Southwest Areas ‘Show Off’
Around 80 Club members enjoyed a day out in Bradford-on-Avon at the inaugural ‘Southwest Areas Show Off’ at Five Zeros Supercar Barn in Wiltshire. A spectacular line up of cars on semi-permanent display was complemented by visitors from a huge radius stretching to the south coast, up to mid-Gloucestershire and across to Oxfordshire and Wales.
All attendees were greeted at the registration desk manned by Gillian Fawkes and Mandy Alderson and presented with a gift of Meguiar's Ultimate Fast Finish. The welcome letter/instructions also included an ‘un-Googleable’ quiz to win further prizes later in the day… but first, coffee and cake!
Five Zeros Supercar Barn is more than just a storage facility. It’s light and airy space includes a café serving the aforementioned, plus very welcome all-day breakfasts. The mezzanine floor provides meeting space and a fully licensed bar and was also the location for the ‘Bean Bag Challenge’. More on that later.
Owner of Five Zeros Supercar Barn, David Bush, is a passionate petrolhead and Area 4 Member whose idea it was to combine storing supercars in a totally safe environment with the type of ‘club house’ that would be the envy of many car clubs. Visitors can enjoy looking at the stored cars rather than merely seeing a row of car covers.
When commercial manager, Dan McCall, contacted us in May, we (Douglas Alderson, Andy Webber and I) drove out to the recently opened car storage business to have a look at the facilities with a view to hosting an event. We then evolved the plan to host something other than a concours but more than simply another ‘cars & coffee’ meeting. Hence the ‘show off’ concept was born.
I raised the idea with Aston Martin Bristol who were keen to get involved. Not only did they supply a range of AML, AMR and Cognisant F1 branded items as prizes, they also arranged for their truck to deliver a Series II DB4 from the showroom. It turned out to be the oldest car on display. Dealer principal, Mike Kenefick, drove to the event with colleagues George and Luke in a DBX 707, DBS Superleggera Volante and a V12 Vantage.
Members cars on display, over 40 of them, ranged from the 1960s/70s (DB6, DBS, AM Vantage, Oscar India) to the latest V8, DB11 and DBS models. A lovely touch on arrival was eager young Louis who dried all the cars parked indoors (whilst the sun soon did the same job for those parked outside). A relaxing late season opportunity to chat with fellow enthusiasts was the simple order of the day.
The ‘show off’ concept enabled us to have prizes for the ‘host’s car of the day’ and the dealership’s ‘car of the day’. In both cases the judging criteria was left entirely to the judges and so no preparation was necessary from any attendee. Everyone was also entered into a prize draw (see below for all the prize winners). Andrew Mitchell and Alan Denney from Area 5 took the opportunity to show off their shirts from the opening ceremony of the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games… nice touch gentlemen.
Winning a bottle of Club sponsor Champagne Taittinger required only that a bean bag be tossed into a bucket from 10 feet. Sounds easy. The catch was to do it whilst facing in the opposite direction. Plenty of attempts landed close by, but only Mark Vevers hit the target to take the prize.
It’s rather encouraging when people brave the floods to come to an event that was months in the planning. Thankfully, the weather brightened up and became surprisingly warm as the show started and only those of us tidying up at the end were caught in light rain for our homeward journey.
Huge thanks go to David, Dan and the team at Five Zeros for looking after us so well. Thanks also to Mike, George and Luke of Aston Martin Bristol for being such a supportive dealership, as their presence all day (on a non-working day) demonstrated once again. Also to Meguiar’s for providing the gifts and prizes via Andy Webber’s work for the JEC. Finally, to everyone who supported the event, some of whom helped with parking (Andrew Mitchell and John Lynch), registration, etc. (Gillian and Mandy), the Bean Bag Challenge (Beverley Jones) or who simply turned up to make the planning effort worthwhile.
There was no fee for attending, but the discretionary collection in aid of Sparks Children’s Medical Charity (part of GOSH) raised over £150 (further donations remain welcome). Thank you all!
Winners:
· Host’s Car of the Day – Alan & Nicky Denney’s DB11
· Aston Martin Bristol’s Car of the Day – David & Sarah Cather’s V8 Vantage AMR
· Quiz Winner – Janine Vevers
· Bean Bag Challenge Winner – Mark Vevers
· Prize Draw Winners – Andrew Mitchell, Noi Berry, Paul Phelan, Mark Vevers
You can view the event photo album HERE.
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Aston Martin Bristol illustrate the different uses of power!
Plenty of indoor exotica
It brightened up outside rather nicely.
Mark Farrar attempts the (almost) impossible... note bean bag in flight!
Nicky & Alan Denney pick up their prize (there's more in the bag!)
Gillian (L) hands over the Quiz prize to Janine Vevers
Noi Berry collects her Megiuar's cleaning kit
The Aston Martin Bristol prize goes to Sarah & David Cather
Alan Denney snaps a delighted Andrew Mitchell
Paul Phelan looks in a rush to collect his raffle prize!
Mark Vevers and his skilfully earned bottle of Club sponsor Champagne Taittinger