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BIG BAD WEDGE FEST 2005 (BBWF '05) - PART 2 [ 1 ] How loud!? A sound meter competition was also carried out in the hotel car park, which 'Pistolar' easily won, by a country mile. His car was putting out 117.8db and could be heard miles away. The crowd around his car during the sound test was a testament to how impressive it was. Another amusing sight was to see the pimped up 'Bad Boy' 450SE absolutely blast away an adjacent A-class Mercedes car with his custom dual exhaust system - oops!
Karl Cordwell's impressively maintained red SEAC came second with 113.6db. My own 450SE came in a respectable third place with 112.8db; a fact that I was very proud of. The car even beat Neil Hyde's new steed his shiny blue 4.2 Cerbera, which managed to put out 107.5db. After talking to Neil later I think that after seeing all the Wedges together again (including a few for sale) his wallet had started to quiver! Just to put the above into perspective, apparently 120db is equal to a jet plane at take off and anything over 80db is considered dangerous!
The day seemed to flash by in a blur; I seemed to be all over the place. I found myself giving out raffle tickets one moment, judging the concours competition with Alan Toomey the next and then talking to the various traders straight after including Neil from TVRcarparts.com, Malcolm from LCC, Steve Heath, Tim Lamont, the guys from Tower View; Dave and Mark & Keri from Works Motorsport etc.
I also had a spell with Dickymint 'persuading' the remaining traders who had not handed their raffle prizes over to us to do so, or we would get them in a Welsh headlock! ;-) I had a brilliant time. Just talking 'Wedge' with genuinely enthusiastic people can be very heart warming and not to mention enlightening.
One high spot of the afternoon was watching Malcolm from LCC and the love of his life in the car park; no, not his missus but his passion for very fast, high performance model cars. This guy could blast his model car (which had a scale speed of over 500 miles per hour) along the car park and spin it on a dime, donut burnouts, power slides the lot - I want one badly!
Other highlights of
the afternoon were ogling Jeff Statham's immaculate yellow SEAC TVR racer,
standing in Awe at the RT racing prepared Tasmin bodied Tuscan Wedge 'Thorpedo'
complete with Tasmanian devil on the front. Alternatively you could just
walk around al look at all the Wedge eye candy on show.
Another absolutely
inspired idea in my opinion was the 'Wedge Support Vehicle'. It is a V8
powered ex-ambulance manned by Michelle and Paul; they were both busy
handing out teas, coffees, beers and the BBWF commemorative polo shirts
to any thirsty Wedgers that happened to be passing by. There were no prices
everything was free you were only asked to make a donation to the costs
if you felt like it. At the end of the day Paul promptly handed the money
raised during the day over to Jeff Morgan to boost his charity money total
- What a top bloke.
The winner of the concours was also decided late on in the afternoon. Although Alan and I felt that there was literally a car park full of winners there were obviously a few Wedges that stood out from the crowd - just take a look at Karl Cordwells SEAC engine bay or Jeff Statham's racer. It was felt however that Clive Richmond's red 400SE was a nice everyday, clean example of a classic Wedge.
It did not have all the 'bling' or roll bars or super polished engine bay or refurbished wheels etc it was just a nice car in original condition. Alan handed him his special trophy made from left over bits from his own SEAC! - Unusual but nice, something for the mantelpiece.
My Welsh chums and
I later made our way to the bar to have a sit down, relax and a quick
pint before the BBQ began. The winner is…. The evening kicked
off with the BBQ that the hotel put on for us. It was good to see everybody
winding down and enjoying the food, beer and company, everybody except
Richard Hurd that is! He is obviously not accustomed to talking in public
and was definitely not looking forward to comparing the free BBWF prize
draw raffle and manage Jeff Morgans big prize draw.
After the BBQ had
finished I announced to everybody at the event that 'Dickymint (Richard)
had something important to say……' 'Thank you for all coming,
'err I would like to start drawing the raffle prizes so if I could please
have all your attention' Dicky said with a crimson face. An impartial
'prize ticket puller' person was volunteered from the crowd and went about
the business of pulling out the winning tickets one by one. The first prize out of the box was for Jeff's big charity prize. 'And the winner is…….Alan Morris, is Alan Morris here?', unfortunately Alan had long since gone home. Jeff had the bright idea of contacting him on his mobile phone to give him the good news.
