New England in June

There's lots to do in the top right corner this month, starting this weekend:

June 9 - 11: The Bristol (RI) British Car Festival (http://www.britishmotorcarfestival.com/) The big concours is on Saturday. The location is right on the water, and there's lots of interesting things to see in the area.

June 22 - 24, The Thompson (CT) Vintage festival (http://www.thompsonspeedway.com/events/4th-annual-vintage-motorsports-festival-presented-racing-junk)

Good fun, I hope to take the Tiger down again this year.

June 25: British Car Day at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline, MA (http://larzanderson.org/events/lawn-events/2017lawnevents/british-car-day/)

The lawn is usually full with 200+ British cars of every imaginable stripe. This is the 30th year for this event.

I hope to be at all three, the weather and the Prince of Darkness permitting...

Stu

July 7-9 Mt. Washington Climb To The Clouds.

The Thompson festival is fun, I'll be racing the spitfire there again. The feature race is big bore car. We have a few old Trans AM and B Production cars from our org (Historic Racing Group)going as well. Fan friendly, open paddock, lots of good viewing spots.

mike h

British Car Day at Larz Anderson is always a blast, the gyp in Bristol is just that . . . a big fat gyp !

Just a money making machine, look at the web page and add up what it's gonna cost you and ask why? Without the car owners there wouldn't be a "festival' why berkeley them in the ass ? ! ? ! ?

I went to the Brit Festival in Bristol, RI today (Sunday, the only day I could make it). Pretty sad. Maybe 25 mediocre British cars tops. The guy at the gate who collected my ten dollar admission (a half hour before) on my way out told me "you shoulda been here yesterday ... there were 190 British cars here." Well, that stinks. Today I spent $5 to park and $10 to get in, and there are only an eighth of the cars there as yesterday? That's a problem the organizers really need to rectify. Otherwise, it should be a one day event ... Saturday only.

I'll pass on your comments to the event organizer. Meanwhile here's a link to over 300 pictures of Friday and Saturday's events. I was there Thursday,Friday and Saturday most of the folks I talked to really enjoyed both the venues and the show. https://alanroseman.smugmug.com/Automobilia/British-Motorcar-Festival/i-83Zc2k2

These pictures were taken by the BMCNE photographer Alan Roseman.

"I went to the Brit Festival in Bristol, RI today . . . "

And all of that's the problem with that E36 M3-fest. Like I said, just a means to make money, no regard for the hobby or anyone in it; reminds me in a way of the big British Car show up in Vermont.

If this behavior was present in British Car dealer/seller/repair or restoration shop, word-of-mouth would have already put them out of business, since it's an "event" there's been WAY too much latitude given. Next year everyone ought to just stay home-force some changes be made rather than shelling out five to park, ten to get in, or close to a hundred in the end to be on the show field !

This event organizer is just a vajajay, time to treat him like one . . .

I was at Bristol on Saturday, also pricey and disappointing. Noticeably smaller than last year. I did get to chat with a few friends, helped to recruit a new member for our club, and had a good excuse to have a great lunch at a little place right on the water in town. But I did hear some speculation that it might not happen next year...

The Tiger may not make it to the other two events I mentioned at the start of this thread, Thompson and Brookline. I had it out for a drive on Sunday, and noticed the ammeter pointing very slightly negative with the headlights on. Add the driving lights, about 8 - 9 more amps of load, and the pointer goes further negative. Never did that before. I did make it home from Portland Maine one time on just the battery (3 hours), but that was a fresh battery, which is not the case now. So I've got some troubleshooting to do, and hope I can promptly source any replacements bits I'll need.

Stu

Sure hope that you can make it to the Larz Anderson event. We crave Tigers and go each year mainly for the less seen cars like yours. Sometimes too many MGBs and later Jags, but this event always brings out the more rare and beautiful and unusual British Cars. The museum holds the very best shows around.

It's also an excuse to stop at Simcos on the Bridge on the way home for some delicious hotdogs and fries. Like the cars in the museum events, the very best around.

I couldn't make it to Larz Anderson today. (Stu, hope the parking went well ). But I did make it to Thompson on Friday and Saturday and it was very nice. It's certainly not Labor Day weekend at Lime Rock mind you, but it was a nice low key vintage club event with a lot of great historic cars and friendly, sociable people. Sorta like an SCCA Regional race in the sixties. And our friend Tom Letourneau ("Ran When Parked") was driving a golf cart moving spectators around on Friday! Admission was eighteen bucks for seniors, twenty otherwise. Definitely well worth it. And it's only a 45 minute Miata drive from my house, all back roads. Saw forum members Mike H. (OF Racing), Stu B. (Stu67tiger) and Nial M. (Aeronca). It was a great event that I now look forward to every year. Thanks to VRG and VSCCA!

And incidentally, I learned about an old college friend, fellow car nut, and long time SCCA NER member and competitor by meeting his grandson. RIP Harold Loos.

As Gary said, Thompson was a nice low key wallet friendly event, and quite local for both of us. It was enjoyable talking to Gary and Mike. I didn't know that was Tom on the golf cart. The Tiger stayed home, as the morning was quite wet. It was fun watching all those folks with their tops down for the parade laps, get caught on track during the day's final deluge...

A couple quick photos from the weekend. First Thompson:

That's Phil Perron in his Alpine, just before the engine problem (most likely a cracked head). A few more are at:

http://www.pbase.com/sb_photos/thompson2017

British Car Day at Brookline. Great day, 200+ cars.

Three new Morgan Trikes, two Marcos, a HRG, an Ariel Atom, along with the usual mix of the more common marques. Quite a variety that day. More photos at:

http://www.pbase.com/sb_photos/laambcd2017

Stu

It was good to see old friends again, lots of social aspects to this event. I had a blast racing two sprites, they really kept me on my toes.

mike h

Mike, I saw you chase that Sprite all the way back to his stall in the garage after the race. I was standing right there. I saw it all. Good stuff! Doesn't get any better than that, regardless of the venue.

I guess you should have had the GoPro facing forward for that race... Too bad I missed most of it, I was helping Phil get ready in the Alpine.

Stu

In reply to Gary:

I get to do it again this weekend at the Glen with one of the sprites and a cooper.

mike