BMCNO

The Italian Pie

I start my little story with an e-mail to the BMCNO inquiring about membership and their upcoming show. By now you are wondering what in the heck I'm talking about. BMCNO is the British Motoring Club New Orleans. I was going to attend the car show and have was looking into joining. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the meeting are in Metairie, about 5 minutes away from my office. I met them on Tuesday 16th, and was immediately greeted warmly. I joined the organization that night. A wonderful diverse group of people, all who are sympathetic to the British Car mentality.

Hampton Inn - Elmwood
The welcoming party for the travelers to the Car Day. The food was great, I bought a cake... I would have preferred to make something by hand but I was pressed for time and had to resort to a purchase. Several of the cars were parked outside and made for wonderful conversation. I did my best to work the crowd, spinning my tales of Spifires of present and old and of my present work and listening to the tales of others...

Delgado Community College

20th Annual
New Orleans British Car Day
March 19& 20, 2010

I didn't volunteer directly, but I did offer my services for the duration that I was there. I helped sell 50/50 tickets, and generally just helped out as I could and as was needed. I made several passes with the cars and their owners, and even followed a judge though the cars to see just what they look at, though I am assured that they all look for different things.

Registration

Registration was pretty well staffed, but the wind was blowing everything everywhere. I didn't see much backup getting things processed and the entrants seemed at ease with the flow. All entrants were given a card to place on their car to aid judging: Name, Make, Year, Home, and Entry Number. From there, they were given a badge to ware with Name, Make and Year if I remember correctly. Following that, they were given a "Goodie Bag" with assorted I know not whats (one item was the show badge for the entrant). Next to that was a sales section with T-Shirts for the event, canvas bags from a previous event, license plate covers, stickers, etc. for sale at reasonable prices... I bought a T-Shirt early, good thing too, as they eventually ran out of the manly sizes.

The following images and commentary from the show are in no particular order. Standard Disclaimers apply, I don't even claim to be knowledgeable about what I am saying.

Jaguar, Looks like a daddy Spitfire!

This has to be one of my favorite cars from the show. Sleek in design, with a simply huge engine under the hood, it has many of the things I love on the Spitfire... lotsa Chrome, rounded design, and bonnet the flips forward. I've been told they are a monster to restore but man do they just scream class and elegance.

Original and Restored

One of these Jags is restored. Amazingly enough one isn't. Can you tell which one? Closer looks at the cars, it can be easily identified but from 6 feet away, I have a hard time picking the original out!

Spectacular GT6

My "Favorite Car" there has to be this little brown GT6. Definitely a car that is used and not put into a vault, brought out only for shows... It is owned by a member and I have an offer to take it out for a spin. I am reluctant, fearing I will like the ride/power better than my 4 cylinder Spit. Also, it has been so long since I drove a standard I fear I will have to practice again.

Modern Morgan from Quebec

Likely to be the person who went the farthest to get to the event (all the way from Quebec Canada) was a modern car, a 90's Morgan in all it's glory. It was simply immaculate. I drooled over it at the party, and I drooled over it at the show...

Spitfire Row

At only 3 Spitfires, and all of them square-tails, I was quite disappointed. All were pretty well used cars. If my spit, as bought, ran and didn't have the rusted rockers, it would have been in good company. One owner had sever "Katrina Issues", forced to put the Spit in the parking lot of the apartment he was living in due to Katrina flooding his house. One owner, from Florida, has a much chronicled Spitfire, bought in his youth used and fixed up as his first car. The last owner had the original bill of sale selling him the car new.

Lonely Triumph

Alone in its class was this worse for the ware Triumph wedge thingy. I never much cared for them, but for every car there is someone who thinks there great...

Triumphs

Sorta cast to the side are these lonely examples of Triumph. They always had a crowd looking at them though... Both look better the closer and closer you get to the cars.

TR6, who knew they were so popular

A nice lineup of TR6 show to their popularity! All very nice cars, one of which was making its debut at the show, being a recent restoration... It was one of the two red ones. The Family had secretly entered and brought the car in the show, without the owners knowledge. I hope he enjoyed the surprise of seeing his car in the show. The eager anticipation of the owners arrival by the family was simply infectious.

Lotus!

My brother used to own a Lotus Elise, and his was just as clean and shiny as those in attendance. I didn't much car for it, though it was a very beautiful car. I didn't feel all that comfortable in it. I'm sure I looked great in it though! Not quite sure what the ones on the top are, but they are cool! The red one looked spectacular with the top on. The white one was modified for racing.

DMC - DeLoreans

Very popular since the Back to the Future movies comes the DeLorians. All Stainless Steel bodies make for wonderful jokes about cleaning them with oven cleaner. Seriously though, three nice examples of the car. I was amazed at how much the bodies flexed driving through the uneven ground.

Not quite sure what these are but they are sure cute

Austin Healey

Aston Martin

James Bond anyone? Amazing looking example. It was featured in some movie I never heard of before...

HMM, very cool but what are they?

MG, The International

MG Shell, Chevy Engine, spoiler off an import, and various bits and pieces from lots of different manufacturers make for a very interesting car. It was all really well tied together though and nothing looked really like it shouldn't be there. To purists it's a monster, but to everyone else it's a great conversation piece.

The Pretty Pink MG

The car itself is in pretty good shape and is for sale for $7,500 but everyone says "it's PINK?!?" Very pink. I believe that the owner painted it pink for his wife without consultation... Contact information has been cleaned from the photo and I can get the original information if someone wants, but I don't want it plastered on the internet for an eternity. If I liked the color, this would be a wonderful car.

Who Dat MG

A cute and clean MG owned by locals, with the Saints jerseys on the seats, and Saints chairs in the background. Saints mania will not stop in New Orleans for many years to come... We have waited too long.

MG Midget

Cast away from the general fleet of MGs is this Midget. I personally liked this one, the paint scheme is eye-catching without being too flamboyant.

MGs

MGs

MGs

MGs

The flock of MGs were the most numerous of the cars at the show. Very many good examples were in attendance. Other than a few noted exceptions (The yellow one with a white stripe above is included in that group, but I don't have a good picture of it), they sorta merged in my mind. I want a car that stands out in a crowd, not being one of the flock.

Of the cars not mentioned/pictured worth noting in my mind was a Bentley and two Rolls Royce, one newer, one older. The Bentley was nice, the older Rolls was awesome, people stopped talking and gasped in wonderment as they were looking at it.

General Impressions:

A good show, definitely worth going to. With over 100 cars entered, there was much to look at. There was people talking British cars everywhere, with door prizes for the entrants. A well executed event from a viewers perspective. I hope that the next one will include my car!

The club itself is very active, with road rallies, dinners, events, meetings, training classes, and much more. The members are friendly and open. While it is based in New Orleans, it's outreaches to the North Shore, Baton Rouge, and Lafayette, with activities in all these areas. I would encourage those that can to join.