His raffle ticket number confirmed Jeff congratulated him on his big win. BBWF 2005 Cystic
Fibrosis Trust Charity Raffle Winner 1. TVRcarparts.com & Mark Adams - Programmable ECU & Rolling road time - Alan Morris With the big prize
won it was now time to pull the rest of the winners names out of the hat.
The winners came up to receive their prizes thick and fast. Some of the
traders were still at the hotel and were roped into giving the prizes
to the winner directly. BBWF 2005 Traders
Raffle Winners 1. Toyo
- Fleece and Polo - Martin Reader
After many hours of
drinking, talking and sharing of stories Elaine and I staggered into bed
at around 2am, with the sound of rumbling V8's STILL roaring in the car
park courtesy of the Dutch boys doing yet another burnout! The last man
standing apparently called it a day at 5.30am, unfortunately not beating
last years 6.00am BBWF record - a good attempt though! 'Listen to your
Mates' - the trip home! Funny thing is next
morning we awoke to the sound of V8's still roaring in the car park 'probably
the Dutch still at it' I thought. But it turned out to be much later than
we had thought ie. Morning time! So we hurriedly made our way down to
breakfast. We had to get our skates on as it was nearly chucking out of
the hotel as well. After breakfast we
packed our bags just as the hotel cleaner was getting to our room, we
paid our bill and made our way to the hotel car park, which was by now
rapidly emptying of Wedge cars as the various convoys made their way home.
I couldn't help but notice the 30meter long burnout tyre marks on the
straight bit, you 'gotta hand it to the Dutch they sure know how to do
burnouts, tyres must be that much cheaper in Holland. The Welsh contingents
were almost ready to go, all packed up and waiting for us to arrive from
the hotel. After quickly planning our route back it was time to go. Got
in the car and with a turn of the key, click nothing, tried again and
still nothing. 'Oh no what's wrong now?' I thought must be the bloody
immobiliser playing up again - as it had happened once before and at the
time it did seem point to that as being the problem. Tried again and nothing.
The petrol pump was running, the LED's had stopped flashing on the immobiliser,
everything should work. Dickymint chirped in 'I bet its a wire off the
starter solenoid' he said. Some 'mechanic types'
also chirped in 'nope sounds like an immobiliser issue to me'. I must
admit that it had happened before about a month ago but had cleared itself
mysteriously (as some issues with TVR's do) so I never really got the
bottom of it. So out comes the multimeter(s), tests the battery, coil
and every other wire in the entire car. Changes the ECU for Jeff Morgans,
still nothing. Pull apart the loom,
fusebox, ignition wires, coils, immobiliser brain, immobiliser loom, half
the dash and about everything else in the car. Shite! Still cannot find
the problem. Four fully-grown blokes clambering all over the car with
multimeters and screwdrivers and still the problem evades us. Tried bump starting
the car several times and..........still nothing. The car park is now
almost empty, even the Wedge Support Vehicle has gone. After about an hour
of fiddling, probing, pulling, testing and prodding, still nothing things
are getting desperate. The AA were duly called
and arrived in a short order. The AA guy then asks me 'What have we tried
so far?' Not wanting to sound completely simple I say in an all knowing
cocky sort of way 'we have power to the coil, we got 12.6v at the battery,
we have tested and changed the ECU, we have tested almost every wire in
the loom, every fuse, we have pulled out and tested every relay, we have
power to the fuel pump and there is even petrol in it!' The guy looks under
the car and says 'Yeah you seem to have covered all the bases but what
about this wire hanging off the starter solenoid!' I'll get me coat!!!!
Boy did I feel embarrassed, a fact that Dicky has not let me forget. The guy put the wire back on and the car started straight away. Nice one Dicky.
And apart from the
fantastic run back, and nice meal in a country pub on the way back that
ended our second Big Bad Wedge Fest. All our friends, Elaine and I thoroughly
enjoyed the trip and although for me (and the other guys) it was a huge
amount of work and stress it was worth it. By the time we got back home
I was again skint, sunburnt and knackered which is a sure way of telling
if we had a good time or not. I would like to personally
thank all of the traders who gave so generously, the rest of the organisational
team, everybody who helped out before, during and after and everybody
who made the effort to attend - thank you for making the event the success
it was - Oh and everybody who stayed behind to help me out with the wiring
issue. I look forward to
next year's, see you there. Mike Bressington Return to Part 1 [ HERE ] |
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