade at Penzance and then headed for our final destination, the main car park at Marazion, where we parked up for a lovely roast in the Station House pub.
A huge thanks from everybody to Tony and Steve for a great start to the season!
Duchy Capri Club and Cornwall RS Owners Christmas Bash Saturday 8th December 2007
For the second year running, Cornwall RS Owners invited us to join them at their Christmas bash.
Held at the Cliffdene Hotel, Newquay, we had a 5 course meal followed by a disco and an all nightbar. As night turned into morning, a handful of members from each club had the previous year's record of 5:34am in mind. We actually called it a day at 5:50am...
and still made it for breakfast.
We would like to thank the Cornwall RS Owners for a fantastic night!
Classic Motor Show at the NEC Birmingham - Sunday November 11th 2007
Members from Duchy Capri Club made the long journey to the NEC for the annual classic motor show.
Once again this was a fantastic day out with even more to see and do. We spent most of our time in the hall with the Fords.
There were loads of Ford clubs representing every classic Ford, but our favourite stand of the day was the Capri Mk1 Register. they had 3 cracking cars, a 1969 pre-facelift 1300 automatic, a pre-facelift 2.0GT and an RS3100.
Mike Brewer and Ed China were entertaining the crowds, while Mike spoke to car owners on stage and Ed restored a Mini.
If you are a classic car fan, this is well worth a visit. We can't wait for next year.
Duchy Capri Club Season Finale, Sunday 30th September 2007
The weather was pretty good for the final run of the season for the club.
About half of us met at Chiverton services as usual but at a fairly leisurely 1100hrs. The pub, the Harvest Moon at Looe had double booked on the day and couldn't fit us in to eat until 1430hrs.
So, we cruised over to the main meeting point in the car park at the Kingsley Village at Fraddon for about 1130hrs.
After chatting for a while, we grouped and went on our way towards Looe, via a pretty scenic route.
We arrive in Looe safely and took residence in the main large car park (which was a pay and display - which everybody b*ll*cked Tris about) and meandered over to the pub, where everybody had a good, if not well overdue lunch.
After which, the club left Looe via a different route and unfortunately got split up on the way back.
One good thing was that Tris's mum, driving back from Liskeard on that day, did comment that she saw 3 lovely looking Capris on the A30, red blue and grey, which I ascertained to be Del, Gary and Trevor.
Morris Minor Classic Show, Crealy Adventure Park, 16th September 2007
Everybody met initially at Chiverton services at 0900hrs.
We left for Crealy and cruised steadily up there, with most of us ignoring the advances of a Porsche driver on the dual stretch after Carland Cross.
When we finally caught up with Martin and Steve after they had pulled off the A30, we continued onto Crealy.
After being ushered into our usual space, we all set off to explore the thrills of the park. Sadly, this year there were not as many cars on display, due to the fact that there was a Steam Rally at nearby St Mawgan on the same day.
The weather held though, with the odd smattering of rain, but not half as much as was available on the log flume. Gary managed an absolute soaking this year and followed up by offering everyone hugs immediately after, which, for some strange reason, most declined.
Tris even managed to avoid doing his knee in like he did last year, by acting like a kid in the house thing that houses a demon drop and the ball pool.
It's interesting to note (if you like that sort of thing) that Kim Henson from "Classics" magazine was in attendance at the show, driving down in his Austin A60 Cambridge from Poole in Dorset. He won the "Furthest Distance Travelled in 2006" and there's no reason why he shouldn't have done the same this year.
After admiring the cars that were there and taking full advantage of the rides (please don't ever let me go on the pirate ship again - especially after a chicken and bacon roll and full pack of Tesco's rip off prawn cocktail Skips) the group eventually chose their time to leave.
Sadly, on the way home, Sam and Tris saw what looked like quite a bad accident, involving the minty green coloured Ford Popular SSK 702, where it was on it's side in a layby on the opposite side of the road. The Police were in attendance and it looked like everyone was fine - except the car though.
Ford Fair - 5th August 2007
The members made the long trip to Silverstone for this year's Ford Fair.
There were a total of 8 Capris on the stand and we were joined by a Sierra, 2 Mondeos and a S2 RS Turbo Escort.
The highlight of the day was Martin's track session, eventually making it 2 second place in his group (though against an Evo, it doesn't really count...) and entertaining everyone as he did it.
Gary, Tony, Tris, Nigel and Mark met at Chiverton Services and we collected Sabrina & George en route.
Arriving at the venue for 0930hrs, we were pointed to our stand location, near the far end of the car park on the left. We set the stand up and had a wander. Martin and Will arrived and joined the end of our line up. The rain sadly set in at about 1200hrs and was pretty persistent from then on. In between soakings, Andy arrived with his gorgeous Mk 1 Cortina, and promptly won 2nd in class. Duchy Capri Club were again awarded the best club stand of the day.
