If you build it they will come... And they did. The weather was better than forecast and with 170 Figaro's Fig10 was a fantastic day out. We have two reports on the show.
The Figaro 'A Team' Left to right Sue, Kevin, Daniel and Adam >
Report by David Shaw - The Organiser
"170
Figaros, 4 PAOs, 2 S-Cargos and 2 Viewts attended the second Figaro Register event at the Heritage
Motor Centre on 16th May 2010. The gloomy weather predicted failed to
materialise and owners enjoyed a full day of Figaro fun. The condition of the
cars on display was as one visitor put it "amazing". There were some great
paint jobs which were show favorites (see winners below). Over a quarter of
the cars now have non-factory colours with variations in pink being the most
popular. Customising to the interiors was carried out with great taste but
still maintaining the retro theme.
Highlight
of the morning was the draw for the special prize of a new roof fitting which
was won by an excited Sue from Crawley.
Following
this Laura ran an experimental Regional Gatherings, on foot, which seemed to
work very well with owners reporting back that they met people from their areas
for the first time and had swapped details for future meets.
Sixty
cars signed up for the afternoon driving tour which was a roof down affair
(more actually went). Drivers reported back that "it was a beautiful route held in a gloriously sunny Warwickshire". A novel
feature enjoyed by all was meeting half of the Figaros, S-Cargos and PAOs going
in the opposite direction especially as it is rare in normal driving to see
another one at all.
Those not on the driving tour continued looking around the cars in
the arena, the Figaro Businesses and the Heritage Centre
Museum. Four owners had
new roofs fitted by Jason from figaros4sale and others watched to see how it
was done whilst the organisers sorted out the prize winners entries and
continued selling raffle tickets, Register Stickers, Posters and Figaro Cakes.
Kevin from the Figaro Owners Club and his family had a good day and almost sold
out of mugs, stickers, bags and t-shirts. A number of Figaro Fans and
prospective buyers also attended and two went home with Figaro's bought on the
day.
Figaro's on display adjacent to The Figaro Register HQ were the Boden Patterned Figaro
owned by Jenny from Liverpool which won Car of the Show; Madeline's Pink Figaro
and trailer which was the Fig08 Car of the Show; the earliest and latest
Register Figaro's owned by Ruth from Swindon (Lapis Grey) and Linda from Enfield
(Pink); the Figaro that had travelled furthest to get to the event owned by
Martin from Holland (Lapis Grey) who enjoyed driving on the left for a change.
The
runners up Figaros for Car of the Show were owned by Carolyn from Upturn on
Seven (Lilac), Tina & Stuart from Cheltenham (Purple) and Nic & Alison
from Wimbledon (Fireglow Red Pearl). The Non
Figaro Car of the Show went to the Viewt owned by David from Stockport
(Silver Blue).
Laura
and David would like to thank all their friends and family who gave up their
Sundays to help with the show and raise a terrific �700 for the Macgregor Childrens
Ward Trust Fund.
This
amount was mainly achieved thanks to the generosity of the Figaro Businesses who
attended. They were:- figaros4sale, Clarion Service, Sands Imaging, Figaro
Club, The Figaro Owners Club, Figaro City, Figgy Pudding. Figaro Restore and Figaro Car Imports could
not attend but send prizes. Full details for all the above, pictures and what
people thought of the show can be found on the www.fig08.com
site."
Read more and see featured cars Click here
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Report by Madeline and Dirty Den Wilson, Baby Girl and Baby Girl too
"Our weekend
started early in the week as usual with Den cleaning and polishing Baby Girl too and then giving Baby Girl a thorough
check over, she needed some new brake pads, and of course she too needed a good
clean as I drive her every day. Den also
bought a new cuddly companion for Baby Girl's namesake teddy and her Pink
Pussycat, Muffet, and her name is Fifi,
she is a singer, when pressed!
We left home at
around 11am on Saturday morning and of course chose the pretty way i.e. M4 to
J8/9 and M404 towards Henley, A4130 Henley/Burchett's Green through Henley,
which is a lovely little town with loads of nice shops, and on towards Wallingford and Abingdon,
arriving in the Chilterns. At Abingdon
there was quite a traffic jam so we put up the satnav and went on a tour! We drove through fields of rapeseed and a
forest of bluebells, gorgeous.
We stopped for
coffee and
you can imagine how strange it must have looked to see, amongst 50 odd motor
bikes, a bright pink car and trailer!
Whilst there we heard the distressing news that a biker had been knocked
off his bike just up the road and indeed when we got back on the road we came
across him laying flat out and we of course didn't know if he was OK or not. We drove through a
village called Farmor Botley and had to pay a toll - 5p!
