Glad I never went today then...
Track day should be better... plus more people? Hopefiully
Well i've just come back from Donnington and I'm not impressed.
The car parking organisation was terrible
The cost (10 pounds per person, 2 pounds if you've got a kit car) is a rip off.
The number of exhibitors is rather poor
The autojumble is third empty and only consisted of 1 tent.
The westfield and caterham car section where over half empty.
Caterham didn't even have a stand inside the hall - makes you wonder.
VERY VERY unimpressed.
On a positive side,
I got to see a number of locost builders and have a good long chat with them.
Spent ages on the Stuart Taylor stand outside gossiping and drooling.....
Got to look at MK's GT1 again - it just looks better and better evey time i see it.
In fact the only thing that made the show worth while was the gossiping with friends.
Perhaps tomorrow will be better with the track day.
Mike,
Glad I never went today then...
Track day should be better... plus more people? Hopefiully
I have to say i was dissapointed with the Saturday turnout. Lets hope the Sunday crowd have more positive things to say.
Re the parking - we ended up in the Westfield Only bit (I went in convoy with one Westy and another Stuart Taylor) - a few stalwarts were giving my
car a right looking over (and it wasn't because they thought it was a lovely example either)!
We only saw about 8 locosts too - didnt see any flags for MKOC either?
I went down with a bit of a shopping list - bought some carpet, some rubber undercoat (sold by the oldest man in the world), and two reflectors (80p),
but most of the important stuff just wasn't available, or I can get it cheaper locally.
And I thought the stalls are going a bit Max Power (all blue LEDS and stuff).
Dave & Dick - big apologies, firstly we got to Donny after 1 - left later than expected. Then I lost the bit of paper with tel no.s and who wanted
what on! I didn't see one person who I knew.
For me, Newark is now the show to meet at.
On the way home, one of the cars had a bit of an electrical issue. Took us five hours to get back to Leeds!
All the best,
Mark
[Edited on 14/9/03 by Mark H]
Have to agree with mike here - very disapointed... still parted with another £500 though!
And got caught out by the accident on the M1, wifey ended up helping out for a while (perils of marrying a nurse)
Hope no-one from here was involved....
[Edited on 14/9/03 by protofj]
[Edited on 14/9/03 by protofj]
Not too impressed either, v poor spares/uto jumble section. Was forced to but stainless bolts from the "rip off merchant" as he was the only
one selling the stuff.
Bought some carpet and a few other small bits and bobs. I have never been to Donny before and wont be too keen to go rushing back.
Was looking to meet up with a couple of you guys off here to put a face to the avitar!, but couldnt find the MK area and didnt know where else to try
and meet up.
I agree it is a bit worrying that W£stfield and Caterpork didnt have stands inside.
IMHO not worth the 10 quid, only good thing was that there was no big cue to get in, hmmmmmmmmmmmm doesnt that say something too?
Also what is the deal with all the max power shite and who the F*ck said people could sell mobile phone covers, it all takes away from the whole ethos
of the show IMO.
Col
[Edited on 14/9/03 by colmaccoll]
At least one bloke was happy enough. See pic below.
Rescued attachment Donny03.JPG
It was worth 2 quid, just to see the girl in the skimpy white outfit, near ST's stand.
Things kinda went downhill after that!
Al
Wadders
that must have been about the time you drove past us at the bar
some of you must have been to a different show,the mkoc stand had cars a plenty,we had a whale of a time ill agree about the size of the show
though,id like to say thanx to all who turned up and entertained me,provided 5* facilities and entertainment jasper for not frightening me
toooooooooooo much on the track and last but definatley not least to hicost,sorry about your misshap and we all hope you are better very soon.
quote:
Originally posted by theconrodkid
the mkoc stand had cars a plenty.
Bloody hell conrod, wer'e they under a cammo net or summat? without a word of a lie we walked round the field 3 times and never found them. gave up in the end and went for a coffee and another look at the girlie in white, fnurk!
p.s for all we take the p#iss out of Robin hoods, what a turn out they had, quite impressive ( the turn out you understand, not the cars).
Al.
MikeR - 14/9/03 at 07:23 PMMK had his stand in the hall and the MKOC had their cars right next to the 'normal' car enterance road. If you came in a kit car you wouldn't have gone any where near them!
So it seems Today was a better show - oh well, always the way. At least today i got on with some car building (slowly!)
chrisg - 14/9/03 at 07:29 PMI've been thinking for some time that the kit car shows are going down hill, I havent been to Donington this time but I've been to all the others and there's definately a trend towards less manufacturers and more dross.
we've had fudge stalls, model car racing etc.
