UPDATE 6/3/2014: LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY DEPARTMENT! :) Thanks to the input from Tom Rymes (see comments below) this post may NOT be so off-topic after all!
"Today, the Riley trademark is owned by BMW." ----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riley_Motor
Who knew? Thank you, Tom! :)
OK, so this is a little off-topic today. (There is some 'Baur-like" content*. See below.) British Cars By The Sea is a great local car show that is sponsored by the CT MG Registry, and is held on the first Sunday in June at a gorgeous venue: Harkness Memorial State Park, in Waterford, CT. I started attending this show back in the mid-1990's when I owned a 1985 Jaguar XJ6. Jaguar, in their own inimitable way, decided the color of my Jaguar was "Claret". I had my own name for it, which I believed to be much more appropriate, and, if you are familiar with British nomenclature, you may agree: The Maroon Saloon! ;)
Today was a perfect summer day for a car show, and the Harkness Estate is a perfect venue, being located right on Long Island Sound. Now that I am a "Recovering Jaguar Owner", I continue to be drawn to this show each June, to have the opportunity to visit this spectacular venue, see some old friends, and, of course, to see the cars. I heard the announcer today state that there were 375 cars registered for the show, a great turnout by any measure!
You will be happy to know that I resisted the temptation to photograph every car in the show. :) I do love seeing all those cars, particularly the pre- and post-war MGs and Triumphs, and the MGAs and TR3s. Not surprisingly, I suppose, the show tends to be top-heavy with MGBs, Spitfires, and the like, and I just don't find those as interesting. There are tons of them there.
Each year the show features a particular Marque: this year it was the Riley. I actually found that quite interesting, since I know nothing about them, and I frankly have never seen so many gathered in one place before! There must have been 15 or 20 of them, and a wider variety than I had any idea about. I still don't know much about them, but it was quite impressive to see so many lined up in the front row from all over New England!
The pics below are a few of my favorites from the show. Enjoy!
"Today, the Riley trademark is owned by BMW." ----http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riley_Motor
Who knew? Thank you, Tom! :)
OK, so this is a little off-topic today. (There is some 'Baur-like" content*. See below.) British Cars By The Sea is a great local car show that is sponsored by the CT MG Registry, and is held on the first Sunday in June at a gorgeous venue: Harkness Memorial State Park, in Waterford, CT. I started attending this show back in the mid-1990's when I owned a 1985 Jaguar XJ6. Jaguar, in their own inimitable way, decided the color of my Jaguar was "Claret". I had my own name for it, which I believed to be much more appropriate, and, if you are familiar with British nomenclature, you may agree: The Maroon Saloon! ;)
Today was a perfect summer day for a car show, and the Harkness Estate is a perfect venue, being located right on Long Island Sound. Now that I am a "Recovering Jaguar Owner", I continue to be drawn to this show each June, to have the opportunity to visit this spectacular venue, see some old friends, and, of course, to see the cars. I heard the announcer today state that there were 375 cars registered for the show, a great turnout by any measure!
You will be happy to know that I resisted the temptation to photograph every car in the show. :) I do love seeing all those cars, particularly the pre- and post-war MGs and Triumphs, and the MGAs and TR3s. Not surprisingly, I suppose, the show tends to be top-heavy with MGBs, Spitfires, and the like, and I just don't find those as interesting. There are tons of them there.
Each year the show features a particular Marque: this year it was the Riley. I actually found that quite interesting, since I know nothing about them, and I frankly have never seen so many gathered in one place before! There must have been 15 or 20 of them, and a wider variety than I had any idea about. I still don't know much about them, but it was quite impressive to see so many lined up in the front row from all over New England!
The pics below are a few of my favorites from the show. Enjoy!
First, some pics of the Featured marque: Riley.
Looking down the line up of Rileys.
Cool little car!
Beautiful!
A Riley One Point Five
The Riley lineup from the other end of the line.
And this beauty was able to mark a Special Occasion with about 375 of his closest friends!
What a coincidence! This show occurred exactly on this MG's 64th birthday!
Happy Birthday to this beautiful MG TD, turning 64 today!
OK, folks. Upon arrival at the show, I was informed that, for cars that were not in the show today the organizers had reserved a "Specialty Car" parking area. You KNOW that is where my 1982 BMW Baur belongs! So that is where I headed! Kudos to the MG Registry for thinking of that!
I parked next to a BMW Z4, which I neglected to get a pic of.... mea culpa. But here is the next car I saw, parked in the Specialty Car lot: Citroen SM with the Maserati engine!
OK, this is my favorite car in the show! 1962 Daimler SP250 Dart, with the famous 2.5L Hemi V8! Imagine that, in a tiny car like this! This is the first one I have ever seen in person.
Note the fluted grill. Jaguar bought out Daimler around 1960, and the same fluted grill style became the trademark of the high end Jags... Van Den Plas, Sovereign, Majestic. That stylistic cue came from Daimler.
Can you see the "D" at the top of the taillight? I love that touch!
Ok, folks, brace yourselves: this is the REAL DEAL! NOT a replica AC Cobra!
One of these recently sold for about one million dollars! THAT IS NOT A MISPRINT! :)
Hardtop TR6
Gorgeous E-Type Coupe. OK, I confess: I love these! There I said it. :) This is the 4.2L Six.
V12
4.2L Six
The Minis. The REAL Minis! ;)
This is my friend, Josh L's newly purchased Mini Cooper "Mayfair". I love it! There is a 'For Sale' sign in the rear window, btw. Josh is the former owner of Baur #917, which has just recently returned to CT. It is now owned by my friend, Rob T., in Enfield, CT.
A John Cooper Edition, apparently.
*This one is owned by my friend John, and if you notice.... it is kind of Baur-like: open top with fixed B-pillar.
Sunbeam Tiger V8. Reminds me of the Daimler SP250 V8.
I love the Metropolitans!
Bentley
Rolls Royce
That is all I took of the show itself. Here are some pics of the "Specialty Car " parking area, where I parked the Baur. :)
Viper
Fiat Abarth
Maserati Mexico
And the CitroenSM, again.
The Maserati engine
Chevrolet Wagon.... 1961 or 1962
Nice Custom Hot Rod! The Baurspotting Baur is at the right of the pic in the distance.
:)
I hope you have enjoyed the show! :)
Thank you for the kind words about our Rileys (mine is the Green/White One Point Five in the first photo of the group). We all had a wonderful time at the show, with one member traveling all the way from Montreal in his Riley!
ReplyDeleteAn interesting tie-in to the BMW theme of this blog: when BMW sold the remnants of Rover, they retained the Riley brand, presumably to ensure that a competitor could not resurrect it and use it against them. BMW still owns Riley to this day.
Hi Tom, Congrats on your car! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI did not know that BMW owns Riley! Learn something new every day! Thank you for sharing that with us.
Tom
Hi Tom Rymes, I have updated this post to reflect your new information! Thanks very much! I hope to see you at Harkness next year!
ReplyDeleteTom