The Oily Rag - British Saloon Car Club

Classic Ford Trip 2008 May 10 – 12th
Classic Ford Magazine were back on board this year as we set off for the
tenth Classic Ford Tour organised by Continental Car Tours. The trip,
called the Dam Busters Tour, took us to Amsterdam in Holland.
Lee and I left home just after 6am in
his Mk1 Escort to meet up with Jon
and Martin in Jon’s blue Mk1 Escort –
the yellow one is in the middle of a heart
transplant after the engine was damaged at
the Nurburgring last year. Jon’s blue car is a
standard 1300 automatic and it was about to
go on its first journey of any length since Jon
had owned the car.
The trip to Dover was uneventful until we
were passed by a cloud of smoke preceeded by a Mk1 Escort!! The rear oil seal
in the gearbox had gone whilst they were on their journey to the ferry.
We were all given plaques to fit to our cars whilst we were waiting to board
the ferry.
Once in Calais we had a 4 hour journey through France and Belgium
into Holland to Haarlem and the hotel. The weather started the way
it intended to carry on – HOT! Driving in a convoy with all the people
rushing past in their modern cars leaves a certain degree of
satisfaction when you get a thumbs up and you see their faces light
up with a grin.
Haarlem is a small town to the west of Amsterdam and very
close to the race track at Zandvoort. It is only a 20 min train
ride into Amsterdam. The hotel had no problems catering for
the 79 cars worth of people who descended on it for a meal in
the evening even though they could have used a larger car
park! Some double parking was required but not when this
photo was taken!
On Sunday, after the headaches had cleared, there was a
suggested tour which people could do visiting places like
Volendam where people still wear the traditional Dutch
costume and clogs and Edam to check out the cheese.
We followed most of the route but then after
“crossing the sea” from Enkhuizen to
Lelystad we turned north instead of south.
This sea crossing was a long road on
reclaimed land and as we started on
this section we drove through a wall of flies,
which left the front of the car a different
colour – it also gave us great difficulties
seeing through the windscreen!!
For Sunday lunch we had a Chinese meal in
a seaside
town call Urk. Why Chinese - it was the only
place that was open. We parked either side of 3 German registered Minis that were
part of the Dutch Rally.
The next “sea crossing” was even longer and had a
service area in the middle of it. When we left here we
had a little excursion – we set off down the cycle path
in error! Oops! The problem was finding somewhere to turn round….. We also had a
second encounter with a wall of flies. I had hoped to go to Zandvoort as I hadn’t been
there since the Grand Prix in 1971 when Jackie Ickx and Pedro Rodriguez drove away
from everybody in the wet. The traffic jams near the circuit made the decision for us
and we headed back to the hotel before catching the train into Amsterdam.