Line up at Event City 2012.

  AHC NORTHERN CENTRE'S ATTENDANCE

AT THE MANCHESTER EVENT CITY CAR SHOW IN MARCH 2012

The first classic car show to be held in 2012 in the north-west was at Event City on the weekend of the 24^th and 25^th March. This is only the second year that this event, the Classic, Vintage and Performance Car Show, has been held at Event City, a large indoor events building, second in size only to the NEC we are told, located next to Barton Square and the Trafford Centre in Manchester. A former tobacco factory it has been developed by Peel Holdings as a major event and exhibition centre and the car show is organised by Cheshire Auto Promotions who have many years of experience in organising indoor and outdoor car shows in the region, particularly at Tatton Park.

 The AHC Northern Centre attended the first show last year and CAP's Stuart Holmes invited us to attend again this year. Our cars had to be delivered on Friday with a maximum of a quarter of a tank of fuel on board, presumably for health and safety reasons although the checking of the cars on arrival in this respect did not seem overly diligent. We had hoped to display a complete suite of Austin Healey cars on our stand,  but we didn't quite manage it. We  actually achieved two Sprites (Robert Thornburrow's Frogeye and Tim Valentine's Mk 2), one 100 (Ivor Davies's BN2), one 3000 Mk 1 BT7 belonging to Dave Latham, Bob Grant's 3000 Mk 11 Rally Car, three 3000 Mk 11 BJ7s belonging to Tony Curran, David Birkinshaw and Mike Stonier, and John Ridyard's 3000 Mk 111 BJ8. Nine cars in total and very fine they all looked under the indoor artificial lighting. The organisers must have been impressed with our turnout, or at the very least wanted to ensure that we make an appearance at the event next year, as the stand received a 'Highly Commended' award at the Sunday afternoon closing ceremony. There was also an award for John Ridyard's immaculate BJ8 as the best Healey on display.

 We have not seen or heard of any statistics gleened from the show as yet but it was clear to those of us who had attended both year's shows that there was a much better attendance from the public this year and we hope the show will go from strength to strength. Most of the major car marques were in attendance although there were a few notable exceptions from some of higher end clubs. Hopefully the absentees will hear the positive feedback and feel the necessity to be involved next year. Thanks to the committee members who organised our attendance, set up the stand and arranged regalia for sale and thanks in particular to Bernadette Stonier for her Sunday refreshments.

 Ivor Davies.
 

        Photos by Ivor Davies. Please click on the photo to enlarge. (Hover on picture for caption.)