Nigel Canham

Friends and alloys Column

The Faces - The Cars - The News

The wheels of the house buying business move slower than those on an old Ford Prefect I once owned, it seems.
Feels like an age since
Mrs C and I put our South Hams place on the market and began the search for a slightly bigger home.
The good news this week is that the deal on our new abode in the Teign Valley appears to have been sorted which means that by the end of the month we should finally have the garage we need in which to keep an old motor.
Not that we’ll have any money left with which to buy said object of desire of course but we’ll clear that hurdle in time with a bit of luck.
As relayed before in these columns we’re not after anything swish, just an interesting relic from a bygone age, preferably a soft top, into which we can squeeze a couple of tackers for picnic days out.
That and the occasional weekend away for us and the dog plus a classic car show or two each summer.
In the winter perhaps a bit of fettling in the garage to while away a few hours of a grey Sunday, cup of tea and bacon butty to hand and the Archers gently burbling away in the background. Champion.
A firm favourite of mine when I need a fix of motoring nostalgia is the Haynes International Motor Museum a few miles down the A303 in Somerset.
It’s home to more than 400 vehicles produced at plants around the world from the dawn of motoring to modern times.
There are some very ordinary machines in its 11 halls, indeed just the sort of thing we hope to welcome soon into the Canham household.
But Haynes have also got their hands on some incredible cars too, none more so perhaps than the 1931 Duesenberg Model J. Cor, it’s a right old Al Capone-style beastie.
There’s also the red room in which each and every exhibit is of course blue – only joking – plus there are event days and plenty for the kids too.
Good old Haynes have given us a family ticket (two adults and three children) worth £29.95 and we’ll be passing it on to the first lucky reader whose name is plucked from the hat.
To find out more visit www.haynesmotormuseum.
com. Hope to see you there one day.

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