Sunday August 2nd - Cortina Mk1 OC National Day-Stratford Racecourse.

I was hoping to be able to take the Green Cortina to this event, but with Thurston Engineering letting me down, I ended up taking my every day car, my Peugeot 308 estate. Karen and I decided to repeat last years plan of booking somewhere to stay for two nights and travelling up to Stratford Upon Avon on the Friday night. So, Karen collected me from work Friday afternoon from Hockley at 3.30pm and we drove straight to a farmhouse B&B that we had booked, arriving at 6.40pm. 
Saturday was Karen's day, so we just mooched around the town looking in shops and just chilling out with an ice cream in the park. It's a beautiful place with plenty of lovely old buildings to admire and it made a nice change not to be working on cars for a change. 

Sunday was bright and sunny and we arrived at the show location around 09.30am. Already there were some beautiful cars there with more arriving through the morning. As well the Cortina Mk1 Owners Club having their national day there, so did the Lotus Cortina Owners Club, (Of which I am also a member) the Mk2 Cortina Owners Club and also the Ford Anglia 105E Owners Club. So there was plenty of cars there to look at. 

There was also a lot of auto jumble stands there, although I never bought anything. There was only one thing I was looking for and that was a bonnet catch for my Lotus, but I never managed to find one. Once we'd finished looking round the auto jumble we moved onto looking at the cars and there were some really lovely cars in attendance. My favourite car was there as usual and as usual I couldn't resist getting (another) photo of it. (See below) 

There was a also a couple of Mk1 saloons for sale, but despite being tempted due to my troublesome pair, I managed to resist and keep my hand in my pocket. The yellow car below was well priced at £6K and the White car priced at £9125. Both pretty good prices, but I've got enough to do at present. 

A car that would have tempted me if it were sale was a Mk1 Cortina GT estate. A very rare car in itself, but also in one of my favourite colours of Goodwood Green (Same as my four door) with a Sherwood Green flash. (The Lotus Cortina Green) I must admit, I really like the Sherwood Green flash and I'm now thinking about having one painted onto my four door. 

I couldn't leave without looking at the Lotus Cortina's and there were some gorgeous examples present. Looking at these just made me want to get my one on the road. These really are a special car in my eyes and have been my dream car since I was a kid. I've been a passenger in one, but I've never even driven one, so I need to change that soon. 

With early afternoon approaching, we decided to make a move homewards. We had well over 100 miles to cover and it was starting to get very hot as well. We'd had a lovely chilled out weekend and will be looking to do it again next year. Hopefully in a Cortina!