Show Report
Special Stars & Stripes
Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire July 5-6
What could have been nicer – cruising to the annual Stars and
Stripes weekend on a sunny July Saturday in my (just bought) ’65 Mustang;
windows down and the sound of a well-sorted 289 rumbling across the fields of
Cheshire. This year, incredibly, was the 26th Stars and Stripes; held as ever
in the glorious surroundings of Tatton Park in north-east Cheshire, near
Knutsford. These days it’s a huge National Trust estate of more than 1000
acres, centred on a glorious neo-classical mansion, but I’m old enough to remember
when it was home to just one man, the last Baron Egerton of Tatton (oh yes, and
several dozen servants, inside and out).
Windows down and the sound
of a well-sorted 289 rumbling across the fields of Cheshire
American cars need lots of space, and at Tatton Park there’s
plenty of that; you don’t really realise how large the show is until you’ve
been walking for a couple of hours and you become aware that there’s still much
more to see. This year, of course, there was a celebration of the Ford
Mustang’s 50th anniversary, with cars covering many of those years on show and
it was really good to see so many pony cars, spanning five decades. I was also
hugely impressed by the six heavily airbrushed trucks, owned by Stanian
Transport of Manchester; each one dedicated to a different blockbusting movie.
This year, of course,
there was a celebration of the Ford Mustang’s 50th anniversary
The number of classic American pick-ups seems to increase at every
show. If I was being offered one to take home it would be a hard choice between
the pillar box red Chevy and a ruby red Ford. Both had great paint – as did
something of a rarity and a real treat; a deep grey 1965 Ford Fairlane 500
(gorgeous). Oh yes, there was a lovely white ’62/’63 Thunderbird, which I have
seen before, but which I really like as it sits on Centerline-style wheels.
That’s not a combination I would ever have thought of, but boy, it looks good.
With well over 250 photos taken I switched the camera off and just wandered.
Oh yes, there was a lovely
white ’62/’63 Thunderbird, which I have seen before, but which I really like as
it sits on Centerline-style wheels
I pondered the question of ‘rat’ cars and trucks and came to no
conclusion; I think you have to look at each one individually and decide for yourself
if it looks good or not. You can be a post-punk without a mohican haircut, I
guess. Another fascination was the increasing number of frontier
recreationists, reimaging scenes from the old west. This seems to be
increasingly popular, and one family group included three children – all
dressed perfectly in period, and without a mobile phone between them. Mind you,
one couple – who, like everyone else, had paid a huge amount of attention to
their dress and all the other details – were rather ruining the effect by
taking photos on a distinctly non-mid- 19th century electronic tablet! Visitor
numbers were up this year, the organisers tell me, and despite the Met Office
forecasts the weather was great. I piloted the ’65 home across the county with
a great big grin on my face!
