Basingstoke festival of transport

9th May 2010
 

Andy, Taz and all the monkeys- thanks for the hospitality and camaraderie. The lads and I had a great day.

-Goforest (VW beach buggy)

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Yep, another great day despite the weather not being the best.
Great to put more names to faces! What a friendly bunch we all are!

-Clive (Honda café racer)

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The weather wasn’t great, which meant that there weren’t the numbers of public as the last few years, but it was still a good day out. And the Manky Monkey area was without a doubt the busiest there again. Well done to all & a HUGE thanks to Andy & Taz for the invite again.

-Dave Two Lanes (Dodge drag car)

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Well praying to the Sun Gods and such didn't do a lot of good cos the sun didn't manage to get through the clouds but the rain held off apart from a few spots and I reckon a good day was had by all! I even got home dry in spite of the clouds looking rather threatening.
Good to meet you all, the ones I've met before and the ones I haven't -learnt a few names to faces today but talked to a lot that I have no idea who they are -maybe we should have had name badges!
Oh, and thanks for the doughnuts!

-Biker Gran (Kawasaki trike)

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Just got home. A bit cold but fine otherwise, thanks to all for a very pleasant day.
Off for a hot bath now.

-Doc (Suzuki trike)

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A good day out and I buggered off before the gazebo had to be taken down!

-Renegade (Triumph saloon)

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Good to meet a few more Monkeys today. The club stand looked great.
Only problem is I’ve fallen in love with the Manky trike style. I want one -Argh, no more vehicles!

-Neil G (’55 Chevy)

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What a great day. Glad to have been there and met you all. Don’t care what anyone else thinks, the sun shone down on our area!

-Cabman (Yamaha Virago)

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I had a great day and even though the weather sucked, (after the forecast on my telly said sun, sun, sun -note to self -don't believe them next time), it was still great to meet more Monkeys and put some more faces to names. Thanks to Tanya and Andy for all the organisation they put into the event.

-Jay Jay (Reliant trike)

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Glad you all had a good day, even though the weather wasn't at it's best, at least to start with.
Thank you all so very much for coming and making the day what it was. Without you lot we wouldn't have had much of a pitch.
Manky & I both tried to make sure we spoke to everyone, but if we missed you, thank you.
As we said last year, other clubs may have had posher exhibits, but we had all the cool stuff!

-Tazet (Reliant trike)

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Yes, there's an awful lot of running about beforehand, desperately trying to organise things, chasing people for favours, sorting out transport for our perpetually unfinished projects etc, but it's worth every minute of it when you lot start rolling in.
A couple of last minute cancellations & a break down for one of Goforest's VW beach buggy troop, but otherwise all present & accounted for. I know it's just a little local show & the weather wasn't on our side early in the morning, but we were so proud to have you all there. Yeah, we may have been the scruffy bunch in the corner of the club field, but I reckon we gave the big money classic car clubs a run for their money. We definitely had all the cool stuff! As several people observed, we had a wider selection of interesting vehicles than every other stand. Others may have had neat rows of lovingly polished cars, all the same in different colours, but we had drag cars, hotrods, trikes, bikes, quads, Yanks, Brits ...a bit of everything. I can't believe you lot all made the effort to get there for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon. We had vehicles from the West Country, the South Coast, Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Essex, Kent & even Hertfordshire.
We started off trying to arrange you all in neat rows but that just ain't us is it. Despite my efforts to shuffle things around into some semblance of order, it pretty soon slid into our usual chaotic mish mash of machines. Ah well, just go with the flow. The 6 man crack gazebo building team struggled valiantly with poles & canvas & no instructions, more Dads Army than commando team, to eventually produce a passable imitation of a tent -which promptly tried to blow away. Good job I'd made a handful of tent pegs the night before. Somehow we managed to end up with 4 spare poles & a box of canvas left over. We filled it with comfy chairs & donut supplies & it became home for the afternoon -the gazebo, not the cardboard box, though that may have been more structurally sound.
The drizzly start to the day slowly cleared & although we didn't get the scorching heatwave of last year's show, it was warm enough for a family of punters to stop for a picnic on the grass in front of Ken's Corvette. The 11.o.clock start time soon came around & from then on it was non stop until late afternoon. Familiar faces appeared from the crowds to say Hello. Other forum members came over to say hello. Complete strangers came up to say Hello. A thousand conversations were had, hands were shaken, donuts were munched -this socialising business is hard work!
As far as I could see, every vehicle on our pitch attracted it's fair share of interest. An awful lot of photos were taken by the general public & they weren't shy about stopping us & asking questions. Someone pointed out that most of the other car clubs there consisted of a row of shiny machines & a small tent full of owners who had no interest in engaging with their audience, preferring to ignore the public & chat amongst themselves. The Manky crew actively encouraged Joe Public to come & take a look though. Dave Two Lanes in particular deserves an honorable mention for his tireless showmanship -come & have a sit in my dragster little boy -well, he had a queue of eager lads waiting their turn all day anyway.
The weather may have kept visitor numbers down -they certainly didn't match the 20,000 of last year, but I reckon every one of them found their way to us eventually & would've discovered something there to interest them.
Well done chaps. We're very, very proud of you all. 

-Manky (Ford Pop pick-up & Reliant trike)