NEC RESTORATION SHOW 2015

[Chris Spencer]

Breaking news from the show: I am very humbled and very proud to announce that the 'Jowett Car Club' has for the second consecutive year been awarded the 'BEST CLUB STAND' at the show !!

I shall be posting a more detailed report a little later but the in the interim to the team / individual members / sponsors involved please accept my sincere thanks

Chris

P.S. - you could not wipe the smile off my face with a bus !!

[NoelStokoe]

Great news Chris, and very deserving to the team who had put so much work into the weekend.
Classic Car Weekly today has a two-page write-up on the event with a picture of Rupert Knapton working on the brakes of the Practical Classics Javelin, they also confirm that the Jowett Car Club stand was awarded the Best Club in Show!
Like Chris says, there have only been Restoration Shows for two years and we have won both of them, but I think this win is an even better result than last year as it was a much larger show this time, and with us winning last year I hoped that politics would not stop us winning again even though it was clearly the best stand there. As CCW says, "It was awarded best in show and proved a popular winner."
Noel & Jane
PS My laptop is a Windows 8.2 Keith, so I will do some swotting-up now!

[NoelStokoe]

Alf has confirmed that as I have windows 8.1 I can compact my own pictures without needing any downloads, so I am putting on another couple of pictures myself, so I am sure it will work!

[Alf Heseltine]

Chris, a brilliant result, you & the team must be very proud, the second year win is praise indeed.
Congrats to all. Alf

[Tony Fearn]

'BEST CLUB STAND' at the show !!

QED - 'quod erat demonstrandum', and you all 'demonstrandumed' well!!

I even noticed a rota list for the whole weekend, in which many members were involved.
Unless you sit down and just think of the logistics, you wouldn't believe what the Club has achieved at this prestigious show.
Congratulations to you all.
Tony.

[Chris Spencer]

So with several months planning the time had come to face the music, a huge amount of logistics were required and without the help of several key members we could not have achieved this, Sharon had prepared all the trimming section for the stand by part reupholstering a Javelin bench seat she even went to the trouble of getting caster wheels fitted to her incredibly heavy industrial sewing machine. Keith had been busy readying the bodyshell of Peter Pfister's Javelin by fitting the transit axles & wheels to it, disassembling the chassis tilter, arranging tools / equipment whilst also spending several days preparing / sourcing / rebuilding parts for the brake rebuild on the Practical Classics Javelin that would be undertaken at the show. Jack meanwhile drafted / organised / printed / laminated & arranged the display of all of the media & display posters to exceptional professional standards. Craig Ainge undertook the management of the front of house staff - arranged volunteer members & rotas whilst other members contributed in the background to ensure every minor detail was attended to. It is very difficult to list every single individual member that contributed to such a successful display stand but if you have gone unnamed please consider yourself sincerely thanked

The Javelin project of Practical Classics magazine underwent a full brake rebuild by the team during the show

Meanwhile the trimming department managed by Sharon kept the audience entertained

[Keith Clements]

I hate to think how many hours Chris put into planning, organising and doing the logistics for this show.
1. The initial application and liaising with the organizers 'Poppyseed Media' to get our large stand in such a brilliant position. OK we were helped by the effort he put in last year to win Stand of the Show, but nevertheless it needed constant promotion of what we were going to do.
2. The meticulous planning and organising of the exhibits to make sure the PC car and Richard and Craig's cars were there.
3. The sorting of the complex logistics with Craig and the Barker's to get the display boards to the show which meant many hundreds of miles driving collecting them which had to be fitted in with his day job.
4. Creating and submitting the Risk Assessment and Method Statement and making sure we all signed on so that we were covered by Public Liability insurance. This is no mean feat as you have to think of everything that will happen and needs to be covered.
5. Battling to make sure our club insurance covered the situation.
6. Getting Peter's car prepared, and all his tools ready for a complex demonstration of lead loading. He also came around to practice the week before because he had not done it for 30 years.
7. Coming to collect the shell the day before, pack all the display boards, tilter, sowing machine, seat, air compressor, gas bottles, barriers, safety equipment such a spill trays, tables and chair, all into his truck and drive up at 6.30 in the morning ready for the opening of the show.
8. Then unload the car and drive off again to collect the 1920 car from Richard's house. At least 200 miles before he had his breakfast!
9. Convince the show health and safety and fire officers that we knew what we were doing before and during the event.
10. Maintain relations with Practical Classic and other magazines so that we get maximum publicity from the event. (Ably helped by Jack and others of course)
11. Packing up after the show (helped by Rupert Knapton and Robert Dudley), getting home at 10.30 at night to unpack some of the stuff. Then up in the morning to bring the shell, tilter, tools etc to the Jowett Health and Beauty Salon before returning to Sharon's studio to return the machine and seat before returning the trailer and then home for a well earned G&T late at night.

It is not only effort that Chris puts in , but his motivation, attention to detail and striving for the best that helps us achieve such results.

Let us not also forget the effort and inspiration put in by Paul Beaumont in preparing the Bradford barn find exhibit which too received great reviews by the organisers and was put in pride of place on the Heritage stand. He had a long journey and was encumbered with all the display panels and cases and chrome stands to take back for the Manchester Show. He also gathered together some JCS spares for the display cases and some spares for the PC car brake rebuild (as well as learning something about Javelins whilst helping with said rebuild).

Also to Peter Pfister who flew over for the show from Switzerland and was there at 9.00 a.m on Friday to help set up the stand. That was a long day for him!

