Report : Enfield Pageant, 2007

A rainy bank holiday weekend.

Going into it’s 30th year, the Enfield Pageant of Motoring is certainly a classic amongst the big shows already. Held on the May Bank holiday weekend every year over three days with lots of club stands and a very large autojumble it offers something for most classic car afficiandos.

Alexander Boucke had a look around.

Photos by A. Boucke


Open Air Classics


Under heavy grey clouds…

THE weather forecast was not looking too good for the weekend, but we’d been looking forward to finally going to Enfield again, and refused to let that deter us. Firstly, we needed to choose a suitable car from out fleet. As it is not a BL-biased show, a car needs to be older than 30 to get in, or be part of a club stand. Space for family and possible bulky purchases combined with easy motorway cruising led us to take the Maxi – what else? – and join in the festivities on the Maxi Club stand.

The show opens on Saturday morning, but the past few years have seen Sunday and Monday doing the majority of the business. Staying for more than one day means you can go parts hunting on Saturday, and use Sunday and Monday to leisurly enjoy looking at the cars, and chatting to their owners. In terms of BMC and BL cars, the 1100 Club’s stand and the Maxi Owners Club flew the flag – apart from the usual MGs, Triumph and BL-era Jaguars. Chances of seeing a Landcrab, for instance, are slim to non-existant.

The large Autojumble is reason enough to visit – with rows upon rows of stalls offering anything from secondhand panels to die cast models. There’s also non-car stuff to keep the rest of the family happy.

Sadly, this year, the show was abandoned on Monday after torrential rain on Sunday had left the field looking like Woodstock. Even though the organizers had taken precautions, it was inevitable, as the club is liable for damages to the grassland. They were quite devastated, as it was the same story last year…

And how did the Maxi do? Despite having not seen much use in the last year, it perfomed excellently. The recharged Hydragas spheres are holding up well, and even though we’ve stiffened the suspension as a result of lower pressure in the spheres, the ride comfort is as good as any modern car this side of a C6. Ironically, the sun came out when we left the UK. Typical.


Gallery

Despite the bad weather, the journey was well worth it:


The Maxi made it in one piece and had more than enough room for all the family.


A Tickford MG Metro leaving the show early.


Interesting spares where found in large amounts, in this case a complete AD16 front end.


Steam engines have always a stronghold on this show, be it models like these, or the big ones.


The variety makes the show interesting.


Traditional fish & chips.


The Maxi and this gem found on the autojumble do share some input on the suspension.


Finally sunshine – but sadly on the way home through Belgium.

Keith Adams

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