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The 2021 Waldron Classic Car and Bike Show

Image of Terry SmithTERRY SMITH visits The 2021 Waldron Classic Car and Bike Show.

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We are very lucky that there are many events throughout the country where you can pop down and spend a summers day looking at classic vehicles. Not far from where I live, we have the various events held at Tinkers Park at Hadlow Down, and the excellent 3-day event called the Festival of Transport held over the August Bank Holiday weekend at Hellingly, just north of Hailsham.

A couple of weeks before the event, social media became awash with ads for, and friends mentioning the Rotary Club in the area was organising a classic car and bike show at Waldron. I did wonder about this as Waldon is a very small village, close to the town of Heathfield, and having a show boasting 300 plus pre-entries I was wondering how they could handle such an event. Having missed the cut off for pre-registration for the Chevrolet, I moseyed on down as a simple visitor in our 25-year-old Escort convertible with my camera in tow.

As it turned out the village couldn’t handle the massively increased traffic in the area and there were jams and frayed tempers from show goers and locals alike. In the end the idea of driving all the way was abandoned, and I parked up in a lane, walking the rest of the way to the show field. Thankfully it was worth the effort, as there was a wealth of vehicles on show.

Nothing is more quintessentially British than a classic Jaguar. Here we have two, in the foreground we have the post-war XK120 roadster, while behind is a ‘Morse’ type MKII saloon from the 1960’s.

The VW Beetle was debuted just before WWII and was made in Germany up to 1973, before being replaced by the Golf. This is one of the later Beetles from 1971 and was classified as the 1302 model.

The cute pre-war Austin Seven cars are tiny. Still, they needed to be as the Seven referred to the car’s horsepower rating, although confusingly at the time it actually referred to its engine’s cubic capacity of 700 and not its engines actual power output.

Power was no issue for this 7.4 litre engine Plymouth Roadrunner from 1971. Looking similar to the Dodge Charger, this car could reach 60 mph in 6.5 seconds and a top speed of 130mph. As well as its sister, the Charger, both have featured in the Fast and Furious movies over the last 20 years.

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Once a very common sight on UK roads, the Ford Cortina was the country’s bestselling car. This however is the mega-rare two door version of the Mk V which was produced up to the introduction of the ‘Jelly mould’ Sierra of 1983.

Now we are talking - a classic Mercedes convertible. This is the 190SL built between 1955 and 1963 before being replaced by the squarer ‘Pagoda roof’ version. While not priceless, cars like this and the Jaguar XK120 are ‘money in the bank’ investments and can still be enjoyed on the road by their owners.

Lovers of films based on the books of Steven King will recognise this 1957 Plymouth Fury two door coupe as the star of ‘Christine’. You can image every time the owner stops in this American classic, people will ask “Is that the car that featured in the movie…”

Escort XR3s especially the very early ones like this car first registered in 1981 are rare, very rare. Note I left off the ‘I’ in its description as early cars like this did not come with fuel injection but a Webber twin-choke. I can’t remember the last time I saw a carburetted version, or one this nice.

Although I couldn’t take mine, there were two ’57 Chevys at the event. Like mine, this one was not standard, featuring a huge 7.5 litre Chevrolet motor and other up-rated parts. Many 50s Chevys have been hot-rodded over the years and modified ones must now outweigh the standard versions of the cars.

Most of the cars on display in Waldron have been reproduced over the years as diecast models so maybe its time to get some of them out their boxes place then in rows on a model grass mat add a few figures and take some pictures of your own diecast model car show – we would love to see som pictures. Email them into forecourt@gaugemaster.com

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