The catering is terrible and expensive and the cost rises every year.
I think I'll be going to Newark next year, unless it clashes with Le Mans.
Cheers
Chris
blueshift - 14/9/03 at 07:37 PMHurrah, we found the MK owners. mostly by recognising the tent thing from photo albums and spotting a familiar looking face or two..
not before we'd wandered up to the loCUST owners club and asked them if they were locosts.. "NO!"
I think they have aluminium envy. I mean, a plywood bodyshell.. fnar
I've never been to an event like that before but I had a great time. bought some useful cheap tools, got a copy of building and modifying kit car suspension and brakes, which I don't think amazon have, talked to Mr. M of MK Engineering about him doing a dedion axle for locosts (answer: no), had a ride in Jasper's car (thanks -weeeeeeee!), talked crap, ate crap, drank beer, watched films, got sunburned, argued with conrodkid about jap cars..
theconrodkid - 14/9/03 at 07:37 PMwadders,we were next to the porsche wannabees,spotted the girlie in white thou
MK Goldrush - 14/9/03 at 08:40 PMWe went on Sunday and I'm sure Westfled had a stand inside. Or do my eyes deceive me? Yep, deffo Westfled!
MKOC was pretty easy to find - as was the MK Track Trials, got some pretty good pic's of em too! The MK Test was easily the most frequented and busy...
Rescued attachment mk4up.jpg
bob - 14/9/03 at 09:25 PMA big sorry to those who couldnt find the area,my fault i'm afraid
.
I got there early friday afternoon and thought since the the field was empty a corner plot would be a good idea,better than being buried in the middle i thought.
Pinned the banner in facing the road of entry,i also thought this was a good idea.
Trouble is limelight exhibitions do not penn any areas for us unlike Newark who couldnt have helped us more and are much better organised,we also only have the one 10ft x 2ft banner at the moment so maybe we could do with another and also a flag or two.
The end result of not having penned or roped off areas = club next door pushes you off the edge,we did have some room and a nice little turn out of cars too incuding some room for locost builders which was nice.
Covin car club who were next to us did have far more cars turn up than us and did need room,i havnt got a problem with that but limelight exhibitions should really take a look at newark promotions efforts IMO.
THE SHOW
Yep most of you who have been the show over the years will probably agree the best things were the weather and the track on sunday.
[Edited on 14/9/03 by bob]
mr loo - 14/9/03 at 11:14 PMthe show was brillant,parked at mkoc. suppose i better join now
Rob Lane - 15/9/03 at 09:07 AMI arrived at 12 noon Sunday and couldn't find anyone around, eventually found 5 Locosts parked near Robin Hood guys, so I parked behind the 'Newark Show Best Locost Winner' car.
The show had the best turnout of kit cars it's ever had. The caterhams outnumbered the westfields and there was a very large turnout of Robin Hoods.
That said, the catering was expensive, the autojumble or parts sellers were very poor.
Midland Wheels Supplies had about 6 stands, it was they who made the parts sellers look anything like usable. They sell the flashy shiny bits etc. Usually junk!
I too wanted some stainless fastenings but would not buy from the one stall who was a rip off with prices. There have been better than that at other shows.
I'm not surprised at the lack of stalls selling though. We enquired after a stall and the cost put us off at £125 per metre.
It must be difficult to put on this show and get the price balance right, although I believe they would be better served by slashing the parts stall pitch prices, to attract more entries and more buyers.
To put it in perspective. I once tried to hire Donington to put on a Locost Club day. Three years ago, the cost of the track alone was £12,000 for 6 hours with 1 hour break (Planning Regs). The hire of the main hall was £15,000 with heating and lighting extra. Staff and facilities were charged extra per unit cost. i.e. per man!
I assume that's why the £2 cover charge for kit cars. If they publish attendance figures then it would be possible to get a breakdown of the event. Even so I reckon they are making £k's.
[Edited on 15/9/03 by Rob Lane]
Wadders - 15/9/03 at 10:10 AMYou should have shouted up mate, i'd have stopped and let you buy me a pint]
]Originally posted by Viper
Wadders
that must have been about the time you drove past us at the bar
Jasper - 15/9/03 at 11:21 AMAs usual it was badly organised (including the track day), but there was still plenty to see and a great time was had.
My first time out on a big grown up track and the car behaved impecably and went like a b*stard all day long - fantastic fun even with a few w*nker drivers and lots of red flags.
