Magnette Meeting in Norwich

As is traditional for the Magnette register, we held our last formal event of the year on the outskirts of Norwich with an open day courtesy of Magnette specialists John & Lou Shorten at their home in Lenwade on Saturday 30th August, with a register presence at the Norfolk police gala event at the showground just off of the A47 on the Sunday. This formula has proved very popular over the years with this year being no exception. The register committee used to organise a road run or something similar for the Saturday afternoon, but it was discovered that attendees preferred to just spend a very informal day at the Shorten's residence with the chance to be able to relax after the drive to Norwich, have some good conversations with like minded people & have the opportunity to be able to buy spares to keep their steeds running for the next fifty odd years!.

Whilst most people tend to make a weekend of this event, inevitably, their are a number who can only make one of the days because of other commitments. Over the course of Saturday, very good numbers were present. One person who was only able to make the Saturday was Julian Humphrey in a very tidy twilight grey ZB. What is particularly interesting about Julian's car is that it is one of the very few cars that are still in the hands of the original family who purchased the car. Julian explained to me that the car had originally been purchased by his Aunt & Uncle in the June of 1957 from Halls of Finchley, although Julian had absolutely no idea why his Aunt & Uncle purchased such a sporting MG saying that this was totally out of character for them!. Obviously recognised a good car when they saw it I would think Julian!. The car was originally Birch Grey, but was changed by Julian when the car was in need of a respray as he preferred the darker colour. A really good day was had by all who attended. A big thanks go to John & Lou for making us all so welcome & for the refreshments that were served literally all day.

Despite a pretty horrendous weather forecast for the Sunday, the day turned out to be very warm & sunny & the heavy rain that was promised never materialised until the last few cars were leaving the event. We had a very respectable turn out of 26 Magnettes together with quite a few other owners who were not able to bring their usual car still making the journey.Pride of Ownership judging (there was no concours round at Norwich this year) was won by Grant Howlet in his very nice ZA model - not the first award that Grant has picked up with the car which really did look immaculate, despite some pretty stiff competition. Lou Shorten decided to award her annual "Best Home Restoration" trophy to long time owners of a very nice steel blue ZB to Peter & Barbara Fewster. Peter had only just retired from work the week before, so is no doubt is looking using & keeping the car on top form!. Lou's longest journey award (in a Magnette) went to Tony & Lesley Wilkinson who had come all the way from Newton Abbot in Devon - a 350 mile journey each way with faultless performance by the car. Congratulations to all of the award winners on well deserved wins.

I did manage to grab about half an hour at one point in the day to have a very quick look around some of the rest of the show. It really is a totally family orientated day with something for everyone, no matter what age you are!. Well worth attending next year if you are able to. I personally much enjoyed looking at the classic coaches section & realised that at least two of the exhibits were exactly the same make & model that I used to travel to school in as current state of the art vehicles then - how sobering!.

Many thanks to everyone who helped at & attended this event. It truly was a great finale to our events this year - role on 2009!.

text Peter Martin.
pictures Brian Pollard