Den loves to drive
through all the villages and down the single track country lanes and this trip
was no different despite having Baby Girl too
in tow. Finstock is a lovely village and
quite hilly, Charlbury is a Historic Market Town (toilets here 10p) and
Chipping Norton is very olde worlde.
We had booked to
stay at the Mary Arden 'a traditional inn with rooms' at Wilmcote just outside Stratford
upon Avon.
We booked Saturday to Monday bed and breakfast �160. We were able to park both the car and the
trailer, there was good beer and wines, tea and coffee making facilities and
plenty of hot water. Our room looked out
onto the street and we had a Queen four poster bed, very comfortable. Breakfast was very well presented and tasty -
bacon, beans, sausage, egg, tomato, mushrooms, black pudding and fried bread
plus toast, tea, coffee, juices and jams etc.
They also are open all day for snacks and evening meals and Sunday
lunch. The inn is close to Mary Arden
house and Ann Hathaway's cottage and you can take an open top bus for
sightseeing and a couple we met also went horseracing so I guess there is
plenty to do as well as just shopping in Stratford or sitting at a pavement
cafe watching the world go by. Many of
the buildings in Stratford
are very old and quaint.
Laura and David
who fantastically organised Fig08 and now Fig10 had arranged for all who wanted
to meet for dinner at the Ripple Bar and Restaurant www.mustgroup.co.uk
. It is next to the river and car
parking is �3 for the evening/night until 8am next day. There were 21 of us in total and the food was
delicious, buffet Chinese, very fresh and plenty of it and good value at �15.95
per head, including fruit, ice cream and
sweets and my favourite marshmallows draped through the chocolate fountain
ummm! It was a very nice evening having
the opportunity to meet other Figheads and especially to meet Young and Carolyn
(apologies for misspelling!) who have a Fig in Holland
but had flown over especially to attend our gathering and Martin and his lady
who had driven all the way from Holland."
The Show
"It had rained
during Saturday night Sunday morning so everywhere was fresh, it was bright and
breezy and in fact very chilly throughout the day but it didn't rain again!
The show was set
out differently this year with registration being nearer to the entrance. Our Baby Girls had pride of place next to it
having 'won' the car most people wanted to take home at Fig08 alongside Martin's
grey Fig which he had driven all the way from Holland and indeed had clocked up
some mileage since arriving in the UK apparently and next to him the also grey
one with the accolade of being the oldest known Fig!
We collected our
programme for the day, bought some raffle tickets for the prize of having a new
roof fitted plus for the normal raffle which as per Fig08 had quite a few good
prizes. The charity this year is the
Macgregor Children's' Ward Trust Fund based at Warwick Hospital and it provides
chair beds for use by parents wishing to stay overnight, a very good
cause. We also signed up for the 30 mile
run which was to take place in the afternoon.
It was great to see some 'old' faces both from Fig08 and Fig09 which was
held in Norfolk
and also to meet new Fig owners.
The next thing to
do was to select and vote for our 'winner' for this year and this did take some
time as about 170 Figs attended. It is
always difficult to choose as most are special and kept in original style and good
condition which I think is why an 'unusual' one gets chosen such as ours, and
this year was no exception as the winner was very snazzy indeed, won't lose
that one in the car park and love the number plate too F9 ARO. It was the Boden Fig - Johnnie Boden started
his award winning mail order clothing company in 1991. This Fig was given away as a prize by Boden
in 2008 fully customised in his favourite Spring 2009 print. It was driven to the show by the now owner
Jenny from Liverpool, thank you Jenny for
bringing this 'special' along to Fig10.
The www.figaroownersclub.co.uk stand was excellent, well done to
Kevin and family; it certainly was a good meeting point as well as being able
to buy mugs and shirts etc. Jason www.figaros4sale
was busy all day long fitting roofs and Marc www.figaroclub.com
had a good day too despite all the banter and haggling from Mrs North London
with the Pink Figaro, yes Babe you
know who you are!
The Fig10 Edgehill
Tour was truly amazing and very worthwhile, especially for people who had come
from afar and would not otherwise have explored the area. The countryside and indeed the Burton Dassett
Hills Country
Park, is absolutely
breathtaking and it was great that we were in two groups going in different
directions, not really confusing at all!
Unfortunately our group got a bit lost and didn't arrive back until
about 1545, missing the awards presentation!
We had a lovely
weekend, much needed (credit crunch has a
lot to answer for) and its all down to Laura, David, their family and
friends but mostly to all the Figheads out there for making the time and effort
to travel on a Sunday or a whole weekend just to spend time together, hope we
can do it all again, no pressure David."
Thanks to Madeline for writing such a lovely article and again to David and Laura and to everyone who attended the event and sent in their pictures (Ed)