Author: Richard Hemington

Based in the historic city of Kingston upon Hull, we made our first visit to Humberside for another great weekend of Eastern Bloc motoring

Friday:  Early arrivals met on the way to Hull at the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum.  Sadly, breakdowns, appalling weather (especially for those venturing south from Glasgow) and work commitments resulted in few taking advantages of photo opportunities to display vehicles in front of classic aircraft.

Saturday:  We started at Hull’s great ‘Streetlife’ museum where we displayed our vehicles on the forecourt of this impressive vehicle collection covering transport through the ages.  With a road run crossing the Humber Bridge, we arrived at the Fishing Heritage Centre, Grimsby.  This award-winning museum, including trawler ‘Ross Tiger’, covers the rise and fall of East Coast fishing.

Sunday: Those staying in Hull crossed the Humber Bridge again with a road run to the National Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft.  We spent the day here, riding and inspecting the world’s largest collection of trolleybuses.  Highlight was being let loose on the museum’s road network for an Eastern Bloc parade of cars beneath the wires.

Thanks to all those who provided the photos below. Apologies that Dropbox and WordPress have conspired to separate them into odd groups and shuffle them somewhat but hope you enjoy nevertheless.

Based in the historic county town of Stafford, we were back in Staffordshire for another great weekend of classic Eastern Bloc motoring

Saturday:  Early arrivals on Friday started the weekend in an excellent Nepalese restaurant in Stafford before sampling the local ales. Next morning, our road run from Stafford took us for an excellent tour around the interesting Aldridge Transport Museum.  We then convoyed through beautiful Staffordshire countryside to Cannock Chase area of outstanding natural beauty, stopping off at the German Military Cemetery, resting place of service personal from WW1 & WW2. Next stop was Hixon Airfield for photos by the original control tower of this former fighter and WW2 bomber base. The run concluded at Oulton with photos at the ford (albeit not very deep) before chilling nearby at the excellent Lymestone Brewery, Stone. The day concluded at the Anatolian Palace Turkish Restaurant in Stafford, then onwards for drinks in town.

Sunday: Our road run took us to Penkridge for a day at the Really Retro Show. This is one of the Midlands largest shows with a huge turnout of classic cars, trucks, vans and bikes. Our display of Eastern Bloc classics had previously won 3rd and 2nd prize – this year we went for gold and weren’t disappointed winning best club display. Club stalwart John Short also received a ‘medal’ from Club chairman for his heroic roadside repair efforts the previous day that restored an errant Skoda to good health allowing the long return journey home to Devon.

Thanks go to Alex Goffe for pulling together another excellent weekend, the participants who made it such a memorable weekend, and to those for providing the following photos.

Following our last Scottish event taking in the superb scenery of Loch Lomond, this year we tackled the industrial heartland of Scotland, home of the Big Yin and deep-fried Mars bars.

Saturday:  We started at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum.  Located at the junction of the rivers Kelvin and Clyde, it houses the city’s fabulous transport and technology collections showing the importance of Glasgow’s heavy industries like shipbuilding, train manufacturing and engineering.  Our vehicles were displayed right alongside this iconic building and the Clyde waterfront. 

In the afternoon, we headed out on a road run through the city, passing landmarks such as the Finnieston Crane and the People’s Palace.

Saturday evening meal was in the spectacular WEST Brewery.  Housed in an imposing building, this brewpub is famous for artisan lagers, wheat beers and traditional German cuisine. 

Sunday:  This was ‘Drive it Day’ when the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs encourage all owners of classic vehicles to take to the roads. We started the day with a guided tour at the impressive Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust.  Their Bridgeton Bus Garage is home to 150 buses, coaches, commercial vehicles and fire appliances.  Vehicles range from hulks rescued from scrap yards and awaiting restoration to fully restored and active examples.

We then headed off in convoy on a 35-mile road run arriving early afternoon at the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway, home of the Museum of Scottish Railways.  The Railway has been developed on a reclaimed site alongside the Firth of Forth and offers visitors nostalgic steam and heritage diesel trains rides as well as Scotland’s largest railway museum.  Historic buildings have been re-erected to provide a traditional railway setting.  The Museum comprises three large buildings full of historic locomotives, carriages and wagons, as well as models, displays and photographs telling the history of railways in Scotland.

Not a Club event, but we were happy to use our contacts to help promote this annual event at the iconic Ace Cafe on London’s North Circular Road. Happy to report that the event was well supported with what appeared to be the best attendance of Eastern Bloc cars and bikes seen here for several years.

You can read up more about this famous cafe at: https://london.acecafe.com/

This was an enjoyable joint weekend in the West Country for IFA Club members / SALT regulars.

Thanks to Malcolm and Helena McKay (and daughter Fifi) for showing us their eclectic collection of vehicles on the Saturday morning, and to Julian Nowill and Ed Hughes for later opening their equally impressive collection of Eastern Bloc vehicles for our pleasure.

On the Sunday, we convoyed on to the Haynes Motor Museum near Yeovil.

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Blame the virus – what should have been our final main event of the year turned out to be the first!   

We returned to the ever-popular Peak District and the National Tramway Museum, Crich. Many memorable Red Oktober meets were held here until the Museum moved away from such events – well we were back! 

As with all IFA Club events, all vehicles with an Eastern Bloc pedigree were welcome. As well as the Trabants and Wartburgs (and a bicycle!) from IFA, Eastern Bloc manufacturers represented included Skoda, Yugo, FSO Polonez, MZ, Jawa and Moskwich. We were especially pleased to welcome several DKW vehicles with which our IFA vehicles share a mechanical pedigree.

Photos below, in mostly random order, give a taster of the day. Thanks to Lorraine Clutterbuck, Reg Tubby, John Killick, Dave Richards and Fendy Photography for sharing photos.