ClioSport: The First Car Show
Donny South Show - North Weald - August 17th/18th 2002
Article written by Nick Read - 2002 Cliosport Events Manager
Donny South! The very first Donny show that wasn't actually in Doncaster (not Donnington as some people think!) and also the first with a Cliosport stand, which in all honesty was streets ahead of the other clubs' meagre offerings - we had the best and most complete club stand there.
The organisation of the show was all a bit of a rush, Kev M was full of ideas to do the show, so thanks to him for getting the ball rolling and doing the initial enquiries. Then he passed it on to me and Jas to sort out - our first time at organising a show stand but definitely not the last. With a few weeks to go we had our final line-up of members who wanted to show their Clios and after a bit of wangling with the organisers sorting out support cars, one-day passengers, the possibility of a 12m x 3m show tent etc, we finally got ourselves booked in. Big thanks to John (night.icon) for sorting out the two massive gazebos that we put together to make the Cliosport tent, this really made our area stand out.
On the Saturday morning all 17 Clios arrived at the Harlow petrol station just off the M11 to meet up, get the tickets given out and say our very brief hellos to old and new faces before we hit the showground. There was Kev M, me (obviously), John A, Simon (Wongy), Tony S, Marcus D, Steve H and Luke B in the chunky old classic 16v's; Oli M and Ian had brought their Williams', 172 drivers Chris F, Jas, Simon W and Mark B; Neil in his V6 and Rob J and Chris S in a 1.4 and 1.2 respectively. Then off we went in convoy for a five minute drive over to North Weald where the show was being held. For those of you that don't know, North Weald is an old airfield near Harlow in Essex, where for years they have held a Sunday market and regular dragstrip action on the weekends.
Anyway, we got there, got our wristbands for entry and headed through the entrance area onto the hard standing of the airfield to find our allocated spot. When we got there we found we were actually in the best spot facing one of the public entrances, and the space we had been given was massive - maybe because I'd rung up the week before and told them about the 12m tent! It was all quite different to my experience of the original Donny show up north, there was a lot more room to spread the stands out and the organisers who I dealt with couldn't have been more friendly and helpful.
So here we were at 7:30 am on a misty morning trying to simultaneously put up two massive tents, wash and polish all the cars, get breakfast and arrange the Clios into some kind of order; before the doors opened to the public at 9:00! Needless to say we didn't quite make it but we did have the giant tent up in time and managed to get Dave's beloved 9 foot Cliosport banner up as well, the first time it's been on show.
The show itself was a real cracker: two days of modded cars, fast food, scorching weather, stunts and jet cars in the arena, signing on loads of new members, a death jump thing (Neil went for it and did the 100ft drop off a crane into a giant net!) and a 0-60 competition (although no-one at Cliosport wanted to move their car off the stand to take a run!). Of course for many members the highlight of the weekend had to be the young ladies parading their wares around the showground and at the trade and magazine tents! The happy campers who decided to stay the night at North Weald rather than going home to bed were treated to an evenings entertainment that included Oasis and Police tribute bands as well as a show by the Adult Channel girls that by all accounts didn't leave much to the imagination...
On the Saturday it was incredibly hot and humid, about 32 degrees C and I for one was so glad that we had the shade of the show tent to sit in...we all had walks around the show to see what was going on but in the end everyone had to keep coming back to the tent for some relief from the heat. The plan had been to get four representative Clios in the tent and they did fit but it was pretty tight once you had the membership table in as well. Unfortunately it was too cramped to allow people to get round the Clios in the tent so I removed my bonnet and stashed it in John's van all day. All the other Clios were a bit easier to look around properly especially the V6 in the middle which was as usual, quite a crowd puller. Strange that is was probably the only standard car in the whole show and yet the one that was drawing in all the punters!
There were some mental cars there, the one that sticks in my mind was the TVR Cerbera that had been modded, and we're not talking about just a bit of mesh and a set of 17's, it was totally subtle yet mental and the interior was out of this world (see pic). As you'd expect all the magazines had flip-painted, body-kitted cars on their stands, but I'm pretty sure Cliosport had the fastest cars there on average! The scantily clad ladies were doing the rounds and turning heads but it wasn't until Sunday that we got our money's worth!