[Chris Spencer]

Richard Gane's 1926 Short 2 received cosmetic attention during the show with Peter & Jack demonstrating polishing & detailing techniques

The front of house staff attended and fielded many enquiries from show attendees - the audience packed around the stand in rows of 3 & 4 deep at times - especially when the live demonstrations were happening. For my part I demonstrated body panelling & lead loading on the Javelin bodyshell which can be seen on the images posted by other members. The stand achieved so much for the club and on a wide variety of fronts: It maintained our profile has a friendly club with support for its members at all levels - through ownership, meetings & rallies, parts source, restoration & maintenance assistance, historic archive, publications and our sheer determination to enjoy ourselves whilst undertaking any task associated with our beloved 'Jowetts' ! This never goes unnoticed by the classic car media and within a few days of the show closing we were hitting the headlines - there will be further articles to follow over the next few months as the magazines come to print. We were approached by several prospective members who were warmly welcomed and given membership application packs, prospective Jowett owners looking for cars, former members that had still retained cars & parts (in some cases making the cars / parts available for sale / available to the club) we are currently researching Jowett's that are unknown to the club registrars that were detailed / reported to the stand by members of the attending public, stories of Dads / Uncles / Families whom owned a Jowett - Add to this knowledge / help / contacts made with other attending clubs that will help in future parts supply / media contacts etc - The list is pretty near endless of boxes that we managed to tick.

So I have loads of members to thank but I will attempt to be brief: Keith, Jack, Amy, Craig - who also supplied his stunning Jupiter for display on the stand, Richard Gane supplied his Short 2 for display on the stand and arranged logistics for it, Peter who flew over for the show and supported our international membership, Paul Beaumont arranged the part display items and arranged the sourcing of the parts for PC Javelin, All our restoration staff especially Rupert Knapton & Robert Dudley who stopped late to help with the demobilisation, Front of house staff - huge thanks we could not have done it without you - David Mason who very quietly went about and raised the funds from several donors in order to fund the stand costs - Glenys who looked after the Jowett Shop - which took £63.50 !! at the show - so in all some 20 members organised / staffed & managed the show stand and in addition to this over 30 Members came to visit and support the club stand !!

Paul Beaumont - Brought a Bradford van bitza to the show - from a kit of parts Paul assembled a great barn find for the separate 'Barn Finds' stand which also drew a great deal of interest from the show attendance.

I am going to repeat myself again - If you have not been mentioned - please consider yourself sincerely thanked for your help.

The fact that the stand went on to win 'Club Stand of the Show' for the second consecutive year is pure reward for the dedication by our membership to see the club compete in a field that retains clubs of much larger membership & resource - but for me it all about taking part - none the less winning this prestigious accolade is very much the 'Icing on the Cake'

Me - it's all a bit of blur - but an very enjoyable blur at that - I must have done something has I needed a day off work to recover once I arrived home!

I need to say a special thanks to Sharon who has put up with the fact that I have a busy day job which requires the input of extensive hours whilst currently undertaking the launch of a new business, but it's the club stand at the show that I used as the excuse for abandoning the major works on our kitchen at home for several weeks !

[Forumadmin]

Here is the club news front page in the program of the show.

[Chris Spencer]

Responses from the 'Practically Classics' forum that I also post on under the name of 'Grumpy Northener'

Never miss a chance to promote Jowett do you? I had a look at the Jowett stand last weekend, but couldn't see anyone who looked grumpy (when I could fight my way through the crowds watching the lead loading demo)

The panel beating was pretty impressive (and noisy) too

[Chris Spencer]

I also post on the forum of Practical Classics - and this morning posted a report on our attendance / stand at the Restoration Show - which promptly received these reply's from other forum members:

Thanks for posting up that wonderful selection of images, Chris. It never ceases to amaze me just how active the Jowetteers are. On a scale based on stand size & quality vs number of surviving cars, the Morris Minor club - as a random example of an active club with many more surviving cars - would have needed to occupy an area of several dozen acres and would have had to showcase around a thousand cars to come proportionately close to your turnout. (Numbers were not arrived at scientifically and are used purely to make a point..)
It's the same at local shows too, because the Jowett folk are wonderfully down to earth, and totally without any of the snobbery that can affect some clubs, so small wonder they're so well received everywhere they go.

Strangely, more than a dozen of the people I know who own Reliant Rebels, kittens and Foxes also own or have owned Jowetts, it must be the British love of the underdog that causes this phenomenon!

Or is it a liking for the different, non run of the mill? Although I've never owned one, the appeal is the innovation and the advanced design for their time. The Javelin and Jupiter were very advanced for their day and could beat their contemporaries in terms of performance and handling. I was looking at a Jupiter in racing trim at a show yesterday and I thought there was something very incongruous about a competition car with a column change though.

[Chris Spencer]

We have a mention in the show report carried by the online site 'Classic Cars for Sale' link below: (fourth paragraph)

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/new ... -car-show/

I was talking to one of the organisers of the show last Saturday and attendance at the show was well up on last year from 12,000 in 2014 to just shy of 20,000 this year - the interest in the classic car movement is very strong - specialist dealers are struggling for stock has demand outstrips supply, specialist auction houses are recording their highest sale percentages ever - over 90% in most cases. It is vital that we has a club continue to maintain our high profile - our cars are very appealing to those who desire something a little different - critical to this is the fact we need convert the interest shown in our cars through ownership into membership. I don't wish to come over all 'hard sell' equally so I would hate to see the opportunity of converting a non member to a member - lost ! It is a fine balance that we have to tread but hopefully most prospective members can see the club for what it is ' Enthusiastic, supportive & friendly' directly through it's members.

[Chris Spencer]

More praise - more publicity - 'Practical Classics' - May edition page 9 has a picture of our stand at the show with a few words on our activities and the winning of 'Best Stand of the Show'

[Forumadmin]

From JCC President, Malcolm Oliver, along with a letter congratulating the team with the comment

'You must be congratulated for all the hard work and effort putting on such a good display. I do not think folks realise the work that goes on after the event.'