Took my zephyr to the beach !!!!

Hi guys,Thought I'd post this, although maybe some will not be interested I'm sure others will.

Well I got my 37 coupe road ready just in time for my trip to Pendine beach in Wales. Pendine is the home of land speed records over here and has some great history. The likes of Sir Malcolm Campbell and Parry Thomas raced there in the 1920s setting world land speed records. The beach was also home to many regular speed trial races for motor bikes as well.

The challenges between Campbell and Thomas Parry carried on for a few years , each attempting to break the others records, ultimately stopping when Thomas Parry had a fatal crash in 1927. Beach racing was pretty much ended from then on apart from the odd special event/practice.

Fast forward several years and the VHRA are invited to hold a vintage hot rod race on the beach, running timed speed trials over the flying mile. Something not to be missed and an honour to anybody able to attend.

So the race was on to get my zephyr (build thread here http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=720735 ) on the road and ready for the 750 mile round trip.

With literally hours to spare ( see the build thread , it was a mad few weeks leading up to it) we managed to get it ready and loaded up for the trip and the weeks holiday that a few of us were having there.

The trip down was hampered by some running issues with the old flathead v8 tapping the plug gaps shut on the rear cylinders.This was overcome by doubling up the crush washers on those plugs. The engine needs a rebuild as it's done way over 80,000 miles and I didn't have the time or money before Pendine.

The racing was absolutely unbelievable, almost 100 cars in the pits on the beach ready to race, not one of them later than 1949, accompanied by the pit vehicles which again were not allowed to be any newer than 1954, almost everybody wearing period attire too.. This really was an authentic meeting. A photographers dream.

Racing took place almost all day Saturday (well as long as we could get between the tide going out and it coming back in again). We had around a half mile run up a timed 100 yards and another half mile run down .

Fastest time of the day was set by Neil Bennet in his blown flathead V8 special who recorded a speed of just over 114 mph.

Check out this link for some good pictures and a full write up of the event- http://www.vhra.co.uk/VHRA/News/Entries/2013/9/15_Pendine_Sands_Amateur_Hot_Rod_Races.html

Meanwhile here's some pics of my old zephyr on the beach

I covered just over 760 miles on it's first trip out, raced up the beach and still returned a very reasonable 23 mpg average, and had an absolute ball. The best time I've ever had.

Paul.

Looks like a good time.

I thought your first picture was a vintage shot Congratulations and great to see these cars doing what they were meant to do.