Classic vehicle enthusiasts look to the sky as Tiger Moth drops by
IT was a sport of kinds, sitting, glass in hand, behind the high hedge of The Bell’s beer garden, trying to identify by engine sound only what was roaring up the road on the other side.
On two wheels, four and even three, they were heading to the field behind the CAMRA award-winning pub for the latest informal classic cars and bikes meet on Sunday afternoon.
The meet always attracts a good gathering of classics and customs, passion projects and pristine ‘pride and joys’.
And this unseasonably hot and sunny Sunday attracted a great turn out, with a number of children taking an interest in the line-up of vehicles.
Among them shortly after buzzing the drinkers, circling the pub in his Tiger Moth, Frilsham villager Robert Woods and his 13-year-old grandson Harry arrived in a 1928 Austin 7. “750cc... and it goes at 30mph!” declared Mr Woods, who has owned it for 20 years or more.
Comparing it with a neighbouring parked-up Alvis, he added: “She’s a bit dirty, but that’s all right.”
Barry Pocock from Curridge has owned his 1989 Lomax – a British kit car based on mechanical components of the Citroën 2CV – for around four years and “like an old car, I’m always messing about with it”.
And a bit like buses you might never have seen a Lomax before, but then another turns up.
Ten-year-old Alfie and Brooke (13) took delight in climbing aboard Ray Prior’s 1959 BMW Isetta, which he restored 12 years ago.
“It’s the very one that started me off on my venture with weird and wonderful cars,” said the Hampstead Norreys collector of curiosities.
With its egg shape and bubble-like windows, it became known as a bubble car, mass-produced but not built to last, which is why this one is a rare specimen.
Fledgling petrolheads Archie and Louis Miles, aged five and three, made a beeline for Dave Avery’s Rolls Royce 2025 which he’s owned for some 15 years and In that time he’s rebuilt the engine and “straightened the mudguard”. He drove over from Mapledurham.
Colleen Killingback was a passenger in an NG TC 4.6L V8. NG Cars was founded in 1978 by vehicle aeronautical engineer Nick Green who went on to design a number of MG-based sports cars which gained a reputation for their engineering integrity. This model in lightweight fibreglass combined with the Rover V8 230bhp propels the car to a top speed of 140mph. 1930s style combined with 21st century performance. Bought in 2000, the car remained in the family for a decade until the current owner’s father died and it was regretfully sold in 2011. But “I loved the car and the memories it gave me and so we set about tracking it down. In 2019 I was fortunate enough to bring it back home.”
And joining the contingent of bikers Blewbury motorcyclist Michael Kowalczuk, a regular to the meets, rode up on his 1954 Norton – with 1951 Vincent engine which he admitted to having blown up three times, last rebuilding it just three months ago.