Plus Tony won a set of posh wheel trims for his Shogun in the raffle.
Sadly, the weather wasn't fabulous for the show but it certainly didn't dampen anybody's enthusiasm!
Most of the members arrived on Saturday to setup camp for the night and indulge in the pre-main show atmosphere.
As the Sunday dawned, the rest of the club arrived and the stand was setup. After breakfast, it was time to explore the hundreds of classic Fords in attendance. Many different clubs had come from all round the British Isles and the variety of cars was excellent, from mint, standard Anglias through to highly modified Sierras and Escorts.
The drag strip was an undoubted highlight though, with several different classes being run, from RWYB ("Run What You Brung") through the funny cars right up to the fantastically noisy, crowd pleasing jet-car, which achieved a top speed on the day of 260mph and covered the 1/4 mile in only 6.175 seconds.
We reckon even Martin would struggle to match that.
Mark, Gary, Tris , Dave, Steve, Martin, Carl and Barry met at Chiverton, then we carried on in convoy to the arranged meet point at Fraddon, where we met Sabrina, George, Paul & Marlene, Nigel W, Nigel B and new member Mike in a gorgeous 3.0 litre Ghia.
From there we went in convoy up to Davidstow (via a "very scenic" diversion round Camelford) where Tris wanted to take some pictures of everybody and their cars for the website.
After what seemed like hours, we left and carried onto Bude, parking in the main car park and indulging in a very welcome roast dinner.
From there, we regrouped in the car park to talk Capri for a while, before making our way back home.
The good journey back was only marred by some stupid old numpty in a diesel Fiesta who seemed hellbent on overtaking everything on the roads that day and pushing his way in and out of the convoy.
He achieved a lot too - apparently Gary caught up with him at Chiverton Cross and hopefully wupped his crinkly ass on the bypass...
Vospers 60th Birthday, Marsh Mills, Plymouth, 5th October 2006
Thursday 5th October
Meeting at Chiverton for 1600hrs, we had Mark, Steve, Martin, Gary, Tony, Tris and Trevor. We then met up with Nigel W and Sabrina en route. A good run up was slightly marred when Tris's 280 refused to start outside the showroom. After a push, it fired up and was moved inside where it would share floorspace with many other Fords old and new from throughout the years. After the grand unveiling of a brand new Ford GT, we browsed around the other cars on show and left for home.
In the rain.
Again.
Duchy Capri Club Season Finale, 24th September 2006
Sunday 24th September
Meeting in Truro was possibly not the brightest of ideas on Tris's part, as the half-marathon was taking part that day, which meant the rendezvous car park was nearly full! After finally gathering in Staples car park (much to their customers' surprise!) We chatted for a while and then departed for our ultimate destination - THE LIZARD!
Tris and Del took the lead, pulling of with bizarre wigs (which seem to have become a bit of a club fetish this year!) looking like a freakish Bo and Luke Duke.
We arrived in the village after a good run, to find that the area we expected to be roped off for us wasn't! Still, there was plenty of space at the other side of the car park where we all re-grouped.
After a fabulous roast lunch in the Top House pub, we mingled and finally headed off again. We traversed from The Lizard to Helston, then proceeded towards Penzance, before hooking up with the main A30 travelling back up through the county.
Morris Minor Classic Show, Crealy Adventure Park, 17th September 2006
Sunday 17th September
We all met up at Chiverton roundabout as usual at 0930hrs. We then went on to the showground at Crealy Adventure Park near Wadebridge. Just for a change, it was raining, so we arrived, were shown where to set up and took shelter as soon as possible. As the day wore on, the clouds broke up a little, even allowing a little sunshine through at one point. A slightly disappointing turnout of cars around the park, but a good day out nonetheless. The added bonus of a log flume and raft rides meant that anyone who hadn't been caught in the rain ended up soaked to the skin anyway!
We left in two groups, 5.00am and 6.30am. The 5.00am group contained Gary S, Steve, Tony M, Martin, Sarah, Will, Dave and Adam. They had a trouble free run to the Travel Lodge in Towcester. The 6.30am group were Mark, Lewis, Trevor, Tyler, Sabrina, George, Nigel, Kate and Gary H. We were going fine until Bridgewater when Sabrina's Sierra 4x4 overheated and had to be recovered. With the Sierra on its way back to Cornwall, Sabrina carried on in her Capri, which George was driving. The rest of the journey was fine and when we arrived we met up with the others. Tony and Mike then arrived with Mike's Mondeo's.
Sunday 6th August
We were all up early and left the Travel Lodge at 6.30am for the short drive to Silverstone. Once inside we parked the cars in an arch shape with the Mondeos and an Escort RST (which had joined us from Camborne) in the middle. Paul arrived from Exeter which made a total of 9 capri's, our best ever at Ford Fair. After a look around the autojumble it was time to watch Martin who was due on the track for his 20 minute session. He had a wicked time and came off the track with a big grin on his face. The rest of the day was spent between the trade stands, cars on show and the track action. There were loads of great Capris on show, but the highlight of the day had to be the Old Skool Ford stand.
