22 cars graced the Club stand at Wadebridge Wheels in the glorious Cornish Sunshine. Thanks once again to Roger Cole for hosting the Club presence at the show.
Roger reports...
What a difference to last year, "Wheels 18" held at the Royal Cornwall Show Ground, on 15th July and run by The Wadebridge Rotary Club basked in wall to wall sunshine. This year the shelter was most definitely needed to keep everyone cool as the sun shone down.
Roger plus trusted helper and all the gear arrived just before 08.00 to set up the club area, only to find this time they were not the first members to arrive. With a few more members arriving shortly after, it didn't take long to erect the shelter, set the club flags and banner and hoist the Porsche flag ready to welcome everyone. We were fortunate to be allocated the same corner plot as previous years thus giving us two fronts to show the cars. Quite a bonus.
This year the organisers limited the number of entrants to 1300 as this is for the moment, a manageable number. With the "sporting events" going on, on the same day, there was concern numbers would be down. As it turned out, a record number of visitors enjoyed the vast selection of cars, bikes and other exhibits, and almost all entrants attended. The event raised over £24,000 which will go to the Chestnut Appeal for prostate cancer and other Cornish Charities. Well done to everyone.
The club stand showed off 22 Porsches plus Cornish members Greg and Sue, brought along their very special McLaren 570GT. (This did attract a lot of admiration). Not to miss out on the "in stand" to be seen on, another McLaren 570S and BMW CSL (Porsche Club member) joined us part way through the day.
There was a stream of visitors to the stand, all wanting to get close up to their favourite model. Some (already Porsche owners), were interested in joining the club or after information/help with their cars. For others, it was just wanting to talk about which model would be best to consider as their first experience of Porsche. Most went away with valuable information and help in the direction to go.
For the first time, we were invited to provide 6 different cars to parade around the main ring. The request created slight panic as we were given little notice and it was lunch time. Not many owners were to hand to drive their cars, most were away finding food and water. We did supply the requested number. The parade was to be a light-hearted affair, with witty, entertaining commentary from the compère. His general car knowledge, which had to cover old and new makes and models was quite extensive, but not for Porsche. It was quite a sight studying the faces of Porsche club members watching from the side of the ring.
As the show came to a close, several members stayed on to help with the strip down. This was much appreciated. A big thank you goes out to those who helped set up and strip down the stand.
We have an ongoing challenge with the main organiser of the event to see if we can not only beat him to the show but also set up the stand before he has even arrived. We are most definitely the early risers!
Bring it on next year, we are ready.
