Jensen Monday Club

International 2008

 

Well, here we are again at the International event. Only seems like 12 months since the last one.

It was being held at Alexandra House in Wiltshire, and everyone was praying for good weather. The forecast for the weekend looked shocking. At one point in the week I had said to Steve Payne and Chris Miller I wouldn't be going if the weather was too bad. As it turns out I am typing this with sunburn. So much for weather forecasters.

Steve Payne had just got his car back from the body shop, he was hoping for a top 3 finish for his car in Bronze class. He had even had the stainless steel sill covers polished, so his car was bling-tastic. He got there at 7:45pm to start polishing...

Me and Chris were more geared up towards culinary events, so we got there at 9:30, mostly down to me forgetting to look at the satellite navigation, and going via Bristol, and not being able to find a petrol station with any fuel due to the tanker drivers strike.

It's amazing how petrol delivery drivers time their strike to coincide with the Jensen owners International event. All the local petrol stations had run out due to no deliveries, and dozens of Jensens filling up.

But get there we did, and got straight into breakfast.

Chris sets out the cooking gear

And soon has the bangers, chorizo sausage, and pigs pudding underway. This was not going to be a low calorie weekend...

Chris had nicked his kids drinking cups, so Mr Lion, Mr Crocodile, and Mr Elephant were pressed into action.

Chris tucks in

As we scoffed breakfast, the clouds were looking ominous...

But a little ray of sunshine in the form of Andy Brookes from Appleyards came to visit us. We thought he was trying to ponce a sausage butty, but no it was just a social call :0)

After a hearty feed, it was off to look at the motors. We came across the Kit-Kat family in the final polishing of "Old Rek", and infamous "ASBO" (which stands for "Anti Social Behaviour Order", which is issued to thugs and villains by the courts)

There seemed to be a lot of FF's this year.

Along with the usual Interceptors, 541s, CV8s and Healeys

 

 

Steve Hodder has added this beautiful CV-8 to go with his immaculate MK1 Interceptor

"Buzby", Sir Matt Busby, the ex Manchester United manager's, old car

The SV-8s were well represented.

All this car viewing had worked up an appetite, so it was time for lunch.

Chris has now overcome his phobia of being photographed eating, and attempts to eat the worlds largest Scotch egg.

A nice bottle of Belgian Hoegaargen washed it down.

It was time to go and see the serious polishers in Gold class.

Ultra clean 541.

The cleanest engine bay I have ever seen

Fantastic Pre War cars

Early Interceptor

And some superbly presented cars

It was now time for afternoon tiffin, so out came the cheese and biscuits (Gorgonzola and an a Cheddar with Irish Stout)

Chris tucks in

This was followed by a nice cream tea.

Chris begins to feel the pace...

So we thought we had better have a walk to burn some calories, and found these interesting items:

German CV-8 with monster headers

An Interceptor Coupe.

A hellishly expensive convertible

US Jensen owner, Ken Hipple, all the way from Pennsylvania. Ken was combining a holiday to the UK with a visit to the International. We stopped and had a good chat with him, and really seemed to be enjoying his visit.

Our glorious leader, Dave Newby

A very dapper and newly svelte Barrie Warrener, and his beautiful Bentley (his CV-8 was still under repair)

Some 17 inch Interceptor wheels

And a car on them

And another car on them...

And best of all, if you talked nicely to them they would let you take it for a test drive. All £75,000 or $150,000 worth of it.

This was after they had filled the car with petrol, which set a new record of £1:53 per litre, or £6:88 per gallon ($13:77 US)

So we did. Chris at the wheel of the S

I drove the S outwards, and very nice it was too. Chris then drove it back. Now regular readers will remember a couple of weeks ago we did the Prescott Hill Climb, and how Chris managed to destroy my rear tyres, and be the only vehicle on the day to "leave the track". Backwards.

Well, just after the first video was shot, the S suddenly went a bit wobbly...

A little TLC, and a cheery wave, and it was fixed and we were on our way back to some very relieved owners :0)

They explained that the engines computer will go into "limp home" mode if the throttle is used "too vigorously" to prevent harm to the engine.

We scarpered quickly...

P.S Steve Payne got 4th in Bronze. Not quite what he was hoping for, but better than the 7th he got last year, so forwards and onwards.