On Saturday 1st July 2023, we held our latest annual event and barbecue at The Fairmile, Cobham. This being our fifth major event, we had high hopes for a bigger and better show than previous years. Judging by what our members and guests have told us, we think we achieved exactly that. 

We started the day in pretty dull and wet conditions and our initial concerns were that attendance would be down because of the poor weather. However, we need not have worried as our members didn't let us down. The sun started to shine and aside from a short shower at about 10 am, the weather was kind to us. The evening before we had marked out the lanes for parking the 130 or so cars we had booked. The admin team and a handful of keen volunteers were on site by 07.45 to set up our various gazebos, and put up bunting, flags and signs. The trade stands, the DJ and St John Ambulance were all on site and set up by 09:30 and the American cars were arriving in numbers.

Marshalling is always a huge challenge at such events and to get all cars parked safely and without damage or injury is the key measure of success and was achieved once again. All the marshals have our thanks for a fantastic job in a pressured environment. Thank you all.

In a change from previous years, the music for the day was provided by 'Delvis' and included two one-hour sets of his Elvis tribute act. The feedback we have had about 'Delvis' has been fantastic. Not only did we get a great soundtrack of themed music for the day, we also had two hours of live singing of Elvis tracks and many other artists of the era. We were all really pleased with the change and we hope to welcome Delvis back to our future events. Our thanks to Del Smith for a job well done.

The trade stands included  Muscle Car UK, Skyco, The AA, A-Plan Specialist Insurance, and Dave's Diecasts. We appreciate each of them taking the time to share the day with us. Once again we welcomed Surrey Jive who put on two jive dance demonstrations.

As last year, the troupe were very well received and we thank them for their entertainment which is such a great fit with the theme for the day.
 

We had 118 cars and over 350 people, making this the highest attendance we have had at an Annual Event. We were joined by a number of our friends from the Classic Corvette Club UK and Mopar Muscle Association. Also new for this year we were very pleased to welcome members of South Coast Cop Cars. Thank you all for your attendance and support.

The awards for this year were judged by the five members of the admin team who selected their top three cars. Given the usual very high standard and diversity of the cars this was not easy. Congratulations to our three prize winners. 

Trophies were awarded to:

'Best of Show'  -  Matt Allen - 1970 Mercury Cyclone 390 Fastback.

'Runner Up'  -  James Whiting  - 1957 Chevrolet Belair Sports Coupe.

'Third Place'  -  Chris Lowden - 1964 Mustang Coupe 'F -code'.

Our thanks to Steve Henningsen and Thomas De Quincey who were on site before 8am to capture images of us setting up, and the many others who took photos and made them available for our website and social media. Steve also provided the official video of the event. Thanks also to Max Wolf, who produced two further videos. These are all on our website & You Tube channel.

We had cash collection buckets for Macmillan Cancer Support on the gate and at our HQ gazebo which combined raised £105.00. We've added that to the £90.00 we received from guest pre-entry and made a payment to Macmillan Cancer Support of £195.00. In addition to that amount, the trade stands each made a donation for their pitches at our show, which were been paid through our 'Just Giving' page, making a further £105.00. So the total amount raised from our 2023 show for Macmillan Cancer Support is £300.00.

We thank Danny and the team at The Fairmile who are always very accommodating. Our meets and annual event would not be possible without their help and extra effort to accommodate such a large group as ours.

Finally, a big thank you to everybody who attended or contributed to the event and made it such a memorable day. We look forward to next year's annual event on Saturday 6th July 2024.