INTERNATIONAL MG SHOW AND SPARES DAY

STONELEIGH 

Sunday 15th February 2004

Ok it was not the greatest start to the first major MG Event of the Year. Overcast with misty rain threatened to ruin the furious polishing of the day before. It was damp and foggy all the way to Cherwell Services where we had arranged to meet prior to heading for Stoneleigh. Stu was last to arrive having been at the coast earlier and with his oil temperature gauge nudging the right hand side of the dial !. We set off up the M40 to Banbury where we almost successfully negotiated the myriad of roundabouts with the smell of freshly baked bread in the air - having taken just one extra roundabout for fun we joined the A423 heading for Coventry. What a great road - long sweeping bends and hardly any traffic - just right to take a small convoy of F's through their paces. 

We soon covered the distance to the Midlands Air Museum to find that the  MGRover.org BBSers had arranged a meeting point in a closed car par ! Undeterred we found them on the opposite side of the road in a layby marked with some odd "No Parking" signs. Studiously ignoring these and fending off the security man from the depot whose entrance we had blocked we joined them. Thankfully we did not have to wait too long for Thelma and Louise to join us - it seemed they had enjoyed the roundabouts so much that they negotiated a few more than the rest of us. MG Deano then led the short distance into Stoneleigh with a convoy now expanded to about 15 F/TFs and a Renault Clio (Phil - hope your brakes recover soon !)

After a short queue to get in to the site we drove down the slightly muddy track and into the large sheds probably more used to the storage of cows than MG's at the National Agricultural showgrounds. At least it was undercover should the heavens decide to open (they didn't and the sun shone instead !). It was just past 10am and the sheds were already filling up rapidly with several hundred MG's of all shapes and sizes including a fair sized F contingent.

The show itself is reviewed in "The MG Pit" and you can check there for more pics etc of other MG's.

Of Major F interest though was Mike Satur's stand where Gerry Hiorns exceptional "Extreme" F was on display along with an ongoing project where Andy Gilhooley is slowly turning his f into a TF with modifications. Out in the car park were two examples of the MGF Centres handiwork in the form of Scarlet Fever and Duncan Dorrell's newly chromaflaired and de-stickered Tahiti Blue F. It was good to have all four of the recent "extreme" modded cars together at one show.

Also spotted in the car park was another Tahiti Blue F with silver stripes remarkably similar to the SEF's own Cannonball Bob's car livery for the Cannonball run itself. Now Bob has removed his decals this is probably the only one left of it's kind. This car was owned by Richard Stone of the Northampton MGOC.

Of course the idea of a show is to spend money and I don't think any of the SEFers came away empty handed. Thelma and Louise weer seen leaving with a perspex windstop and brushed siler surrounds for the loudspeakers - Neil was last seen helping them stick them over the old black surrounds. Tom went away clutching some car mats and other bits for the engine whilst even TmM put some mods in his Concours F albeit in the form of leather seat belt slip overs and easily removable - not quite the "darkside" yet !.

Finally TimM received a surprise at the end of the day in that he found that JayPeG had been awarded one of  the days Pride of Ownership awards  - a rather nice inscribed silver tankard to add to the trophy cabinet !.