| Durrow vintage show April 19th |
| Thursday, 07 May 2009 10:59 | ||||||||||||||||||
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We meet at KFC as there is ample parking and of course it’s just off the main Dublin road which was the route we were taking. The 14 cars started up around 10 past 4 when Tom arrived late as usual. For one of the faster cars in the club Tom always seems to be late. All 14 cars started and the glass in KFC shook with the vibration as we proceeded down towards the tunnel roundabout. We left Pat and David and headed up the main Dublin rd, only stopping to pay the toll at the bridge. I was one of the lucky one as I had a passenger with me and not only did I stiff him for the toll, he was on the correct side which made life a lot easier for getting the money into the basket. We cruised away up the new road for a bit with every mile covered the foot getting heavier and heavier. Soon the cars were spread out along the vast range of the motor way with the sun shinning and the road reasonably quiet. The journey was definitely one of the better spins we have had. It’s great to see all these yanks cruising up the motorway one after another.
We arrived in Abbeyleix at the Manor Hotel around 6.00pm, dropped our bags in the rooms and went to the hotel bar for a few well deserved pints and a feed of spuds. And from there on the craic and laughing went in overdrive. No one or thing was safe, and as one member said its safer to keep your mouth shut or just go for a walk. Everyone was in high sprits, we went up to the village of Abbeyleix to a well known pub called Morriseys were we stayed till closing. And like every good night out we got a bag of chips and a burger in the local fast food joint (although there was nothing fast about it) and back to the hotel for a sing song compliments of Dan Mac.
Next morning it was a different story. Sick heads were all around the breakfast table. Poor Billy, someone should have told him not to drink with Hump. We arrived at the show grounds at about 11am and on first sight we noticed that this show was going to be a big one. The first American car we spotted was Pepe’s 70 Mustang. He must have left Cork very early. There was poor organisation on entering the show grounds as public vehicles were entering the ground the same entrance we were. This of course meant queues which as you know is something V8’s don’t respond well to. We finally arrived into the ground parked up and had a walk around. There seemed to be an endless amount of classic cars arriving from all angles and a great selection of American cars. Most of the major American clubs were represented AAAI, MAAC, AMCI, and of course there was a lot of one off American enthusiast not connected to any club. About a half hour later the rest of the GAScc members arrived, who left cork at around 9.00 that morning. Pat & Denis o’Sullivan in their Trans Am, Declan Dwyer in his 68 Fastback, Anthony Galvin in his very clean 1972 vette, Francis Mea in his 65 Camaro, John Cronin in his 79 Trans Am and Wojciech in his modern Camaro. We even managed to meet with Irish vintage magazine who sponsored the show and took a few photo’s of our cars and club members to be published in next months magazine. On speaking to everyone at the show all enjoyed it, the sun kept shining the whole day which made the day very relaxing. That was until we decided to make the journey home we started the cars at about 3.30 thinking we were being smart and leave early before anyone else. We were so wrong. One of our members made it through the gates and the rest of us were directed back the field to the opposite side where we tried to get out for over one and a half hours! We gave up and abandoned the cars, pulled back out our fold away seats and sat down until 7.30 that evening. The organisation of this show was bad. Cars broke down and overheated all over the field, no one knew where to go. Even the Stewards had no idea which way we should be going or how to get there. They were opening and closing gates which caused everyone to have to turn several times on the grounds trying to find the open exit. This place really needed a P.A system to inform the thousands of people were they should have been heading for, so a great weekend and a great show was ruined by bad management. The upside is the spin up and down was enjoyed by all, and hope the next show we attend has a bit of organisation to it.
In total we had 19 cars at the show, with a total of 26 members. A nice turn out again for our young club!
Jay
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