Just when its all begun,its all over
with for another year, wev'e had a pretty eventful year starting
with a wedding at Rudding Park and finishing with International
interest at the National Microcar Rally in September.
For some of the Bug Club the start of the Rally Season begins
with the annual pilgrimage to Morecambe, this is organised by
the Bond Owners Club ,I haven't been to this event for a few years
but apparently there were a few Bugs on parade. I did however
go to all the other Major Micro events so for a full report read
on.
The Micro Maniacs Rally What better place to hold your wedding,rolling
hills,all your fellow Microcar nutters in one place plus a bunch
of mechanics if the wedding carriage breaks down.This was the
plan drawn up by Les Gore and Sue Watts.The bride was driven to
Harrogate Registry office by Ray in a Bond Mark D (well I think
it was, I'm not to Hot on Minicars] ,there then followed a cortege
of Micro’s, the club appropriately dressed in orange,the
ceremony went well with Tony Godfrey doing his bit of giving the
bride away.The reception was the beer/ pie tent where we did our
best to toast the happy couple.The main rally day was Sunday,
we had a fair turn out of bugs (13) including some new faces to
this event. Bernard and Carol Heidshuster made a welcome return
they picked up the best Bug prize.Les and Sue got the award for
maddest Micro’s. Glen Lawson had a spot of bother this weekend
the Bug decided it no longer fancied its engine so decided to
blow up,if this wasn't bad enough the canopy decided to blow of
on the trip back..This is the 3rd time I have known this to happen
to Bugs being towed backwards,despite Glen tying it down,it still
flipped,so please be careful if you plan on transporting your
Bug this way. I think Richard Moulds should be applauded for his
efforts at this event, I'm sure he wont mind me saying but He's
not the smallest of the microcar fraternity and to take a 50 cc
Cursor out on the 60 mile road run takes some doing,Well done
Richard.
The Bath
Rally This year it was all change
for the Bath rally,in the past the camping and rally site have
been at different locations,this year they held it at a Rugby
Club,complete with on site bar,cooked breakfast and all the mod
cons.On reflection I think this was the best rally this year,not
only was the social evenings/Bar b que very good but so was the
turn out on Sunday.The Bugs coped well on the road run,there's
not many hills a Bug can't climb.The plan is to hold this event
at the same location for 2000.
Hengrave Hall Rally Another of those events you don't want to
miss,unfortunately the weather was a bit inclement this year.On
the Sunday it was lashing down all day, this caused a few complications
to both Matt and Myself on our return to Hertfordshire.First Matts
Bug managed to get water logged then the canopy lock decided to
break on my bug so an arm hanging out the side screen was needed
to keep it down.Apart from that another great event including
a yard of ale contest,the longest convoy of Micro’s this
year,8 or 9 Bugs,plus we had a bit of a get together under Jeff’s
canopy where copious amounts of the amber liquid were consumed.It
was good to see some new faces including Chris and Liz from Wales
plus the return of Viv and Chris Woolley. One big question over
the weekend was where was Alan Turley ?
The
Sywell rally A new event for the
club put together by Richard Moulds with the Northampton area
group,this was held at the Airfield and it was another wet event.The
50 odd mile road run took us to some interesting locations including
a couple of museums and the staircase locks on the Grand Union
Canal.The over riding memory of this event was the site of my
gazebo that took a right good hammering during a heavy storm while
we were out on the road run,on our return the thing laid strewn
across the field luckily the canvass was rescued before it interfered
with air traffic control. Sunday arrived,the weather was better
and we had around 9 or 10 Bugs.The prize giving was held with
the following picking up medals.Best Bug :Jeff Ellis, 2nd Pete
Edgerly, 3rd Barry & Amanda Randall, Matt Byram got the custom
award with Harvey & Manda Brugier getting the furthest travelled.
In an effort to spread the winners this season we have introduced
a new category The used and abused, Mark James took this with
his Bug Swampy,They call it Swampy as it got submerged in the
Northampton floods last year.Another successful weekend but still
no Alan Turley.
Woburn
rally We had nothing planned as
such for this year but the details of the Sunday event were published
in the MAG, I was very pleased to see we had 10 bugs at this show,along
with a Bond minicar and a Messershmitt,we seem to have an active
band of Buggers in the Beds,Herts area.
The National
Microcar Rally: Todington Gloucestershire.
The biggest rally of the year and the disappearance of Alan had
been solved, While riding his Virago Motorbike he had slid off
and rearranged the front end of an oncoming Rover,not only did
he wreck the bike but he also did himself some serious 8 damage
and ended up in hospital.Thankfully he's feeling a lot better.The
turn out of Bugs at this years National was pretty pathetic with
no more then the local events,only Matt & Myself completed
out of the 200 plus cars in the driving event, but on the plus
side there was a lot of stuff not seen before including the new
imports from Reliant.Last year Reliant bought back the Bug owned
by Vic Hyde who lived in New Jersey,USA, although the Bug was
never exported across the pond a fair few have made it over there.I
received a call from Burt Shull a few weeks before the National,he
had the intention of buying one and flying it back to New York,I
suggested he came over the same weekend as the National so we
could offer our advice this he duly did.He's now flown back with
a complete car that needs a little TLC.Thanks to the MEC for putting
on this event and all the other clubs that made the effort,see
you all again next year...
The consensus of opinion on the Microcar rally scene among some
of us Bug owners is that its not long enough,so we like to extend
the scene into late September and early October with the Pie and
Pint Rally.
Jeff Ellis's Pie and Pint Weekend Not your
regular rally just a good chance to sink copious amounts of alcohol
and generally put the world to rights.Matt and myself arrived
in the dark Friday night and headed straight for the Trout Inn
were we met the rest of the Brigade,after a meal and a few pints
the tents were erected.The attempts by Jeff of trying to light
the Bar Be Que proved fruitless partly due to the lack of charcoal.A
trip to Gloucester Docks is worth a visit,we made the trip Saturday,as
well as a museum on the Docks history there is a packaging museum
shopping area,etc etc.On the way Harvey,a boat builder by trade
decided to drive his Bond 875 into a shallow puddle, unfortunately
it wasn't as shallow as he hoped so it ended up looking like a
Bond Ranger boat,we had a few laughs trying to get it back on
dry land. You can't bank on the British weather so it was nice
to have not 1 but 2 Bar B Que.’s during Saturday Evening,
one before the pub and one after.Sunday Morning was spent packing
the tents,we then had a run out to the science museum at Wroughton,this
is where they keep the over capacity from the stock at Kensington,it
contains loads of motor related stuff including a Mark A Bond.There
is also planes,farm equipment,push bikes,motor cycles and a BMW
Isseta. Its another place worth checking out if your in that neck
of the woods. I'd like to thank Jeff for putting this event on
also cheers for all the other rally organisers in 1999 and thanks
for all you Bug club members that flew the flag for the club this
year,see you all again next year.
Happy Motoring ...Ivan...