Sunday was, if anything, better than the Saturday - much busier, but we didn't have to get to the showground so early because everything was already set up and we only needed to give our Clios a quick dousing with water and a bit of leathering and they were ready to show again. Leigh had been booked in for the day with his modded eight-headlamp Williams but unfortunately a few days before, he broke his leg in two places and we're still waiting to find out how he's getting on - get well soon mate. I met Chun and Matt at the entrance to the ground because they were only coming for the day and so hadn't been given their tickets the day before. Sunday was the same kind of thing as Saturday except the weather was a bit cooler and we had an appearance from Jakki Degg to look forward to later in the day. Most memorable was the afternoon when Rob started accosting just about every model he could find and trying to get pictures with them and soon just about everyone was at getting pairs of models on each arm, posing on the bonnets of our Clios, in the driving seat, stroking the engine bay etc. The real eye opener was when Mark managed to find a couple of babes from one of the ICE stands (Focal or Blaupunkt I think) and asked for a bonnet shot only to find the pair of them actually clambering onto the car and getting into a very naughty position, which there is no doubt a picture of somewhere! (yep-see below!) After the whole afternoon spent waiting for Jakki to finish her duties as a Ripspeed Girl in the arena being driven on two wheels in a Corsa and giving out prizes for best modded car (a total fix by the way), we finally gave up and started packing up the Cliosport tent with no confirmed sighting. Then we wandered over to the Ripspeed tent and saw three Ripspeed Girls waiting at the entrance so we managed to get them over for a 'publicity photo' at the Cliosport desk along with a few other choice shots. Then as if by some miracle, there was Jakki with only her beefy minder in tow and she agreed to come over in a bit to do some photos with us after doing a TV thing in the Ripspeed tent. I thought that would be the last we'd see of her, but true to her word, she came over to see us and I managed a quick chat on the way...that just finished off the weekend perfectly!
Last thing left to do was to get the Cliosport tent packed up properly and put away, say our goodbyes to all our fellow members and hit the road. A brilliant and memorable weekend and I'm sure everyone who went will agree that we couldn't have had a better Cliosport presence at our first show. Well done and many thanks to everyone who turned out for us and made our stand definitely the best there - see you and hopefully many more during next year's show season!
Donny South Show - North Weald - August 17th/18th 2002
Article written by Nick Read - 2002 Cliosport Events Manager
Donny South! The very first Donny show that wasn't actually in Doncaster (not Donnington as some people think!) and also the first with a Cliosport stand, which in all honesty was streets ahead of the other clubs' meagre offerings - we had the best and most complete club stand there.
The organisation of the show was all a bit of a rush, Kev M was full of ideas to do the show, so thanks to him for getting the ball rolling and doing the initial enquiries. Then he passed it on to me and Jas to sort out - our first time at organising a show stand but definitely not the last. With a few weeks to go we had our final line-up of members who wanted to show their Clios and after a bit of wangling with the organisers sorting out support cars, one-day passengers, the possibility of a 12m x 3m show tent etc, we finally got ourselves booked in. Big thanks to John (night.icon) for sorting out the two massive gazebos that we put together to make the Cliosport tent, this really made our area stand out.
On the Saturday morning all 17 Clios arrived at the Harlow petrol station just off the M11 to meet up, get the tickets given out and say our very brief hellos to old and new faces before we hit the showground. There was Kev M, me (obviously), John A, Simon (Wongy), Tony S, Marcus D, Steve H and Luke B in the chunky old classic 16v's; Oli M and Ian had brought their Williams', 172 drivers Chris F, Jas, Simon W and Mark B; Neil in his V6 and Rob J and Chris S in a 1.4 and 1.2 respectively. Then off we went in convoy for a five minute drive over to North Weald where the show was being held. For those of you that don't know, North Weald is an old airfield near Harlow in Essex, where for years they have held a Sunday market and regular dragstrip action on the weekends.
Anyway, we got there, got our wristbands for entry and headed through the entrance area onto the hard standing of the airfield to find our allocated spot. When we got there we found we were actually in the best spot facing one of the public entrances, and the space we had been given was massive - maybe because I'd rung up the week before and told them about the 12m tent! It was all quite different to my experience of the original Donny show up north, there was a lot more room to spread the stands out and the organisers who I dealt with couldn't have been more friendly and helpful.
