On track with Suzanna

CarfestNorth 2015 will sadly always be remembered by many for its tragedy; the loss of Kevin Whyman, the aircraft display pilot whose demise was witnessed by the Saturday afternoon crowds.  Terrible though that was, and certainly the shocked and stunned festival goers were very subdued for the remainder of that day and touched forever by the memory, I think it is appropriate to still celebrate what was otherwise a cracking festival for a good cause; raising more than £100,000 for Children in Need.

The brainchild of BCC Radio 2 Breakfast Show presenter and soon to be new-face of Top Gear, Chris Evans, the event brings together petrol-heads and music fans in a fabulous three days of fun at Oulton Park in Cheshire.

We signed up with the Figaro Owners Club and agreed to commit to my cheerful yellow Figgy, Suzanna (so named after the maid that Figaro married, for those not au fait with the opera) being present on the stand for the duration, along with four of her pastel pals.

We were missing a Pale Aqua, but the other three original colours were all present and correct; Topaz Mist, Emerald Green and Lapis Grey, with Mr Plum along as another ‘custom colour’ besides sunny Suzanna.

We were all amazed how popular our stand was throughout the weekend.  While the stunning £850,000 DB5 on the Aston Martin stand behind attracted passing envy and praise from those in the know, it was the Figaros that were like a honeypot grabbing popular attention.  Obviously being several hundred thousand pounds less valuable, we were probably a little more encouraging of the crowds too, and our five cars were a popular photo opportunity for a host of people who were thrilled to be able to be allowed to sit inside them.

I think the highlight of the weekend for all of us was the chance to drive our Figgys round the famous racing circuit on the Sunday morning in the company of a host of prestigious classic cars from our ‘vintage village’ section of the festival site.  It was enormous fun and we were delighted to get four laps in, with the crowds and the marshals all waving at our cute little cars that have the capacity to make even the most serious people smile.  Of course we were all under strict rules; no horn beeping, no overtaking and no going over 50mph. Boo.

Not very sporting, but we couldn’t help but smirk as we passed the broken down DeLorean on lap 4.  I half expected to conk out on the M6 on the way home for that, but Suzanna’s little turbo charged Micra-based engine did me proud.

Chris Evans himself waved at us as we cruised into the paddock, though Mark unfortunately failed to capture that on camera as he was too busy filming the man’s supercars that we were passing at the time!

You don’t need to know your cars at Carfest to have a good time.  Even apart from the music (more of that in a minute), there is plenty of genuinely entertaining car stuff going on.  We were on the stand much of the time so only saw a fraction of the action but what we did see was great. I was mightily impressed with stunt driver Paul Swift driving a Ford Focus on two wheels round the WHOLE OF THE CIRCUIT!  Wow.  I missed the dancing diggers, but enjoyed the Ford ballet and throughout the whole weekend the terrifying monster truck crunched progressively flatter cars under its mammoth wheels with of gaggle of screaming passengers aboard.

There was a traditional mini-funfair and I enjoyed trading Magic for a carousel mount that gave me slightly less of a merry go-around than he does.

Our lovely grassed classic car area was crowned by the wonderful Tea Vintage crew who not only kept us going with discounted brews for the duration, but looked stunning and performed a fabulous rendition of The Kinks’ ‘Have a Cup of Tea’ at regular intervals for their delighted customers. Throughout the site the food stalls were all of a high standard and I was spoilt for choice with fantastic gluten-free provision from pizzas to the fabulous No-G pies and The Gluten Free Kitchen. I won’t dwell on the Crabbies at £5.80 or bottled water at £2.50. Some things are best forgotten.

And then there was the music.  Of course I was in my element with the wonderful Bob Geldof on form with The Boomtown Rats on the Friday evening.  There were some grumblings about his ‘language’ being inappropriate with children in the crowd but I think it’s great that his performance still has all the passion and anger of the 1970s.  At least he hasn’t sold out to advertise butter, for crying out loud!

Mark was equally thrilled to enjoy Seasick Steve on Saturday night, and we broke the rules to all abandon our stand en-masse on Sunday teatime to enjoy The Proclaimers together.  With artists performing back to back from late afternoon each day there really was ‘something for everyone’.

Thanks must go to our Figaro Owners Club organiser for the event, Ken Graham, fresh from his triumph at the head of the Scotland rally earlier this summer.  Sadly we had a nasty accident at the campsite on our first evening when his buddie Richard was badly injured by our gas canister exploding whilst Mark (who was unscathed) was cooking sausages.  Thanks to Claire’s efficiency with iced water it could have been much worse, but even so his evening was spent in A&E and the following day Mark and Ken had to put him on a train home after a day at the specialist burns unit at Liverpool where staff advised he was not fit to stay.  We are told he will not have permanent scarring but his hand will take a while to heal and his head is also OK despite having less hair!

So, quite an eventful long weekend all in all, but despite the bad stuff it was hard to stay sad for long around these funny little cars. Owners Club founder Kevin Fagan reports that already he is getting requests for copies of the Figaro buyers guide from visitors to the stand. We’re not surprised.  We know they captured a few more hearts over the course of the weekend and so they should!