January 2010
Bingley Hall 2010
The day started early in the morning with me meeting Jason at his place, I had been told to wait outside as he had taken Bimu around the block to get him warmed up, soon enough I saw the eerie yellow glow of Bimu’s headlights and heard the rumble of his exhaust. Unfortunately Jason wouldn’t be able to come along due to unforeseen circumstances but he would be able to guide me and Pete to Denham as I couldn’t remember the way. We waited for Pete; soon we heard the rumble of another exhaust and the “wee wee waah waah” of his straight cut box, it was the first time we were meeting Pete so we talked for a few minutes before setting off. Following Jason we made it to the meeting point in Denham, Justin was already there with Francesca in the estate but we were soon joined by Floydie and Andy. We were getting ready to leave just as Eric and Debby came before a final farewell came from the tannoy “You’re on CCTV!!” Odd!!
Still feeling sleepy we joined the M40 thinking about the crazy love we have for these cars which make us get up early in the morning and then travel in them for many miles. Halfway through the journey we stopped at services for a deserved break where we caught up with each other and wondered if we would ever feel our legs again, it was cold!! We topped up the cars with oil, fuel etc and set off again. I got a text from a friend already there asking how the snow was, I thought that was odd as it was bone dry where we were!! Pete bought batteries for his portable radio so we amused ourselves rest of the way trying to find reception and good music to listen to.
After a while we arrived and sure enough there was snow!! We were looking forward to seeing more minis and spending hard earned cash, there was a queue to get in and the cars were moving slowly up an incline, which meant loads of stopping and starting. I noticed something odd, smoke coming through the vents, this couldn’t be good. The temperature shot up to H and we had to quickly pull over. Smoke was coming out from the clutch cover (has holes drilled in it) and it stank of clutch. Justin pulled over and we told Justin and the rest we would meet them inside. We embarrassed as we had broken down just around the corner from the entrance. After waiting for about 15mins and thanking mini owners for slowing down and offering help we managed to get the mini into the show. Thoughts of going home on the AA truck were scaring us.
The show was huge, minis everywhere on display and loads of traders, loads of people too! Pete and me were looking for everyone else but we couldn’t find them, we managed to find friends from the mini forum and went around putting faces to names we had seen on the forum. After getting Justin’s number from the ad in the estate we realised Floydie was sitting in his mini with the little one who was feeling ill. We went back to the show and had a proper look around; Justin was spending the moolah by the looks of it as he had a couple of bags stuffed with goodies!! I made the mistake of saying I would come back to stalls later as I found stuff was selling fast and wasn’t there when I went back. Pete was looking to buy new bucket seats and found a nice pair in black with blue piping. I came away with new hubs and a water pump. We also got to see the new seven port head specialist components had which looked tasty but for 3 grand with all the bits needed it looked like we would have to buy a couple more lottery tickets and keep saving in the piggy bank!!
We met up in the car park and loaded our goodies. The journey back was all good and to our surprise Pete’s mini was behaving well. A little hiccup came along when we (Me, Pete, Justin and Francesca) managed to get onto the M5 and make a trip to Birmingham; we filled up with fuel and got back on course..Oops!! We met up with everyone else who were waiting at services which was nice as we were feeling lonely and lost with no other minis around. The rest of the journey back went well and trouble free.
All in all it was a really good day out, loads of minis to see and stuff to buy!!
A good mini start to the New Year I thought!!
Rahul
