A warm night in early May. At last some decent weather after months of endless rain, & everyone's up for a party.

Seemed like the whole World was at the Ace, cruising, seeing & being seen. The place was packed. Those that had made the carpark early weren't going anywhere till the night was over. Rods were squeezed in, nose to tail, with hardly room to walk between them. Impossible to get a decent photo of anything, but we did our best. The road outside was just as busy, with customs & classics constantly parading up & down, dicing with the normal evening rush hour London traffic. We were at last year's Spring Riot & this year's was easily twice as busy. Not so much laid back, as hyperactive & buzzing. Chevy Rick was there, though without his trademark truck. Dave & Janie were there too, but without the Consul. Lots of familiar faces & cars from the events we've already covered this year. Seems everyone's determined to make the most of our short English Summer & get to as many meets as possible. No chance of grabbing our customary Ace Cafe meal of chilli, cheese & chips -the queue for the bar & food counter began halfway across the carpark & never got any shorter. There was music in the air but we didn't manage to make it inside the doors to see if it was live or a DJ. Sounded good though, mixed with the constant burble & whump, whump, whump of big ol' motors in big ol' cars.

It's heartening to see the British rod scene is livelier than ever. So much enthusiasm, so many new machines, so many events pencilled in for the coming months. The Executioners always pull together the cream of the London in-crowd & the coolest cars. A dozen or more car clubs were there with their rides. The Spring Riot makes a great start to the Summer driving season. We left the party still in full swing & headed home along the A40, stopping at Starvin' Marvins diner for a late supper before tackling the roadworks of the M25. Looking forward to catching up with everyone again over the coming months.

-Manky