Isle of Man 'Festival of Motoring'

[RobTwin]

The next day was to be a bit more relaxed - a drive back down to Douglas and park up on the promenade for the day, as part of the Classic & Sports Car Display.
Again, we were in the first group, due there at 9am, but thanks to another wet morning, the organisers delayed the start time by 2 hours.
It was still a damp drive to get to Douglas but thankfully the rain stopped soon after we got there and stayed dry for the rest of the day.

When we got parked up, I noticed the new Corvette owners were cleaning the rain off their cars, while we (us, Pete & Matt) were mopping up rain that had leaked into the trunks and cabin areas of our 50+ year old cars... oh the joys of classic car ownership

View from our hotel room, during our 2 hour rain delay

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But we were soon on the road, and met up with Scotty Dave en route...

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[RobTwin]

[RobTwin]

This event was to be one of Classic American's Car of the Year heats, and the heat winner was this 65 'vette

[RobTwin]

The drive back to Ramsey, following Pete... until he sped off into the distance

[RobTwin]

Sunday dawned with... you guessed it... more rain. Starting to get a bit peed off now...

And another early start, for another drive down to Douglas, to meet at the TT course start-line grandstand, before setting off on a 'police escorted motorcade' from Douglas back to Ramsey.

I was driving so I didnt get any photos en route, but when we got to the meeting point, the last thing I felt like was getting out of the car in the rain to get photos, so I was grateful to get this pic from our whatsapp group...

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Once the escorted motorcade got us parked-up back in Ramsey, we were surprised to find that we were parked within a few yards of exactly where we started the day, in our hotel car park nearly 3 hours earlier!
Still, it gave us the chance to nip to the loo in our own room, rather than queuing in the reception area with all the others

[RobTwin]

So after a brief stop outside our hotel, we set off again, on the same route we had made a few hours earlier, stopping off at the Creg-Ne-Baa pub/cafe/restaurant, for 'afternoon tea'

We were delayed by what we later found was one of the Caterhams, from a different tour, had gone off the road right outside the Crag-Ne-Baa
Nothing too serious, but I dont think he was driving that car any further that day

[RobTwin]

Then finally, we set off again to complete the course, back to where we started, at the TT Grandstand / Pit Lanes...

Sorry about the pics on the p*ss...

[Robert Nauer]

Great pics; thanks for sharing!

[ScottyDave]

Thanks for sharing Rob
We really enjoyed the trip it was just unfortunate that the weekend was a little damp.

[RobTwin]

...just unfortunate that the weekend was a little damp.

You are the master of understatement, Dave

Of course, I've experienced 5 consecutive days of rain before but our poor old car hasn't... at least not in the last 25 or so years, since it's had a garage to live in.
Stu's spent the last couple of weeks drying it out and trying to find where the water gets in

[Pete]

I can identify with that.. the entire interior including Parcel Shelf is stripped out of the Cuda at the moment.

I doubt that it will be ready for the "Thunder Road Cars" open day at this rate...

[andyrob]

cracking photos of a great time we had

[Pete]

Despite the weather we had a fantastic time with great people, the trip was brilliantly organised; and the IOM is a beautiful and Historic place to visit.

I would heartily recommend anyone doing one of these organised trips.

[RobTwin]

To conclude, the last day started with a 6am breakfast so we could get to the ferry by 7.45am latest.
After another wet drive thru the mountain clouds from Ramsey to Douglas we got to the ferry at 7.20 and joined the queues of mostly classics; some of which were getting searched by customs

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Once we started boarding, it became apparent that we weren't on the shiny new ferry we had on the trip out, but the older, smaller 'Ben My Chree'.
We were even parked out on the deck, open to the elements
Luckily the crossing was quite calm and I dont think the cars suffered too much... well no more than they had already over the previous 4 days

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Safely back at Heysham, we made our way back darn sarf towards Birmingham via the M6 toll, stopping off for fuel before we parted ways...

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[cadboy]

Great photos and report Rob.

thank you for sharing and it does look like a good trip and you can never win with weather here