13th August: Bobby's Tour of the Dean
Bob Brain Developments were a well known builder of championship winning rally cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s but Bob sadly died a few years ago. This year, his brother John Brain organised a small classic car show and tour to raise money for a local children's charity in memory of Bob, and invited owners of interesting classic and rally cars that he knew to come along and support the charity. We were one of those owners. The entry had been deliberately kept small to about 30 cars as it was the first running of the tour and to test out the idea.
The weather was very hot so obviously a day for the DHC as we made the short journey to the start at Ruardean for an excellent breakfast bacon roll and coffee. This was based at the Ruardean Village Hall and playing fields right in the middle of the village.
John had organised a nice little route of about 65 miles around the Forest of Dean, divided into two sections, with a short coffee stop in Coleford at the Childrens Opportunity Centre who funds were being raised for.
Many of the roads we drove were in the process of being dug up to provide cables for broadband but luckily they were still passable. The organisers had checked the route just before we left the start and their instructions were to just ignore the ROAD CLOSED signs! They were spot on and we all got through ok.
The Forest of Dean is a beautiful area and we really enjoyed the vews.
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| picture by Chris Huish. |
By mid-day the weather was really getting hot so I was even forced to bring out my straw hat. It works perfectly well up to around 50mph so perfect for the lanes. Jo had her sun hat on as well.
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| getting our card signed at a passage control |
Back at Ruardean Village Hall they had laid out an excellent ploughman's buffet for us which was enjoyed by everyone. Also by this time a number of other cars had arrived for the show so we were able to have a good look at those as well. These included some amazing ex-works rally cars owned by another old mate, Dave Kedward from Cheltenham. He had brought an Audi Sport Quattro S2, a Peugeot T16 and a Lancia 037. These Group B monsters all competed against each other in the 1980s on the World Rally Championship and a worth a small (!) fortune.
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| Audi S2 Quattro, Lancia 037, Peugeot T16 |
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| Audi S2 Quattro |
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| Audi cockpit |
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| Lancia 037 |
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| Peugeot T16 |
There was also a Ford RS200, a Porsche 911 safari car and even the MG Maestro Turbo that was driven by the late great Tony Pond to win the class on the Manx International.
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| Tony Pond's much under rated MG Maestro Turbo |
I almost forgot to mention a couple of the other interesting cars that had taken part in the tour, there were two Lancia Delta Integrale's and a gorgeous immaculate Puegeot 202 that I had never even heard of before.
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| Beautiful Peugeot 202 |
Another super day out in the TR7.
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7th September: Glavon Tulip Tour
Noel & Ange Jones had organised another of their excellent tulip tours for the Glavon TR Register Group, this time starting at Highfield Garden Centre at Whitminster.
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| Glavon cars at the Highfields start |
The route of about 100 miles around the Cotswolds took us to a coffee stop at the Cotswold Barn cafe up near Longborough on top of the Cotswolds. A bunch of Porsche cars also turned up but they didn't speak to us so that was our good luck!
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| Coffee stop at Cotswold Barn |
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| Nice gateway |
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| Not just cars out today |
We also met a lot of cyclists out in the lanes, it looked like hard work.
The first half had been mostly smaller roads but our journey back to a late lunch at Fromebridge Mill used some more sweeping "A " roads and we got back before they were ready for us! No matter, time for more TR chat before an excellent carvery lunch.
