Cosford Breakfast Club – September 2011


The monthly Breakfast Club meetings at Goodwood have become both popular and famous. As is often the case with a great concept, it does not take long before others copy the idea, and there are now a number of similar such meetings that are held on a Sunday morning at various locations around the UK. One of the better known of these takes place on the edge of the Shropshire/Staffordahire border, at the RAF Cosford Museum. Reading their website, it is clear that the event has become almost too popular for its own good, and to participate, it is now necessary to apply in advance, with a limit of 10 “Car Clubs” and 200 cars per event now imposed. For the late September 2011 event, we entered Abarthisti, and were duly accepted, enabling a group of us to take our cars for display. The weather forecast was not promising, but although I drove through torrential rain both going there and returning home, it did stay more or less dry during the morning. This may have affected the eventual turn out, as the display area was not full. An eclectic mix of Clubs appeared to be represented, with, among others, Alfa Owners, Fiat Coupes, lots of Vauxhalls, Minis and various modified Japanese cars. Having availed ourselves of the tasty bacon and sausage sandwich and cup of coffee (which were far cheaper than at Goodwood!), it was time to see what cars had arrived. These are some of the cars we saw:

ABARTH

Thanks to a few late cancellations, we had 7 cars, all of which were 500s. Having met up at a nearby garage on the A41, it turned out that we then convoyed in a logical sequence of white cars, followed by grey ones then the red pair. An eighth car arrived late, owned by a gent who keeps turning up at events and moaning that as he has no PC or internet, he cannot join in. Having met him at Stanford Hall, MITCAR and Gaydon this year, he seems to manage quite well to stay informed! Anyway, we had a good catch up for the Midlands based Abarthisti attendees.

There was also a lovely Strada 130TC Abarth, which I believe belonged to one of the event organisers. It was in excellent condition, having covered (according to the odometer) around 90,000 miles.
ALFA-ROMEO
Among Italian car marques, the AROC is still numerically the largest group, and they had a variety of cars in attendance, ranging from a new Giulietta to a 2000 Berlina.

AUDI
Lone Audi was this lovely ur-Quattro.

BMW
There were a number of M3s which made an early exit, which was a pity, as they included a lovely E30 based car. The Z3s stayed long enough for my camera.

FIAT
A quartet of Fiat Coupes.

FORD
This Escort XR3i was in absolutely pristine condition. There cannot be many others that look so factory fresh as this one.

Several Focus RS, all of which were in the rather billious green colour  represented the more recent performance Ford.
LOTUS
Just a couple of cars, a front wheel drive Elan and a rather nice Esprit.

MINI
There was a good mix of the “New” Mini and “Classic” Mini models on display.

PEUGEOT
A very rare car now, was this 309 GTI Goodwood, a limited edition model which came near the end of this well-rated car’s production. 309 GTis have all but disappeared these days.

PORSCHE
A trio of early model 911 and 912s. Very nice.

RENAULT
A Megane R26R was joined by this rather unusual R4 based machine.

TOYOTA
Supra

TVR
Vixen

WESTFIELD
The SeiGHT was launched in the early 1990s, and resulted in some rather intense legal activity as Caterham claimed copyright infringement, and Westfield denied it. They won.

THE MUSEUM
I’d never been to this free to enter museum, but heard good things about it, so wanted to see it for myself. It really is excellent, and you could easily spend a whole day there, as there is lots to see. There are a few exhibits displayed outside, and them 4 separate hangars contain a mixture of planes, related equipment and lots of ancilliary information. It is all beautifully presented, and you can get around almost all the exhibits.

There were three cars in a display which highlighted the tensions of the Cold War.
This Opel Senator was intended to look “normal”, but in reality it had four wheel drive, uprated suspension, full armour plating and several other features to reflect its purpose to carry military leaders around.
The Vulcan bomber is probably the largest and most spectacular item in the entire collection.
This was a good day out. Whilst the Breakfast club gathering was perhaps not quite up to Goodwood standards, it was good to meet up with some fellow Abarthisti, and the RAF Museum is a real treasure, well worth a return visit.
2011-09-25 18:14:06

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