15 cars assembled in the Bonnie Prince car park early in the morning ready for the run to Tatton. The weather was glorious prompting comments of ‘It was like this when we set off last year and then chucked it down when we got there!’ - oh ye of little faith…

Before I had left the house for the drive to the Bonnie Price I had a call from Steve Harrison asking if we could wait ten minutes for Matt Holt. When I asked what the problem was Steve took great delight in telling me that Matt’s car was stuck – on his drive! The low-riding MkII had finally got its sub-frame stuck on the floor. Luckily some brute force and ignorance saw them arrive in time!

We were soon all ready to go as for once Mark Blake wasn’t late – he couldn’t come – and set off for the steady drive there.

It was an uneventful drive, apart from the Audi that decided to change lanes without warning straight into the path of Matt Holt who promptly locked up and caused those following to brake/scatter/panic/need a change of underwear (delete as applicable!).

Apparently the Audi driver and his passenger then had to face the humiliation of being passed by dub after dub and their drivers all passing suitable comment on his driving talents! However, this just goes to show the wisdom of observing the speed limits when in convoy…

We arrived and got parked up on the Club GTI display stand and were shortly followed by Jules Lenton and Alex Juggins who had both intended to enter the concours competition in their immaculate motors (Alex had been spamming until 11:00 o’clock the previous night before taking a few bits in the house to carry on with in bed) but were turned away as the competition was full.

Alex’s gorgeous MkII 16 valve was promptly invited to form part of the Smith Fay Knight VW dealer’s display of MkI to MkV Golf and winning him a free service at a dealership of his choice into the bargain! So that late night rubbing in bed (ahem…) paid off after all.

The weather stayed glorious all day and if it hadn’t been for the breeze would have been almost too hot. Darren Marshall was kept busy as official photographer although rumour has it that it wasn’t the car body’s he was snapping due to the need for a distinct lack of clothing!

The massive multi-class concours was full to brimming with some nice, carefully prepared cars both standard and modified.

The cars for sale section was well subscribed but there were quite a few very tatty water-cooled cars priced way over the odds.

As usual there were plenty of traders present and lots of bargains to be had (again, mostly by me!). The little ‘stop-gap’ 1300 MkII that was just going to be used as transport from A to B is starting to look the business…

Due to the heat we all started to drift off back towards Derby at about three, tired but having had a great day yet again at VWNW!

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