The
UK MX-5 owners' club had been invited to the launch of a new book published by
Haynes and written by Liz Turner. It was held at the Haynes Motor Museum in
Sparkford on a wet'n'windy Sunday afternoon.The
UK MX-5 owners' club had been invited to the launch of a new book published by
Haynes and written by Liz Turner. It was held at the Haynes Motor Museum in
Sparkford on a wet'n'windy Sunday afternoon.
The weather, in fact, was forecast to be much worse than it actually turned out on the day. The forecasters had been laying it on thick about us catching the tail of a hurricane that had just left the USA. The wind was up and the rain was down, but it didn't feel like gale force, although it did loosen plenty of leaves which would test somebody's driving skills later in the day...
A total of 6 cars from our region met up at Magor Services on the M4 at 10am for the drive down; a few less than expected, but not bad considering the weather forecast. 2 Black, 1 Silver, 1 Green, 1 Bronze and 1 Blue; not a single Red one!
We were joined by Les and Tricia in their 6 month old Black MK-2.5, and Ceri and Lindsey who recently appeared at one of our meetings in their beautiful Black '93 Roadster with Red Leather upholstery.
We decided we had plenty of time to get there, so went for a bit of breakfast in the services. It was during breakfast that a call to the museum revealed the do was supposed to start earlier than we thought at 11am, so we headed straight down the motorway to make up time.
We only got lost once on the way there, but the historic town of Somerton was worth the flying visit, even if it wasn't actually on the route.
We
actually got to the museum with plenty of time to spare and joined up with a
total of about 70 cars from all over. We caught all of the
speeches and welcome tea and biscuits (not sure what happened to the buffet that
was mentioned in previous E-mails).
We were all asked to go out in the wind and rain to take part in the publicity shots for the book. First a group picture with everyone and then, a bit bizarrely, a picture with only the ladies in (can't you just hear the "hairdressers' car" by-lines). After we'd pushed our way to the front row of the pictures, we had a spot of lunch then went in to buy our signed copies of the book and wander around the museum.
We
even had our own publicity shot taken with Liz.
Michelle and I decided to make a few small purchases whilst we were there.
After an enjoyable afternoon in the museum (so many Red cars), we set off for home. This time avoiding the motorway as we weren't so pressed for time and promptly got lost within 50 yards of the museum gates. We drove through Cheddar Gorge, and it was there that the "wrong kind of leaves" caused a bit of a heart-stopping incident when the car in front of our group lost its back end on a bend (presumably on the leaves) and did a neat 90 degree slide right in front of our car before coming to a halt slewed across the road. We had to brake and because there was nowhere else to go, we ended up with our nearside in the mud narrowly avoiding the bank, but thankfully avoiding the car.
Everyone passed this test with flying colours, because although we were in close formation, nobody connected and we all moved into the nearest lay-by to have a chat and a laugh with the poor soul who had had the slide. He was OK as were we all, but he did look a bit shaken by it.
The rest of the journey home was uneventful but enjoyable, passing along the A38, then M49/M4 back to Magor services where we split up to head home.
All in all a nice day out with some welcome "newcomers" who we hope to see at future events and the possibility of seeing our smiling faces in the press soon.
Thanks to Ray and Clive for the photographs.
Hi Ho Silver