British Car Day 2005
Lily Pons, Md
By Jay Snavely
This was our first trip to Lily Pons for the annual Original British Car Day. We caravanned with about 7 others for the trip down route 15, thru Buckeystown, to Lily Pons water gardens. The grounds were very nice, with a lot of aquatic plants, and purple martins swooping overhead. We even fed some giant gold fish in a large pond. What was lacking was trees, and their shade, as it was in the 90's. Our best purchase of the day was a beach umbrella. There was a good variety of food available this year.
The cars were divided into many classes. We were in 48, the TR7 and 8 class. This turned out to be an easy class, as compared to the other TR classes. There were a grand total of 0, that is, zilch, nada, TR7's there. Unless you count the one that has a 4.8L Rover engine in it. That was a highly modified car, red with the bumpers painted silver, and a red interior and cloth top. Very nicely done, but not for everyone's taste. Elsie does say she would buy it! The TR8's accounted for the other 2 cars in the class. We narrowly beat out the other two to come home with a First place pewter plate. The bad news was that the presentations were held up, and it was after 4:00 before we finally got the awards. They had a podium setup in front of the store, but there was no one there anymore to listen to the announcements as the awards were handed out. The lady told us that they were delayed a long time because a lot of people had not pre-registered and were not in their data base. I'm not sure how that actually was a problem, but I'll take her word for it. A lot of people may have won, if they had sat around in the sweltering heat long enough to find out.
The Stag class had 4 cars. None from our club.
During the afternoon, we walked around to vote for the cars, but didn't do a thorough job because it was too hot to spend a lot of time in the sun. There was a lady named Kathleen Mangan that came by and asked about our car. She also has a TR8, Persian Aqua, that she got Woody to do a lot of engine work to recently. She also mentioned that she is an editor for Grass Roots/Motorsports magazine. So she may be writing an article about the show.
And as far as cars For Sale, there were none there that looked like good buys. I only remember one TR6, and it was overpriced at $10,000.
It was a nice show, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if the temp had been in the 80's.