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Neil Blog – Coventry Festival is go…
The Coventry Festival of Motoring took place this weekend, and even a sharp shower couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm. My wife enjoyed it too, especially when I managed not to buy any more cars. Just…
We’ve all got our favourite classic car events, and mine is the Coventry Festival of Motoring. It’s not just that it’s held at a park less than five minutes from where I live either, I’ve been coming to it since I was a little boy.
It’ll always be known as the Shakespeare Run to me, but name changes aside it’s a staple of my classic car year and I wouldn’t miss it...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 12:54pm, 6 September 2010
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
PC’s Caribbean adventure
Neil ‘luckyboy’ Campbell joins the intrepid Oxford Universities Motorsports Foundation in their bid to win the 2010 Sol Rally of Barbados. Well someone had to do it...
Ok, so I know it may sound like a bit of an easy assignment – boo hoo, Neil is in Barbados, woe is me etc, but the Sol Rally is a serious event with serious competitors and a serious amount of hard graft required to prepare for the event.
What i’m saying is that it’s not all been swimming with turtles, catamaran cruises, rum punch, sunburn and dining at Just Grillin’, a...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 12:06pm, 3 June 2010
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
PC Behind the Scenes
Cold Hatches was the big idea. I was to get together a collection of hatchback cars most famous for their hot hatch brothers and try to prove that they were just as good. Tricky? No, not really.
Organising any photoshoot can be a fraught affair and it’s one aspect of producing a magazine feature that you probably haven’t thought much about.
Finding the cars we need, in this case cars with very specific trim levels, and then getting them to meet at the same location, at the same time on the same day with the minimum of inconvenience to all concerned is not easy.
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 1:53pm, 21 April 2010
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
Neil Blog 29/03/10
..My Triumph 2000 estate!
Yes, my poor old Triumph 2000 estate. What a heap. Or at least, that's what it looks like. Deep down, I know that it is a lovely, sound low mileage car (less than 85,000 miles in 37 years) with only a few minor cosmetic issues. Like paint and bodywork.
Thing is though, I quite like it looking as it does. Yes it's only been washed once since 1988, yes the paintwork could do with...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 10:57am, 29 March 2010
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
The 2009 Goodwood Revival
If you’ve not experienced the Goodwood Revival before, I can heartily recommend it.
I’d always promised myself I’d attend but with one thing or another, I’d not quite made it. Well I’ve been now and it is as brilliant as I’d thought it would be. I’d advise anyone to book your tickets now for the 2010 event.
Over 134,000 people turned up for the 2009 Revival – a new record for the event, and I can’t see why any fewer will attend next year. It’s...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 9:58am, 22 September 2009
Images: Neil Campbell / Goodwood Press Office
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
Neil Blog, 14/08/09
There’s a funny feeling in the office today. Everyone is packing up their desks and putting their belongings in crates. Office screens are being taken down and a lot of stuff is being thrown away.
No we’ve not all got the tintack – latest victims of the credit crunch, but we’re moving to another spot in the office. Again. This has several consequences:
The good part is finding stuff that you’d given up for dead / forgotten you owned, the bad part is finding stuff that you meant to do / read / review / send back to their owners / test / or eaten ages ago.
Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 3:54pm, 14 August 2009
Images: Practical Classics Archive
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
Neil Blog, 06/05/09
You know how it is. You spend ages getting something working only to take it to bits soon after...
I've had a plan for a long time - to use my '66 Vitesse 6 more often. The main stumbling block to this plan has been a lack of overdrive and my 130 mile a day commute.
My Vit will happily sit at 70mph at about 4000 rpm, but it's quite noisy and not too good on the old fuel either.
So you can imagine my delight when Tony Mealing (from our recent Reader's Restoratio...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 3:43pm, 6 May 2009
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
Neil Blog, 30/01/09
If you go down to the woods today, it's amazing what you might find...
If you've read the next issue page (page 73) of the March 2009 Practical Classics, you will probably have seen the taster for our amazing Bag a Barn find feature (on sale February 25).
Cars like these are indeed still out there festering away and ready to be found - as I discovered recently on a trip out of the office to Wales.
As we flashed by a deserted ...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 4:33pm, 30 January 2009
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
National Restoration Show Report
We all had a great time at the 2008 National Restoration Show - did you?
Well I think I can honestly say that the entire PC team had a fantastic time at the Resto show at Stoneleigh on Sunday, I know I did. As always it was great to have a chat with all of you that attended and we got some great feedback.
We also had an amazing response and bag fulls of entries for the newly opened project Rover P6B giveaway competition. Plus everyone seemed to...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 1:20pm, 27 October 2008
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
Neil’s natterings 30/06/08
She rides! Buoyed by having his Triumph back on the road, Neil discovers that his SAAB is back in business too…
Oh yes, my lovely old Vitesse 6 is back on our roads again, and not before time too. To be honest though, I still can’t figure out why I didn’t do it earlier.
My initial reason for taking the car off the road in the first place was to leave it for a couple of months so the MoT fell in a more convenient time.
The story goes like this: my not-so-rolling restorat...
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Words: Neil Campbell
Posted: 2:48pm, 30 June 2008
Images: Neil Campbell
Also see: Other posts by Neil Campbell
