'Triumph' - London to Brighton Run - Sat 8th August 2009

[garyk]

Thanks for the details Martin. We plan to join at Groombridge.

Do we need to pay to get to the car park you mention? From the website it looks a bit steep for a family full for a couple of hours...

Cheers,

Gary.

[mbellinger]

Good point Gary.

We will have a cordoned off area in the Car Park at Groombridge Place and I have negotiated a hugely reduced entry price for participants in this Run of £5.25 per person (standard price = £9.95 per head). This figure is lower than the Child rate.

The staff at Groombridge have been so helpful that I for one will be going in as I feel I owe them one. Even though I have been before. I can thoroughly recommend Groombridge, especially if you have small people in your car on Saturday who need "airing".

There will however be no charge strictly speaking for just entering the Car Park, but from a moral point of view I do feel somewhat indebted to go in. Others can make their own decisions.

Any more questions please fire away.

[mbellinger]

IMPORTANT NOTE

In order to get into Groombridge Place at the special rate you MUST show some kind of membership card for a Triumph Club of some description.

Please advise other Clubs who are attending.

[alolympic]

Hope everyone has a good run tomorrow. Forecast looks good, only wish I could make it. Car in bits, having to go to distant family wedding, far from my preffered choice
Lots of pics please! Have fun

[Purplebargeken]

Ok, LD is oil checked, water checked. Just needs tyre pressures checked and a bit more petrol and we'll be off!

I have:

The camera
The Certificates (better than nothing)
The Ace Cafe directions
My Prat Nav - you don't know my sense of (mis)direction.
My Greenflag card (which I really won't need)
A pair of Walkie Talkies
The wallet

Shame I never got round to fitting the flipping radio. Hey, maybe someone could actually find that damn wire for me!

[Howard81]

Shame I never got round to fitting the flipping radio. Hey, maybe someone could actually find that damn wire for me!

The white/pink one? I never found it in my car, so just wired it to the fusebox with an in-line fuse.

KSF is all ready to go, tool kit packed, bottle of emergency water, AA card, pasties... Getting excited now

[Ian Wilkes]

I was going to come and say hi to the Greenwich Park crew but I woke up late. I did jog by just in time to see you all pulling out of the main gates though!

[Purplebargeken]

The day was a good 'un, too knackered to give the full story and feel crap. Best bit: Martin giving his Tolly some stick in the tunnel , worst bit: rude, aggressive cyclists on Madeira Drive.

Can't remember if it was 15 or 18 cars in total. Derek and his wife with a lovely original Tolly (CT member) - the only CT attendee. Several nice TR's from the Kent TR Register who have given us an open invitation on their runs. Nice bunch of folk. A couple of lovely Triumph 2500's, one belonging to Lee. Must admit I would even be tempted to sell LD for one of these type of cars. Lovely, just like a big Dolly

More names and piccies to follow tomorrow. Am too knackered now to do it.

Huge thanks to Martin B

Ken

[garyk]

Thanks Martin and Ken. Best family day out in ages. Every detail (broken down Stag, most of the cars getting lost leaving Groombridge) takes on an additional dimension through the eyes of a three-year old.

Attached is the promised picture of the PIs. I had to reduce the resolution to upload it so let me know if you want a copy of the original.

Cheers,

Gary.

2500PIs.JPG (115.12 KiB) Viewed 2886 times

And the complete line-up at Groombridge before the non-triumphs arrived.

IMG_2063.JPG (139.06 KiB) Viewed 2883 times

[mbellinger]

Well, what a wonderful day. We were definitely blessed with the weather, which was gorgeous throughout, and I am so pleased that so many people joined up to make the trip a success.

As promised, some pictures to whet the appetite of those of you who could not be there.

The Greewich Park posse, before the off



On the way to Groombridge we were joined on route by Mike (Bifold) and James (Powderfinger) in their 1850's as well as a gorgeous dark blue TR6 from the Kent TR Register who slipped into the fray at Wrotham.

