The DSG at the 2018 VBOA Annual Rally, Market Harborough Showground
On the morning of Sunday 15th July, I went to the annual Vauxhall Bedford Opel Association (VBOA) rally. I have been every single year since 1996 (many other reviews available) and so I was hardly going to miss out this year. As was the case in 2017, the event was held at the Showground in Market Harborough. I arrived at around 10am and stayed until about 12pm.
For the first time ever, my overall impression was one akin to disappointment.
On the bright side. The event was better organised than last year. Lessons had been learned and the meadows had been mowed and the overall space available had been better utilised.
The reasons for my despondency came down to fewer vehicles being displayed (at least the seventies cars that most interested me anyway); added to that, it’s just about a year since my good friend Gary Martin died. It was Gary that originally introduced me to the Vauxhall car club scene back in the nineties. As I wandered around the showground, I thought about him, so I am sure that influenced my perspective too.
Being an event stalwart, I can report that I don’t see many new cars/participants, mainly the same vehicles year after year, albeit in declining numbers. When one year’s photo album is compared to another, I find that I have taken the same photos again.
Where the event used to occupy the best part of a day for me, this year, I was all done and ready to leave after a couple of hours.
Perhaps it was the World Cup final that was discouraged visitors?
I chose to go on the Sunday because I suspected attendance on Saturday would be most affected given that England was playing Belgium. But maybe the final was more of an attraction than the play off.
The Vauxhall Viva Owners’ Club used to be one of the best represented clubs at the rally, this year, for some reason, the volume of vehicles in the club’s allocated space was the lowest I have ever seen. Maybe the club is in some kind of organisational disarray. This bothered me because Gary used to run the memorabilia operation for the club back in the day and, across a few years in a row, I helped sell the merchandise at the VBOA events at Billing Aquadrome.
In stark contrast, the Viva Outlaws Club, which used to be quite small, had managed to organise a far greater turnout, albeit only comprised of 1960s HB Vivas.
The Droop Snoot Group (DSG - I used to be a member of this club) had a reasonable turnout but it seems to have experienced diminishing returns over the last few years. Even the Opel Manta Owners’ Club attendee numbers were down.
To complicate things further, some attractive vehicles were in odd places. Of the handful of photographed vehicles never seen before, a few of them weren’t with their peers. To illustrate, one of the nicest cars I saw, a yellow 1800 Magnum coupe, was in the car park rather than on display, which was a shame. Another smart looking HC derivative was on show but some distance away from the DSG or VVOA clubs (see the green car in the photo below). Both cars would have added value to either of the aforementioned clubs’ display spaces.
Despite the observations above, there were some new (to me) interesting vehicles to look at. On the DSG stand, there was a lovely, burgundy, rally prepared Magnum 2300 and on the VVOC, there was a red Viva HB convertible with fully modernised engine and running gear. With that car, I did find myself wondering if the cost associated with the conversion would have been reflected in the value of it afterwards. The purist in me wasn’t keen on the updates (and I didn’t like the alloys at all) but the practicalist (I made that word up) was thinking, it would be a lot more rewarding and sensible to drive with the enhancements.
And driving brings me to the end of this post - I’ll keep going to to the VBOA Annual Rally but if the current trends continue, it won’t be long before it will take me longer to drive to the event and back than I will actually spend there.
I have heard that the showground has got planning approval for housing – it might not be that long until the VBOA needs another venue re-think. Maybe a return to Billing?
Click on any image to enlarge. Higher resolution images available, just get in touch if you'd like one.
For the first time ever, my overall impression was one akin to disappointment.
On the bright side. The event was better organised than last year. Lessons had been learned and the meadows had been mowed and the overall space available had been better utilised.
The reasons for my despondency came down to fewer vehicles being displayed (at least the seventies cars that most interested me anyway); added to that, it’s just about a year since my good friend Gary Martin died. It was Gary that originally introduced me to the Vauxhall car club scene back in the nineties. As I wandered around the showground, I thought about him, so I am sure that influenced my perspective too.
Being an event stalwart, I can report that I don’t see many new cars/participants, mainly the same vehicles year after year, albeit in declining numbers. When one year’s photo album is compared to another, I find that I have taken the same photos again.
Where the event used to occupy the best part of a day for me, this year, I was all done and ready to leave after a couple of hours.
Perhaps it was the World Cup final that was discouraged visitors?
I chose to go on the Sunday because I suspected attendance on Saturday would be most affected given that England was playing Belgium. But maybe the final was more of an attraction than the play off.
The Vauxhall Viva Owners’ Club used to be one of the best represented clubs at the rally, this year, for some reason, the volume of vehicles in the club’s allocated space was the lowest I have ever seen. Maybe the club is in some kind of organisational disarray. This bothered me because Gary used to run the memorabilia operation for the club back in the day and, across a few years in a row, I helped sell the merchandise at the VBOA events at Billing Aquadrome.
In stark contrast, the Viva Outlaws Club, which used to be quite small, had managed to organise a far greater turnout, albeit only comprised of 1960s HB Vivas.
The Droop Snoot Group (DSG - I used to be a member of this club) had a reasonable turnout but it seems to have experienced diminishing returns over the last few years. Even the Opel Manta Owners’ Club attendee numbers were down.
To complicate things further, some attractive vehicles were in odd places. Of the handful of photographed vehicles never seen before, a few of them weren’t with their peers. To illustrate, one of the nicest cars I saw, a yellow 1800 Magnum coupe, was in the car park rather than on display, which was a shame. Another smart looking HC derivative was on show but some distance away from the DSG or VVOA clubs (see the green car in the photo below). Both cars would have added value to either of the aforementioned clubs’ display spaces.
Despite the observations above, there were some new (to me) interesting vehicles to look at. On the DSG stand, there was a lovely, burgundy, rally prepared Magnum 2300 and on the VVOC, there was a red Viva HB convertible with fully modernised engine and running gear. With that car, I did find myself wondering if the cost associated with the conversion would have been reflected in the value of it afterwards. The purist in me wasn’t keen on the updates (and I didn’t like the alloys at all) but the practicalist (I made that word up) was thinking, it would be a lot more rewarding and sensible to drive with the enhancements.
And driving brings me to the end of this post - I’ll keep going to to the VBOA Annual Rally but if the current trends continue, it won’t be long before it will take me longer to drive to the event and back than I will actually spend there.
I have heard that the showground has got planning approval for housing – it might not be that long until the VBOA needs another venue re-think. Maybe a return to Billing?
Click on any image to enlarge. Higher resolution images available, just get in touch if you'd like one.
Blog Home
Blog Library
Home
Previous Posts
2012 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/annual-vauxhall-pilgrimage-washout.html
2013 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vboa-all-car-club-rally-2013.html
2014 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/that-petrol-emotion
2015 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/reflections-from-the-vboa-national-rally-billing-2015
2016 http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/vboa-national-rally-at-billing-aquadrome-july-2016
2017 Not Billing – a VBOA National Rally review
Other related posts
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/a-trip-down-memory-lane-pot-holes-and-all
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/the-droopsnoot-celebrates-its-40th-birthday
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/vauxhalls-heritage-centre-ndash-a-nostalgic-trip-to-luton.html
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/blog/a-vauxhall-event-reminder-and-a-billing-plaque-saga-update
http://www.adrianbaldwin.net/the-omoc-comes-through-for-me.html
Third Party Site Links
VBOA
Viva Owners Club
Droop Snoot Group
RSS Feed
