TRDC National Weekend 1-3 July 2016

[gaz]

Well done Stevie

[paulheritage]

Another great weekend at Billing this year!

A little disappointed at the numbers this year on the Friday & Saturday and wondered if the Bullet Run, only a couple of weeks prior, affected the Billing weekend numbers? Were the 2 big events too close? I know I would only be able to do 1 or the other but enjoy the Billing weekend so that was the one I picked. Maybe others did similar but picked the Bullet instead of the Billing weekend?

Thoughts?

[Maxwell]

Paul - The Bullet Run was a different Event entirely.
Hotel - not tents, or a Premier Inn.
A lot of people on the Bullet Run were also at Billing.
John Lucas, Jenny, John Clancy, Paul Lewis, Roy Hankins, Tony Francis and Dr CKS - to name a few. Numbers to Bullet were restricted, and not all were TRDC Members.
Dr CKS kindly supplied five or six cars for members of the Lee family, for starters....
John Wood was on the Bullet Run, but was on Holiday for Billing. This happens.
No - I don't believe one had an impact on the other - and you could argue that, like yourself, others who may have done The Bullet Run chose to do Billing instead. I believe the unsettled weather had a big part to play in the reduced numbers at Billing this year.

Just my thoughts Maxwell

[John_C]

A lot of the people on the Bullet Run we'd never even seen before. I can only think of two people who were missing whom I would have hoped would come to the national weekend but they probably had good reasons for not coming. John Wood has gone overseas for example.

The weather was the cause for cars not coming out to play and there's nothing we can do about that.

Simon and Gaz put on a great show for us. Living over 250 miles away meant we had to just after lunch on the Sunday. It was funny to see a TR7 heading the other way about ten miles down the road. I wonder who that was.

[gaz]

I might be wrong guys but....
I was told we had 40 cars on Sunday at this years National, last year we had scorching weather even a certain Californian woman got caught out and got sunburn ( which was embarrassing for her to say the least ), and we had I believe 55 cars on Sunday at last years national so that's a drop of 15 cars. With the weather been so bad for up to 3 weeks before and only really improved on the Sunday I don't think that's as bad as it could have been, but maybe I'm an optimist....
This was taken between between 11:00am - 12:30pm last year on the Sunday as I can be seen swapping my faulty alternator in the pic.

[john 215]

Hi Gaz,

You done us proud mate as did Simon, apart from when me and thee were chatting 5.30 am Saturday morning, can't remember seeing you stop once.

We all know at least one other person with a TR7,8,V8 who wasn't there, IF we had brought that one person with us the numbers would have doubled, simple maths !

This event just gets better and better IMHO, Bullet run is every bit as good but in a different way, for example hotels don't like groups of lads sitting around talking about car's at 3 am in a gazebo, shall we say a little worse for wear ! Or doing doughnuts on their lawns ! well nor doing Billing if the truth be known !

Just keep doing what you are doing you two,

Cheers John

[Deanflyer]

I was hoping to have made it this year, but as has been mentioned, the weather was the deciding factor for me. Standing in a windy wet field isn't my idea of a good time, even if I would have been surrounded by TR7s at the time! I was only available on the Saturday, as Sunday I had prior commitments.

Hopefully next year...

Dean

[REPLIC8]

Gaz,
As John says, you and Simon did us proud again this year, It's a shame that out of a club membership of around 500 only 40 members can be bothered to turn up and support our main event. Having seen the emails with the list of jobs that need to be done just to get this event off the ground I can appreciate the phenomenal amount of effort put into organising this each year.
I think the event itself has developed into a great social weekend for TRDC members, very relaxed and informal and everyone who attends seem to have a great time. Having more people there would certainly have a positive effect and I'm sure that once they come along and get involved they would come back year after year. It's certainly a weekend I look forward to and even though we'll be TR less next year Kirsty and myself will still be going regardless.
I'm thinking maybe the club should advertise it more widely in the classic magazines etc and also try to back off the camping aspect a bit as this seems to be the one thing that puts people off. If people know they have other options available they may be more likely to show up. Although some members thoroughly enjoy the camping, there are various alternatives available including the wooden pods (which are insulated with electric and heating) just bring your own airbed and sleeping bag. Or as we do, there is the premier inn just a 5 minute stroll from the field.
There are also plenty of places to get food and drink, plus Garrys' superb burgers and hotdogs on Sunday!, so no need to cook on a primus stove if you don't want to.
Whatever happens we don't want lose this event due to lack of numbers.

[saabfast]

I should have been there, car was MOT'd and ready (although not changed the rear axle bearings yet) but MiL died the week before and so suddenly had to take the wife to the other side of the world. Hopefully next year will be easier.

[Henry]

I read this thread last evening and its been niggling me since! We made a conscious decision not to go to Billing, it wasn't that we couldn't be bothered, and having thought more about it, it was for mainly for the following reasons:

We simply don't like Billing. We've been there many times to the big Land Rover shows (LR's being another interest) over the years and don't bother to go to those now either.

We were one of the "not seen before" people on the thoroughly enjoyable Bullet Run this year. I'm guessing we're in that group because we dropped out of the TRDC in the late 90's, however with our interest in the car rekindled, we acquired KDM this time last year. The main difference, as we see it, is the Bullet Run is about driving and enjoying the car and scenery, socialising is secondary whereas Billing is mainly a social event. Yes, we know about the Saturday run but it wasn't enough to encourage us to spend the weekend there as there wasn't anything else that we felt we hadn't seen/done before.

We know a couple of lads who went to Billing for the week end this year and, of course,enjoyed it. That's great but it won't be for every one, in the same way the Bullet Run wasn't. Discussing it at our local group (Worcester) meeting several folks couldn't understand why we drove 300 odd miles on the Saturday to go to a car park!

We applaud all the hard work that went into making Billing happen and have no problem with the TRDC having an event of this type but this year it was simply not for us.

Incidentally, we would have done Billing and the Bullet Run if we had wanted to.

[Maxwell]

Henry - The 2017 Bullet Run is planned for 9th \ 11th June.
Slightly shorter route - but NO MOTORWAYS!

Maxwell

[Henry]

LOL, thanks Andrew...
I'll put it in the calendar, we'll do our best to be there...

[gaz]

Some good points Henry which just goes to show the TRDC can put together great events both social and all out driving & by continuing and sustaining this in the future should ensure the longtivity of the club.
It's all about getting out there working together driving and displaying our cars and at the same time enjoying the hobby....

[john 215]

Hi,

I agree with my learned friend Gaz, what IMHO we don't need is the two events becoming the same, I know several people who are not interested in The Bullet run weekend as it is hotel based as would rather have the laugh involved in camping together. Its horses for courses at the end of day. It is great though to have a open discussion on what you do and don't like about BOTH events once again only IMHO.

Cheers John