One of my excuses for not blogging much for Just Jane in 2017 was the amount of time I devoted to organising the Figaro Owners Club annual rally. Having been on previous year’s jaunts to Holland, Scotland and Belgium, I was desperate to show off the Yorkshire Dales to our ‘Figgy friends’, so I volunteered to organise the rally and (not that I’m competitive or anything), wanted to make it ‘the best ever’.
Thankfully it was a resounding success, but then, just as it was becoming just a fond memory, I was taken by surprise when the club decided to enter it in the national awards for Best Club Run/Rally; up against all the other classic car clubs in the country! I was even more thrilled to learn that we were shortlisted, quickly making last minute arrangements to join the club at the Classic Car Show and to attend the awards on 10th November at the NEC.
Amazingly, our Yorkshire Dales outshone even California to clinch the award at the awards. The calibre of the rally caught the attention of the Classic & Sports Car magazine award judges, overtaking shortlisted contenders including TVR and the Sunbeam Tigers tour of the sunshine state.
120 Figaro car owners from the UK and Europe had travelled to join us for the rally at the beginning of June, an event which ran as smoothly as the 59 vintage engines. Our colourful convoy, led by my sunny yellow Figaro ‘Suzanna’, made its way up and down the dales for 4 days following routes and packed itineraries which I’d had to plan to the minutest detail. The rally showcased the Yorkshire Dales National Park, taking in parts of Wharfedale, Nidderdale, Coverdale, Wensleydale, Littondale, Malhamdale, Ribblesdale and The Three Peaks.
The Rendezvous Hotel in Skipton provided the accommodation and hosted the Figaro dinner on the Friday evening which featured entertainment from ceilidh band Spinning Jelly and local morris side, The Flagcrackers of Craven. Other venues along the way included Skipton Castle, The Riverbank Hut, Stump Cross Caverns, Parcevall Hall Gardens, Cavendish Pavilion, Kilnsey Park, The Forbidden Corner, The Saddle Room, and High Trenhouse – who gave each owner a bottle of alcohol-free G&T from the Temperance Spirit Company as they left.
A mini-craft fair was held for the members featuring local artisans and a charity raffle with celebrity guests The Calendar Girls raised £422 for Bloodwise.
The Classic Car Show fills five exhibition halls at the NEC, with 253 clubs exhibiting and competing for the prestigious annual awards, so I was absolutely over the moon to have the Figaro rally acknowledged among its peers. Six months of largely sleepless nights in the planning and hours of voluntary time all paid off!
Of course, none of it would have happened without the tireless support of our club founder, Kevin Fagan and the fun-loving, enthusiastic Figaro friends that come together to make the rallies rather special. Kevin has the patience of a saint and he too spent hours putting together the copy and images I provided, along with Mark Bamforth’s route maps, so that together we produced a bar-raising 56 page glossy rally book.
TV motoring celebrity Ant Anstead of Wheeler Dealers and For the Love of Cars presented the Best Club Run/Rally award to Kevin and I, alongside Dave Youngs, Car Club Manager of sponsors Lancaster Insurance.
A flavour of the rally, including aerial drone footage of the convoys filmed by John Jameson and Penny Hart-Woods, can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRGJVdzNKu4 It’s guaranteed to make you smile.