2CV National Meeting 2023

 

It is great to attend the 2CV National meeting with the gathering of so many like-minded people. Once again I only managed a day visit with my brother Adrian who was my passenger in the El Cid. I travelled to Bristol to pick him up to go to the meeting near Worcester on the Saturday. Not a quick journey but pleasant enough enjoying the countryside getting to Orleton to the west and passing Shelsey Walsh Hill Climb in the process. The roads are as naggery as the hill climb with interesting twists and turns in beautiful scenery.

As always you meet some interesting people, some new to the club and renew friendships with some of the old stagers. It was not one of the best meetings as there did not seem to be a focal point for events. I found the trade stands and some food but not a central display arena. We ended up going to a local pub for lunch as there was nothing to eat at midday when we arrived. After lunch there did not seem to be a program of activities and we were going to head for home but before that we needed to see what interesting things were at the meeting. We headed up the track to one of the camping areas and found and interesting special. It was a Willys jeep body with a Dianne cab. It was very nicely done with numerous novel features. The proud owner was Mike “Hookey” John well known in the Club for his innovation. 

We stopped, took some photos and had along exchange of ideas along with discussing the modifications  we had done  to our cars. As forecast there was a thunderstorm just after 4pm and we took shelter in his camper. Within a few minutes the volume and ferocity of wind and  rain had swamped the site. The storm took an hour to pass and our conversation continued in the camper. The intimate details on the special that included what was done to make various parts of the body to fit made interesting listening and I felt I had come away with little nuggets of information. When the rain stopped we made our way home, but not before having to make some risky manoeuvres passing an on-coming Ami on a single lane track that had become a mud slide on a slope with impending collision, a touch of mirrors was all that happened as the cars slithered toward each other. Bouncing through puddles that filled the pot holes on the track we exited the site and headed for home. I did feel a bit disappointed with this meeting and was glad I had not signed up for the whole event. Compared to last year at Ely near Cambridge there was no show arena as the focal point of the event so no show for everyone to gravitate to that we found along with the lack of food at what I thought would be a peak time I felt it was a poor show and was disappointing. I felt sorry for the first timers we met that day. Down the pub after getting back to Chipping Sodbury, with so many pubs to choose from how much better can it get?