over 6000 units in attendance it was an
American Vehicle fans dream
With a total of 5 stages and 54 Acts it was
going to be hard to decide which to see,
then there was the vehicles to view in between
and there was a lot of them. The fantastic
weather defanatly brought them out of
hibernation.
of the event. Who would of thought that the meeting of a few enthusiast's in a
pub car park all that time ago would result in the biggest show of its kind in
Europe. Congratulations to Chris and Bev Jackson and their team of dedicated
helpers for reaching the quarter century! Long may you continue with this
fantastic show.
I had booked the week before Americana off as a holiday to make sure that my
Edsel would be ready in time to make its first outing after the winter rebuild. I still
had to get through the MOT before we could go and finally on Tuesday it was
ready although bits of the interior hadn't been fitted they were no problems and it
passed with no faults.
A couple of late night sessions on it saw it finally finished albeit still with some
interior trim missing. I fitted the sun visors and found that they were still the
original colour and decided to leave them that way as a reminder of the work that
had gone into the rebuild. The interior trim would be refitted at Americana.
THURSDAY 07-07-2005
With everything checked and cleaned, the missus decided she wanted the auxiliary
electrics on the van to work the fridge ( just what you need ) I finished that job
off when it began raining, time to check the wipers again (as I had adjusted the
cable after the MOT.) nothing arghh what was going on they worked earlier. I
decided that the block on the wiper motor wasn't in line and after altering it
refitted it and checked it again... Great the wipers now worked fine except that
now they wouldn't turn of. Time was getting on and I decided to leave them as
they were (First job when I get back is to fit an electric conversion kit)
I hitched up the caravan and eventually it was time to set off 2 hours after I had
planned to. Fingers crossed we would hopefully miss the traffic build up( no chance
it had started early as good weather was forecast)
We set off at around 3:45, and got onto the M60 a short run down here to the
M67 and off towards Woodhead pass to Sheffield. It felt good driving the Edsel
again I didn't realize how well it drove but then a near disaster struck I had
forgotten to tighten the screws holding the drivers side screen pillar trim on, I
noticed it was coming loose and before I could wind the window down it blew off
luckily I was in the inside lane and was able to pull onto the hard shoulder and
retrieve it undamaged
We set off again and hit the traffic jam at the end of the M67. Eventually after
about 25-30 mins we were on our way over Woodhead. With no drama's we hit the
M1 towards Sheffield and hit the rush hour traffic.
For the next hour the Edsel put up with the stop/start and the heat (the weather
had gone from rain to heatwave in about 1/2 hour ) complaining only a few of times
by cutting out. (possibly caused by me not setting the tickover correctly, another
job to do at Americana)
The traffic kept clearing and building up( why cant people keep a steady speed
instead of rushing off and then breaking causing a knock on effect that causes the
following traffic to brake thus causing the tailbacks.) and eventually we reached
the junction we needed to take us over to the A1. Onto the A1 and no more traffic,
I enjoy driving on this road as it usually devoid of any large amounts of traffic and
makes for a leisurely cruise down to Newark
There were no dramas except for as we pulled off the A1 for no apparent reason
the engine died... WHAT THE H*** WAS GOING ON it had been running great
coping with the heat and stop/start and now this, it restarted straight away but
was a bit unnerving especially as it stopped on a blind bend and the traffic coming
off weren't hanging about when they came off the A1. We hit the entrance to
Americana and met up with Andrea and Dave who were working on gate security
said our hello's and entered the site.
It had been a great first drive out despite getting stressed during the traffic jams
and the Edsel behaved impeccably apart from the small incidents.
Some of the Blacktops had already arrived and after setting up the caravan it was
time to relax and PARTY !! We all headed off to the Lady Eastwood pavilion (Stage 3)
and grabbed a well earned drink or two. The band playing were really tight and played a
variety of music ranging from Ska, Soul to Rock-n-roll to Heavy Rock and then it was time
for head back to camp. The previous weeks thrash was finally kicking in and once back at
camp I bid my good-nights to all and hit the sack.
Friday one-Down- Three to Go
