January
We were blessed with good weather for our first meeting of 2005 which took us to the tank museum at Bovington.
Although Kelly was unable to come it was great to see Joy bring the Elise and she obviously enjoyed herself as she was the last person to leave the museum .
Dave Nutt and his daughter Hayley came in their Elan, it was good to see them again .
Andy Richens and his son came all the way from Devon for this visit in his gorgeous yellow Esprit GT3
February
In February Simon and Elaine organized a trip to Whitchurch Silk mill where we had a good turnout. We drove in convoy to Stockbridge where we had a lovely lunch and then drove the short distance to the mill.
At the mill we were entertained with a video of how silk is made and we were then allowed to browse round the mill to see where the silk is spun and woven into fine cloth. The setting was beautiful and so was the weather. Thanks for organizing the day out.
We were blessed with a nice sunny day for the trip to Haynes Motor Museum and track day. Simon and Elaine had organized a day at the track for people to exercise their cars. We had the track from 10am to 5pm and the only time the track was not in use was at lunchtime. The day was a great success and it may be repeated in the future.
APRIL
We had another sunny day for our trip to the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop organized by John & Doreen. We had about 16 cars go on the pretty scenic run that took us through some beautiful countryside. Many thanks to John and Doreen.
May
We were blessed with yet another sunny day for our trip to the Toy Museum. Twelve cars came on the run but for some bizarre reason some of the tail end Charlies couldn’t wait for the pub and dived in cutting off the last little bit of the run. Toilet stop was one excuse but we feel the call of the beer was anotherWe were all big kids in the museum playing on the games and some of the toys brought back some memories.
Some of our group went to Castle Combe where the Lotus Elite & Eclat Annual Meeting was also held. Around 20 Elite’s & Eclats made the event and it was great to see so many of these rare cars together. Mike Kimberley who was one of the original Designers of the Lotus Elite and Eclat was a guest of the Elite & Eclat Register and judged an Informal Concours of these cars which was won by a nice Series 2 Lotus Elite.
The day itself was good fun and there was plenty of entertainment on the track + the weather was great too!
June
The trip to the Royal Signals Museum saw another good turnout of cars despite the inclement weather .We had a super run over the New Forest across to Cranborne Chase where we stopped at a great pub, The Rising Sun, for a huge lunch.
It was good to see Howard and Linda in their white M100 . Richard has a bought a lovely Elan sprint, yellow over white, from South Wales and is hoping to pick up the car shortly. George has recently bought a +2 in a burgundy colour and brought this on the run.
The museum was larger than we were led to believe with lots of interactive things and computer simulated experiences. In the end the lights were turned off so we had to leave.
JULY
Our stand at Sherborne House for the classic car show blessed us with temperatures in the high 20s. Thank God we had a gezebo and thank God we had people to erect it without instructions. Thank God it wasn’t raining!! I think we appeared on many a photo at various stages of erection.
We had a large gathering of 17 cars of all models and colours from an early Elan to a V8 Esprit owned by Chris Chapman from Weymouth who took some wonderful photos. We had the largest and most professional stand at the show. It was in a lovely setting near the lake and many people took refuge in the house to avoid the heat. Thank you all for making the Lotus stand the great success that it was. We may repeat it again next year if you are interested.
Ed and Lena organized a run to Monkey World which again had us driving down some lovely roads taking us through the Tarrants in Dorset before having a lunch stop at the Halfway Inn Nr. Wareham before the short drive to Monkey World. The chimps were in top form shrieking and doing as nature intended
AUGUST
The run in August remained a mystery until the evening before when inspiration dawned in the guise of Milton Abbey in the picturesque village of Milton Abbas. We started on the lawns of the Bramble Hill Hotel and it was hard to tear ourselves away but we had a superb turnout for the run.The Abbey was small but interesting and is linked to the exclusive Milton Abbey School and the school which was out of bounds unless you were desperately looking for the loo, was very much like Hogwarts school in Harry Potter. The Dining Hall only lacked wizards ,floating candles and owls.
September
Run to Fort Nelson. Fort Nelson was built in 1860s as part of a chain of fortifications protecting the naval harbour of Portsmouth and the Royal dockyard from French invasions.
It is home to the Royal Armories collection of Artillery.
Fort Nelson has over 350 big guns and historic cannon on display from. There is live gunfire everyday! You can discover the secret of the tunnels and underground chambers with a professional guided tour.
Wessex Classic Car Show at Bovington Tank Museum on Sunday 18th September. This event is the South’s Premier Classic Car Show with over 900 classic exhibits expected.