1066 Cruisers Custom show 2008

3rd August 2008
 

1066cruisers.com MID SUMMER PICNIC.

1st - 3rd August 2008. Horns Corner, Catsfield, near Battle, East Sussex.

As the show was cancelled last year due to the field being flooded, we were all raring to go for this year’s show. However the weather once again was definitely not on our side.
The long range forecast was looking really pretty grim with rain at some point for every day from the Thursday onwards. But still on the Thursday we had to start setting up. The weather on the Thursday was really quite good although a little windy. Friday morning was a little slow with show cars starting to trundle in, but with the weather nice it was amazing to see the camp site full by late afternoon with people  converging on a little village in Sussex from all over the south east corner of the map.
The Friday night saw the 1st of the auctions, with the smaller items and lots of T shirts. The band, “Dead Calm”, knocked out some great modern covers which finished as Saturday started.
Saturday morning saw more cars coming in and unfortunately the bad weather for the weekend followed. The cruise was set to leave at 11am and in true 1066 fashion it left 10 minutes late. There must have been 50 cars weaving their way through the 1066 countryside and eventually ending up on the lawns in front of the Mermaid Inn on Bexhill seafront. With it being done in the wet it wasn’t a long stay and the cars and drivers had a swift half and made their way back to camp, although some did stay and have lunch in the Mermaid. On the Saturday afternoon we had a music quiz challenge with teams being made up from Medway Rod and Custom, the TEC Warriors, The Worthing crew and Wessex posse. The winners, who got a staggering 90 correct out of 100 questions, were the TEC Warriors headed by Chris Kennedy. The evening saw the second band, “Foul Play”, who play everything from the Sex Pistols to Oasis. That was followed by the Grand Auction, this had items donated from clubs throughout Britain and seperate individuals. These included models and pin striping panels from Tootall.info, the superb magazine from John at Hot Rod Showcase.co.uk, the Scavengers donated some great stuff including a signed print from U.S artist Keith Weesner. New club member Mark Ingram from American Restorations donated his time to do a full re-spray and that raised a great amount of money. Jonathon Sutherland made a pair of candle stick holders, one in flat black and the other nice ’n’ shiney; these were made too look like drop tube front ends with a candle in the hub at each end, but obviously in miniature scale.
We had many, many items donated. All of them fantastic and equally as many great buyers who combined raised around £2,000. The band finished off the evening rocking their way through till Sunday.
Sunday morning meant showday and the drizzly showers were still with us, but it didn’t stop the cars from coming in. We had a real mixed bag of cars turning up from a souped up shopping trolley to show stopping hot rods. We had a stock looking BSA to a top fuel drag bike, (“the Purple Princess”), from Steve Carey, with a few custom Harleys from the Harley riders club. The organisers had a play around with the layout of the land to create more space as last year it was bursting and we were struggling to fit everyone in. However the bad weather made the showfield look quite empty, although there were some 160 cars out there. This year we had a large input from the Dubz-Nuts local VW club. They brought along about a dozen stunning campers and beetles. The Capri club came along with a few cars and there were many 50s American classics, with some really stunning ‘57 Chevys. Muscle cars were aplenty and making themselves well heard in the sound off competition, which was won, not surprisingly, by Pete Grange in his 10.01 second quarter mile ’67 Mercury Cougar. The day came to an end a little earlier than expected due to the poor August weather and everyone made a safe return home. Thanks to all the sponsors and all the show goers who came along. Let’s have a better one next year.

-Scott


Trophies donated by House of Hastings, (toolsbypost.com)

Top 3 in no particular order, (participants’ choice)
Rob Shorter 1940 Ford 5 window coupe
Dave Day 1951 Chevy 3100 Stepside truck
Steve Bradshaw mk1 Pro Street Tina

Sound Off competition
Pete Grange Pro street Mercury Cougar
Kim Freeman Ford Pop

Best American Stuart Donnelly

N.A.S.C Pick  Ford Pop