Cruising - Week commencing 15th June 2015

A602 Street and Strip Rods Car Club

 

Wednesday, we decided to take a chance on the weather (got away with it-just!) and headed off to the A602 Street and Strip Rods Car Club cruise night at the Three Horseshoes just outside Stevenage. It's a really nice gastro pub with expensive drinks. The club members were friendly and made us welcome. There were a dozen or so cars, less than usual as many of them were planning to travel to Bedford the following evening to the Drag Race and Hot Rod evening that Dave was organising for OMC at Oakley Sports and Social Club.

We got to Oakley club early so that Dave could arrange the parking.  We took the Model A, the Tot Rod and Paul's dragster down, Ruaridh Hart brought his junior dragster as did Dylan Bradley, Nigel Hale was in his massive truck and Butch turned up in his Hillman "Butcher's Shop" street eliminator car. Santa Pod brought one of their old top fuel dragsters and a nice assortment of  Hot Rods and American cars turned up to join the biggest ever Thursday night motorbike crowd of 240 bikes including one drag bike. Plenty of the local villagers came along for a look too and it all seemed to go down very well. Janet's Plymouth was much commented on as were all the others with everyone picking different "favourites". I'm not sure the immediate neighbours will have appreciated the cackle fest that took place at 8pm though especially as a number of car alrms were set off several streets away! Zoe got to start the dragster in front of a large crowd. Everyone seemed to enjoy the evening, evidenced by the requests for it to become an annual event.

We arrived home on Thursday evening to discover via e-mail that the builder of our Car, Galen Meeker had recently passed away. Having spent the evening discussing Galen's achievements to all and sundry this message was particularly poignant. As I explained to his son when I wrote back, we have a board printed which we put with the car, naming him as the builder and it explains how he built it in the basement of his house from a wheelchair. People are already astounded at how beautiful the car is, how well engineered it is and how the “look” of it is just right and then they are full of admiration for how he achieved it. We have never taken it for granted and we also take great pleasure in the joy and excitement that the car generates to passers by from all walks of life, from the Rolls Royce owner right down to homeless people on street corners. Never have I come across anything that appeals to the whole population in such a way. We wondered if it would be as well received here in the UK as it was in in the USA and the answer is – yes it is! I also told him we won a top five prize with it at one of the country’s biggest car shows a few weeks back and when you consider it now has 34000 miles on the clock and has been driven on some pretty awful roads at times it is testament indeed to the skill and vision of Galen. We shall always be grateful for his talent.

Saturday, we had intended to go to Shakespeare County Raceway to join the Nostalgia Nats for the day but the forecast was awful and it proved to be a wash out so for us it was the right decision not to go.

 
  Sunday, we went to the Sharnbrook Hotel for their Classic Car Show for a few hours. It wasn't as busy as usual but there was a nice selection of cars including this beautiful 1903 Cadillac.









After that, we cruised a few more miles up the A6 to Rushden Station for their Father's Day special steam up day, so once again we were able to indulge another of our interests - Steam Locomotives and historical railway stations. It was busy with Dads riding the short train journey and drinking real ale in the cosy back in time bar at the the station. Since we last came, there has been quite a bit of work done in the platform rooms and it is now a museum full of local railway memorabilia. Definitely worth a visit!

 
Shame about the modern car in the middle!

Our final trip for the day was a two car cruise to AJ's Diner in Wellingborough with Derek and his daughter Rhiannon. A car show had already been cancelled there but we went anyway and we were glad we did. It's a nice little American Diner on the mezzanine of a Motorcycle sales showroom, serving typical fifties style food. At the same time, the showroom had been cleared of bikes and a group of people where jiving along to fifties and sixties music. We had a small problem when Derek noticed the oil pressure had dropped to nil (this was his new 32's maiden voyage!) but after a bit of head scratching and a check on the oil with a couple of spanners and a cloth to see if there was any pressure - there was, it was decided that it must be the gauge that was faulty and Derek was able to breathe a sigh of relief and drive the car home safely.

 

 Last but not least for this week, we made Custom Car magazine!