We passed through some beautiful Wealden villages, before arriving at Groombridge to find the Box Hill group and Gary in his wonderful sienna PI, and Julian (Tinweevil) in his 1500 waiting for us there. The North London starters led by Ken in Lemondrop arrived very shortly after and then we really had a proper turnout of cars...











The last picture shows Mike's beautiful red 1850 in the forground and Derek Keens sensational Maple Toledo in the background

Groombridge was a delight, and the promised discounted entry a reality with no issues at all. I make no apologies for including a few shots that fail miserably to capture the beauty and tranquility of this lovely place. Truly a jewel of Kent.

























I hope you get the drift.

I just had to get a couple of pictures of Derek's beautiful Toledo, which was his fathers car from new and was exquisitely presented





And so the snake of Triumphs left Groombridge...



After a slightly hysterical half hour, during which almost all the cars missed a left turn (and Reg somehow arrived alone after everybody else); we regrouped in the middle of the beautiful Ashdown Forest countryside, and went on without incident to Brighton. Sadly the Stag crew had to be recovered from the Ashdown Forest rendezvous after the engine dropped onto four cylinders. I hope they got back okay.

So the snake arrives at Brighton...



and thence to the seafront for a line up of true 70's style, which attracted much interest and many positive comments from passers by





My hooligan Tolly enjoying the sunshine



I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Special thanks to everybody who turned out, especially Matt and Claire for coming all the way from Oxford, and to Derek and Barbara for coming from St Albans. To Julian and Mike too, for making the effort to show, even though they could commit to the whole run - it is much appreciated.

I enjoyed planning the route and thought it was a fantastic day out. It was so nice to be using the cars as opposed to just looking at them.

One to be repeated methinks.

Thanks again all who made the day such fun.

[Purplebargeken]

Feeling a bit more with it today. Yesterdays headache not aided by nearly knocking myself unconsconsious on the low beamed ceiling on the way to the loo (despite the warning sign).

Lovely piccies. I will upload mine today at some point.

I would very much like this to become an annual event as the concept of a London to Brighton thing was very warmly received by the members of all the clubs present. Forgot to add that one member of the Herts and Bucks chapter of the TSSC was hoping to come but he was having problems getting his Vitesse sorted in time. Everyone felt that this inter club kind of thing was really positive and really does have to be the way forward.

Given that this was the first L2B run. I would very much like to have some feedback on what people liked, didn't like or could have been different. I think for the L2B 2010 it might be better to have it in July perhaps? Just a thought as people tend to holiday away more in August. I personally think that the Saturday was good as it gives you Sunday to recover Just my thoughts though.

Ok, so we will never be able to close off Madeira Drive due to the stupid amount wanted by the local council, but what the hell. We had a nice stint on the Drive anyway. Groombridge was stunning as well.

So come on. Good, honest feedback/suggestions+++ please, 2010 will be even better I hope.
We might even have some stickers to go with the certificates

Ken

[Johnny D]

As you may well know i'm always looking to get all the triumph groups together no matter who organises the event. so well done sorry i was still on Holiday so i couldn't come this year

but the idea is great so roll on 2010

[1300dolly]

Looks like you all had a good time, really p'ed that we couldnt make it.
Next year there will be stickers and me in whatever i own by then.

[bifold]

I had a great time,the idea of joining the run on route makes it very atractive,Groombridge is great worth a run in its own right and Martins route suited our mixed cars performance.Next year I will try to do the whole day.Nice to meet some more forum members and see some Star cars from the restoration threads stunning
Last year there was a Saab London to Brighton run,they finished at the mariner for a small sum,I could prehaps arrange a contact? We do share some heritage with them

[Howard81]

It was a really good day out, I throughly enjoyed the run, and of course catching up with everyone!

A big thanks to Ken and Martin, you did a cracking job and I look forward to it next year