Queen Square Bristol Breakfast Club – April 2013

One look at the schedules of car events across the country will quickly tell you that the Breakfast Club meeting, made famous perhaps by the monthly Goodwood meetings, has become particularly popular with gatherings of interesting cars taking place at regular intervals across the country. I finally managed to experience my local event, which takes place in the delightful Queen Square, last November, and made a mental note to try to return whenever I could. With this event taking place on the second Sunday of the month, my busy diary has meant that several months have passed before in April 2013 I finally managed to get along to see what was on show on a morning which could not make up its mind whether to be sunny, cloudy or wet. I was rewarded with a very disparate array of cars, as this report will evidence.

ABARTH

As well as my own car, Rich Eason, a local owner, brought his Campovolo Grey 500 down.

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ALFA ROMEO

A trio of recent Alfas were a V6 engined 156 in the rare colour of white, and a couple of GTVs.

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AUSTIN

A couple of Austins, both from the 1950s and from contrasting ends of the range, with the diminutive A35 saloon joined by the plush A135 Princess.

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BENTLEY

Fabulous 3 litre.

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BMW

An array of M3 models, ranging from the splendid E30 that I have seen at some other local events, through an E46 model to a number of the recent E92 cars.

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CHEVROLET

Bel Air

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CROSSLEY

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DODGE

Probably the highlight of the morning for most people was this lovely purple 1971 Challenger.

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Imagine my surprise when a second 1971 Challenger arrived a bit later in the morning. As far as I could tell, the two cars and owners were not connected in any way.

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FERRARI

Sole Ferrari present was a 348ts.

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FIAT

Coupe

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FORD

This Model Y was launched in 1934 and was a genuine £100 car, which was achieved by making it particularly basic.

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Basic is also the word to describe this, a 1960 Popular.

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The Consul Classic had a short and unsuccessful production life of just 3 years from 1961 to 1964.

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More recent sporting Fords included an Escort RS2000 and an Escort Cosworth

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There was also a Probe, the short lived coupe that Ford imported in the mid 1990s. Not particularly successful when new, these are rare cars now.

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This 1967 Mustang GT arrived in convoy with the second of the Challengers. Sadly once it was parked up, it could be seen leaking coolant fluid, so I am not sure how well the driver would have coped getting it home. It made a glorious noise on arrival, though.

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HILLMAN

This Avenger GL was joined briefly by a 2 door yellow model which escaped again before I got across the Square to it with my camera.

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JAGUAR

A very nice E Type was an early arrival, and one of the first to depart.

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LANCIA

I enjoyed seeing this lovely Appia Coupe at the last Queens Square event I attended, and so was pleased to see it get another outing this time.

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Thema Turbo 2.0 ie model, the very art of restraint in its external styling

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LAND-ROVER

An early Land-Rover made a brief appearance at the event.

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LOTUS

Purely by chance, both Lotus cars were bright yellow: an M100 Elan and a late model Esprit.

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MAZDA

An example of the first generation RX7, in facelifted form.

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MERCEDES-BENZ

A lovely R107 model 300SL

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MG

A very nice chrome bumpered MGB.

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MORRIS

This one was badged Cowley, and I would guess dates from the 1920s.

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More recent was this Morris Mini Cooper and the replica 1800 Rally Car which has appeared at a couple of local events before.

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NISSAN

A trio of 300ZXs arrived and departed in convoy. All three were modified, some more than others.

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The GT-R needs no introduction.

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A single Figaro arrived, and yes, as per the stereotypes, this one was indeed driven by a lady, but it is clear that she is quite an enthusiast who attends a number of meetings.

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OPEL

This pair of Manta B and Ascona B arrived together. These were among the first of the cars where Vauxhall and Opel designs started to coalesce, though there were sufficient visual differences especially between the Ascona and its Vauxhall Cavalier equivalent that there was no chance of mixing the identification of them up.

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PEUGEOT

A very nice 205GTi

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PORSCHE

A variety of 911 models arrived during the morning.

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There were also a couple of 944s

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RELIANT

Scimitar GT Coupe

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ROYALE

A pair of these slightly quirky machines were among the first to arrive.

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STANDARD

A Series 2 Vanguard. The early models were designed very much with the American market in mind, with their fastback styling which was very similar to the domestic models being offered. The Series 2 cars had the fastback cut away to produce a definite “boot” to the design.

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SUBARU

One of the newest cars that still qualifies thanks to the interest it generates was this BRZ.

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SWALLOW

Definitely one of the rarest cars of the day was this a Doretti, a British sports car produced in the mid 1950s., based on TR2 mechanicals.

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TRIUMPH

One of my favourite cars of the day was this Pageant Blue 2500S. It was in pristine condition, and was provoking a lot of very positive comment. This car was from the near to the end of production and by that time, the motoring press were baying for its demise claiming it to be very dated (and in comparison to the futuristic Rover SD1 which replaced it, I guess it was), but now it just appears very elegant, and with a beautifully presented and spacious interior.

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As if one of these cars was not enough, there were two more examples, another Mark 2, which looked a bit faded and an earlier Mark 1 model.

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There were a pair of Stags, another favourite of mine.

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Also among the Triumphs were a pair of TR6s.

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TVR

A trio of nice TVRs included a Tuscan, and a couple of S models.

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VOLKSWAGEN

This Beetle, dating before the real sales take off in the UK, was in splendid condition.

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There was also a big-bumpered Mark 2 Golf GTi.

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This was a very varied gathering of cars, with people coming and going all morning. The only slight disappointment is that people with non-theme related cars parked up among the display, seemingly not caring that they were so doing. I guess that this is a hazard and inevitable consequence of the fact that the event it still relatively unofficial, with no closures approved by the council. Even so, it was still most definitely worth getting up a bit earlier than I otherwise would have done to go and see a mixture of interesting and rare cars.

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