HUNGERFORD ARCADE ANTIQUES & COLLECTABLES: HUNGERFORD ARCADE CLASSIC VEHICLE EVENT TODAY PART I

What a fabulous time we had at Hungerford Arcade today! On a warm but overcast morning at around 8.30 a.m. the West Berkshire Classic Vehicle Club started to arrive in their beautiful classic cars and steadily parked up in their reserved places in front of the Arcade. See the photographs below of a beautiful all original 1967 Ford Cortina GT owned by the same family from new. Owner, Peter West inherited it from his brother-in-law when he passed away six years ago. It has only done 35,000 miles. He and partner, Nancy Darke took the car on the Champagne Tour in France on the 4th and 6th May this year and drove around the old race track at Rheims. Then we have the 1970 Lotus Elan + 2S. This little beauty has a twin cam engine which was built using a Ford block and the engine head designed by the famous Colin Chapman of Lotus. Colin's own car was identical to this one which has been owned by Chris Martin for the last 17 years of "Blood, sweat and many tears!" Next there was "Betty" a stunning 1934 Standard 12/4 Deluxe Saloon owned and very much loved by the Mason family. Betty has her own story to tell and you can read it below next to her photographs. Then there was the stately 1964 Rover 95 owned for the past 35 years by Nigel and Vanda Giles. It has just 31,000 miles on the clock from new and had just one previous owner. This Rover is a local car and lived just across the road from Nigel and Vanda who always admired it so when it became available, Nigel just had to buy her. She is totally original and unrestored. Vanda still has the first car she bought many years ago and which she loves dearly, a beautiful chocolate brown Triumph Herald which she brought to the last show in May. They also have several other classics including MGs and Triumphs. Just across the way was another Rover, a 1995 Rover P6 2200SC. In its day, this series was proven in tests to be one of the safest cars in its class in the world and is still a very safe car today. This beauty is proudly owned by Brian Arlott. She also has a history you can read about down the page with her photographs. You will see that she was featured in the July 2008 issue of Classics Monthly as a Group Test with the Audi 100 and the Peugeot 504. I will continue with the cars and their stories tomorrow but I would just like to mention that Pam a member and volunteer at the Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum Trust (a charity) from Calne, Wiltshire came along with a stunning 1991 Mini 'Special' towed on a trailer behind a dazzling white classic Mercedes. Raffle tickets were sold for the Mini in order to raise funds for the Museum. It seems everyone wants a classic Mini (including me!).

Soon there were large numbers of people taking photographs of these beautiful cars and having long conversations with the owners, learning about the history and mechanical elements of each car - particularly the engines! The WBCVC are very friendly and only too happy to talk about their 'pride and joys'. They even let people sit inside the cars and have their photographs taken. A coach pulled-up by the cars and everyone got off and mingled among the cars before heading off into the Arcade to buy some memorable treasures to take home.

I am posting some of the photographs now and the rest tomorrow.
Rita