T.I.M.E.

(The Triumph International Millennium Event 28th & 29th May 2000 at Mallory Park, Leicestershire)

Saturday evening

Rain, rain, lightening and hail. Who could miss the Peerless and Warwick group pitifully huddled under the gazebo, storm candles barely able to cope with the onslaught. Yet the music was blaring (apologies to other campers) and the drinking was intense.

Sunday

Rain, rain, and well er, more rain. However, that evening we did manage to find a lovely warm, dry pub a few miles away and we ate a splendid meal in their restaurant where not a chip nor onion ring was left on the plate. The company was good the conversation was excellent and after a few more pints the confessions were unprintable.

Monday (The event day)

The sun finally decided to come out to play, and with it came several more of our wonderful cars, which really made for a very solid turnout indeed. The day went from strength to strength with various classic cars racing around the track and the all Triumph parade laps certainly made it all worthwhile. Three Peerlesses took part in the parade, Mike Davies (with passengers Ed Davies and 'video recordist extraordinair ' Frank Jones), Ken and Christine Wilson (with myself as a last minute cameraman (thanks chaps)) and finally Nigel Cluley (with passengers Denise Wright and two extremely tall lads (Nige's drinking buddies I presume) in the back just because you can do that kind of thing in a Peerless ! In total we achieved 8 cars and at least 11 members. For those that attended the event and stayed despite the appalling weather conditions, many, many thanks indeed to you all.

At this point I would just like to thank Chris Cunnington for organising and presenting the P&W Register with a Peerless and Warwick Banner for the gazebo, there's definitely no missing us now.

The highlight of the weekend as far as the Peerless contingent were concerned was having the extremely rare opportunity of meeting Fred Nicklin. Mr Nicklin is of great importance to the marque as he was the mechanic for the Le Mans car in the 1958 race. I was especially fortunate in that he allowed me to conduct a formal interview with him, which I managed to capture to great effect on tape. I don't think I've ever met a more interesting, pleasant, well informed and genuinely down to earth man who didn't object to sitting in my damp, partially upholstered Warwick throughout a pitifully amateur interview.

At some point (perhaps during the winter months) I will write up this truly fascinating interview and publish it in TRaction. If you ever meet anyone who was involved in the our Marque i.e. production line, salesman, mechanics or just people who are knowledgeable on the subject please corner them, tie them up and don't let them go until you have extracted as much information as possible out of them. Alternatively, just get their phone number and give it to me and I will perform the interrogation myself !

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