So here we were at 7:30 am on a misty morning trying to simultaneously put up two massive tents, wash and polish all the cars, get breakfast and arrange the Clios into some kind of order; before the doors opened to the public at 9:00! Needless to say we didn't quite make it but we did have the giant tent up in time and managed to get Dave's beloved 9 foot Cliosport banner up as well, the first time it's been on show.
The show itself was a real cracker: two days of modded cars, fast food, scorching weather, stunts and jet cars in the arena, signing on loads of new members, a death jump thing (Neil went for it and did the 100ft drop off a crane into a giant net!) and a 0-60 competition (although no-one at Cliosport wanted to move their car off the stand to take a run!). Of course for many members the highlight of the weekend had to be the young ladies parading their wares around the showground and at the trade and magazine tents! The happy campers who decided to stay the night at North Weald rather than going home to bed were treated to an evenings entertainment that included Oasis and Police tribute bands as well as a show by the Adult Channel girls that by all accounts didn't leave much to the imagination...
On the Saturday it was incredibly hot and humid, about 32 degrees C and I for one was so glad that we had the shade of the show tent to sit in...we all had walks around the show to see what was going on but in the end everyone had to keep coming back to the tent for some relief from the heat. The plan had been to get four representative Clios in the tent and they did fit but it was pretty tight once you had the membership table in as well. Unfortunately it was too cramped to allow people to get round the Clios in the tent so I removed my bonnet and stashed it in John's van all day. All the other Clios were a bit easier to look around properly especially the V6 in the middle which was as usual, quite a crowd puller. Strange that is was probably the only standard car in the whole show and yet the one that was drawing in all the punters!
There were some mental cars there, the one that sticks in my mind was the TVR Cerbera that had been modded, and we're not talking about just a bit of mesh and a set of 17's, it was totally subtle yet mental and the interior was out of this world (see pic). As you'd expect all the magazines had flip-painted, body-kitted cars on their stands, but I'm pretty sure Cliosport had the fastest cars there on average! The scantily clad ladies were doing the rounds and turning heads but it wasn't until Sunday that we got our money's worth!
Sunday was, if anything, better than the Saturday - much busier, but we didn't have to get to the showground so early because everything was already set up and we only needed to give our Clios a quick dousing with water and a bit of leathering and they were ready to show again. Leigh had been booked in for the day with his modded eight-headlamp Williams but unfortunately a few days before, he broke his leg in two places and we're still waiting to find out how he's getting on - get well soon mate. I met Chun and Matt at the entrance to the ground because they were only coming for the day and so hadn't been given their tickets the day before. Sunday was the same kind of thing as Saturday except the weather was a bit cooler and we had an appearance from Jakki Degg to look forward to later in the day. Most memorable was the afternoon when Rob started accosting just about every model he could find and trying to get pictures with them and soon just about everyone was at getting pairs of models on each arm, posing on the bonnets of our Clios, in the driving seat, stroking the engine bay etc. The real eye opener was when Mark managed to find a couple of babes from one of the ICE stands (Focal or Blaupunkt I think) and asked for a bonnet shot only to find the pair of them actually clambering onto the car and getting into a very naughty position, which there is no doubt a picture of somewhere! (yep-see below!) After the whole afternoon spent waiting for Jakki to finish her duties as a Ripspeed Girl in the arena being driven on two wheels in a Corsa and giving out prizes for best modded car (a total fix by the way), we finally gave up and started packing up the Cliosport tent with no confirmed sighting. Then we wandered over to the Ripspeed tent and saw three Ripspeed Girls waiting at the entrance so we managed to get them over for a 'publicity photo' at the Cliosport desk along with a few other choice shots. Then as if by some miracle, there was Jakki with only her beefy minder in tow and she agreed to come over in a bit to do some photos with us after doing a TV thing in the Ripspeed tent. I thought that would be the last we'd see of her, but true to her word, she came over to see us and I managed a quick chat on the way...that just finished off the weekend perfectly!
Last thing left to do was to get the Cliosport tent packed up properly and put away, say our goodbyes to all our fellow members and hit the road. A brilliant and memorable weekend and I'm sure everyone who went will agree that we couldn't have had a better Cliosport presence at our first show. Well done and many thanks to everyone who turned out for us and made our stand definitely the best there - see you and hopefully many more during next year's show season!
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