Great weather - lots of builders camping over - and a noticable absense of northeners??????????
Peteff - 15/9/03 at 01:51 PMSunday about 11.30 till 4.30. Didn't see anybody obviously locost related, said it before, sort out some hats Chris. Had a good look round, went to the pits where the MK crew were doing their stuff and had a couple of hours lounging round on the infield. Went in my locost so I missed the MOCK (
yours, Pete.
locoboy - 15/9/03 at 02:45 PMand they bring the missus to every event and all those old dears seem to have a seat welded to their arse and a picknic basket glued to the side of it. I have never seen one of them get in the chair, they just seem to be in it all the time, i think they arrive at the show already mounted in the chair!
Chazzy - 15/9/03 at 03:39 PMLOL! its the main reason my girlfrind won't do shows with me, she won'tsit in a chair reading or knitting all day. "Havn't they got a life" she used to ask.
I went both days (I live close) sat very empty, sunday chocca!
Forgot to bring driving licence so had to be content with being thrown around the track in Raw Engineering's striker. after that i was glad i wasn't on track. there were some BIG speed differentials out there.
mackie - 16/9/03 at 02:52 PMI was only on track for a few laps with Jasper but I was track-side most of the day and it did seem a bit hairy! That Cossie was certainly giving it some and spewing god knows what out the back on lift off. There was a particularly fast turbo Nova too, quite impressive to be honest!
I had a pretty good time, met some good chaps and talked locost.
Wishes go out to Hicost for a speedy recovery too.
GO - 16/9/03 at 04:09 PMCouldn't make it at all this year unfortunately, so I missed whats sounds like the main attraction...
someone must have a picture of the bird in white...
Dunc - 16/9/03 at 04:20 PMI was considering going, went last year and thought the trade stalls were poor compared to other shows. Decided to go to the airshow at Leuchars and it was cr*p. Really cr*p. Wished I'd went to Donnington instead.
Mark H - 16/9/03 at 06:17 PMquote:
Decided to go to the airshow at Leuchars and it was cr*p. Really cr*p. Wished I'd went to Donnington instead.
It must have been really crap!
That bird in the white outfit was nowhere near as fine as the two birds at Newark with only a g-string and rather small bikini top each, keeping what can only be described as top tits covered up.
If Mrs H is reading this, I didn't notice this myself you understand!
Metal Hippy - 16/9/03 at 06:33 PMYou mean those two birds you noticed and pointed out to me in the distance Mark?
Mark H - 16/9/03 at 06:37 PMBut once I'd lost sight of them the stalking really did finish!
Metal Hippy - 16/9/03 at 06:39 PMWe saw them when we were on the way to meet your missus.... You even had the nerve to go see them after we met up with her I seem to remember.
Brave.
Mark H - 16/9/03 at 06:44 PMYou are mistaken, youth
bob - 16/9/03 at 07:14 PMGet yourselves down to specsavers,one of the birds at newark was alright i spose but the blond one was
The bird in white at donington must have beenleft there from a bike meet,a bit pot bellied i thought.
My standards are high
LOL
Metal Hippy - 16/9/03 at 07:30 PMI'm sure Mrs Bob is delighted....
Peteff - 16/9/03 at 07:44 PMWas she the one selling raffle tickets at £2. I nearly bought one.
yours, Pete.
Mark H - 16/9/03 at 08:42 PMI didn't really notice her face mate. Perhaps my standards are lower. Remember I live in Leeds.
blueshift - 17/9/03 at 03:38 AMCan't say I thought too much of the bird at donnington. She tried to sell us a £2 raffle ticket, I explained that we needed our quids. She protested it was only £2, I said we can get two old steel wheels with tyres down the dump for that.
"what are you going to do with two old steel wheels?"
"stick them on the back and do donuts until they go bang."
"ah, fair enough"
she approached us the next day too, then remembered us as "the guys with the good excuse"
Rob Lane - 17/9/03 at 08:41 AMIf it's the girls selling the tickets to win a Ferrari, then beware of parting with any money unless you want a long wait.
What a con, they have been selling these tickets for over a year now. One of the conditions for winning the car is that they have sold enough tickets to cover the cost!!
That's why they are still selling them a year later, £160k for Ferrari, plus show fees plus girls fees plus organisers profit, plus expenses etc etc.
blueshift - 19/9/03 at 11:52 PMMy donnington pics are up at http://www.leetfighter.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=donnington btw.
Metal Hippy - 20/9/03 at 06:27 AMPicture 15....
Definitely Uncle Dazza.
You can tell him a mile off.