We were all thinking about heading back to Cornwall when Marc Stretton and photographer Simon Dodd from Classic Ford turned up for a group photo of the club for the mag, Bargain! a big thank you to Marc and Simon and a great way to end an excellent show.
Perranporth Classic Car Show - Monday 24th July 2006
Seafront Car Park, 1930hrs.
Mark, Steve, Gary, Tony, Dave and Tris met at Chiverton Cross services at 1845hrs and headed the short distance to Perranporth in convoy. At one point en route, Gary was waylaid when an unwelcome visitor arrived in his car, in the shape of a wasp. Once dispatched, we continued to the venue, a small green in front of the Perranporth surgery. We all parked up safely (a few exhausts scraped on the way in) Paul arrived with his gorgeous 280 and we were then joined by a fellow enthusiast who had just bought a Capri a few days before! Ian dashed home (locally) and arrived back at the venue with his new acquisition, details of which are HERE. Many people enjoyed the spectacle of the Capris parked up and we were happy to chat with them and answer any questions. After a few of us had a fish and chip supper, a stroll along the seafront to view the other attendees was the order of the evening.
A small but intimate show, this is a pleasant evening spent in a great location, fortunately with perfect weather.
Mark, Gary S, Dave and Tris met initially at Chiverton Cross services at 0930hrs. We then left in convoy for Wadebridge, meeting Nigel W and Sabrina en route. We arrived at the showground a little after 1000hrs with heavy skies and a hint of drizzle in the air.
We met Paul in the showground itself and set up the display. 12 Capri's in total were on display, with new member Jenny arriving in her recently restored Laser, and Trevor arriving later on. Wadebridge Wheels is one of the largest of it's type in Cornwall, with a wide variety of vehicles old and new. Traction engines and static display engines were there, along with American vehicles and custom vehicles of every description!
Mark, Gary S, Dave and Tris met initially at Chiverton Cross services at an ungodly 0830hrs. We set off and met with Nigel W at Carland Cross and arrived at the Football Grounds at Bodmin at 0900, where we met up with Neil and Paul. We set our stand up and made the most of the few hours of sunshine - just before it clouded over. We enjoyed watching everyone else polishing their cars and felt slightly guilty that we weren't doing the same! Judging came and went and approaching 1500hrs, we packed up ready to leave (Well, it was an England Match in the World Cup that afternoon!) As we were leaving the grounds, Mark was stopped and told that we had won the "Best Stand of the Day!" Everyone was ecstatic! A perfect end to a great day.
We all met up at the layby opposite Kessels for 0730hrs. A total of 5 Capris, A Ford Mondeo and a Vauxhall Zafira made their way up the A30/M5 to our first stop at Taunton Services. After a brief stop, we soldiered on but Sabrina had an overheating problem on the M4. We pulled in to do some running repairs, aided by a very nice AA man! Steve, Tony, Martin and Will (in the Vauxhall) had already gone ahead hoping to put up the tent and although they arrived 2 hours ahead of us, I had the tickets so they couldn't get in! We got going again, with Sabrina, then left her and George as they were staying with friends. After a 'slight' detour at Silverstone, we finally got to Santa Pod and set up camp. Later on, Nigel, Kate, Paul and girlfriend from Exeter turned up with 2 more Capris. The evening was spent looking at cars, auto jumble and a few beers.
SUNDAY 11th June
We were up early and met Sabrina and George on our stand just after 0700hrs. All the cars were neatly parked and the club kit was put up. By now the sun was out and a load more cars were turning up. After a good old 'english', the day was spent equally between the drag strip, the auto jumble and the cars on show.
During a visit to the Classic Ford Feature Cars, I bumped into Mark Stretton for a chat and he said he really liked our website. We saw some great cars go down the strip; the Harris Escorts, Capris and the awesome Mk 3 Cortina but the highlight of the day had to be the 2 runs by Fireforce 3. Unfortunately, it was soon time to pack the cars and ready for the off. We left at around 1730hrs and came back a different route via the M6, led by Paul, our newest member.
Best show of the year - can't wait for 2007.
We had 10 Capris turn up for our first Car run of the 2006 season and what a fabulous day it was too! We were blessed with a dry day, fairly cloudy and not quite balmy conditions, but a wonderful run was enjoyed by all members who took part. We enjoyed a very pleasant roast dinner at our destination and then retired to the car park to admire all the cars.
Rolling Road Session - Saturday 17th September 2005
The Duchy Capri Club held a successful rolling road session in Redruth.
Held at the newly installed facility at Richard Brothers Ltd on Cardrew Industrial Estate, it was an excellent opportunity for members to see how their cars performed.
