Wheelsday 2014 New venue.

Wheelsday 2014 New venue.

Author
Discussion

iva cosworth

Original Poster:

44,044 posts

162 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
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Heads up for Surrey Wheelsday and a new venue.

Dunsfold aerodrome as in Top Gear track is the venue for 2014.

Good Friday as always.

Who's going ?

I will be taking the Fiat......smile

ClassicMotorNut

2,438 posts

137 months

Monday 14th April 2014
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The plan is to be there in the Midget, although it seems that now I'll be hobbling around in a blue NHS sandal.

tonymor

1,476 posts

171 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Hoping to go after work ( pm) hearing traffic is gridlocked.

Chris200

591 posts

236 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Traffic was awful, took nearly an hour to get from Guildford to Bramley, turned around and went home in the end.

Total shambles if you ask me. Dunsfold might be a good arena, but to actually get in and out, 2 entrances in the same road, awful planning.

ecsrobin

17,016 posts

164 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Turned up at 1300 5minute que and no one asking for an entrance fee?? I had to que longer at Aldershot at a similar time last year.

There wasn't as much display area as aldershot but the machinery on show was second to none.

Chris200

591 posts

236 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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We were in the que from around 12-1, turned around at Bramley about 1 and went home.

2222

295 posts

150 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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We avoided Guildford and went across country.
Got there 11.30 with no queuing at all.

Great event

iva cosworth

Original Poster:

44,044 posts

162 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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I got there well early,about 8.15am.

Brilliant day,new venue a huge success.

Pics to follow.

EmDee

15 posts

181 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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largelunchbox

582 posts

200 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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went today,what a shambles. After the long crap winter of rain and floods the anticipation of the first big car show of the year on a bank holiday with the promise of some sun brought the crowds out in droves. The Ques to get in were huge reminiscent of days gone by at aldershot, the lack of proper marshaling who did not know where to put cars etc ended up in a free for all. Then there were huge toilet ques with not enough bogs and rip off burger vans. All in all a great day out. bring on next year

dsmith1990

1,247 posts

145 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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The traffic today was horrendous - went in convoy with a mate and the other one was going to meet us there but gave up. Fortunately for us, a local waiting for a bus told us to take a left down some back lane around 4 miles out from Dunsfold. How grateful we were as we breezed through from that point!

We got there around half 12-1pm...still 2 hours from just outside Epsom! I did see people collecting money as well, a line of them at the end of the runway.

First one I've been to and thought it was a good day and venue but agree they need one that is logistically friendly!

Mexican cuties

686 posts

121 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Same for us, show starts at 10am. But you need to get there at 8.15am to,have a good day?? Poor so and SOS spending at least an hour to get in, when we left at 1' traffic even worse, loads of money raised though I would expect, more hi vis on entry than traffic, and a lot of angry people, nothing like wheels day 4 years ago, and some proper not show cars parking up

Last one for us and friends at this venue

What time did clubs have to get in and park on show field? Alder shot non show traffic parked outside of event worked well, this event who cares park where you like

What a shame

Pre entry maybe




aeropilot

34,289 posts

226 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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4 hours from West London to parking up in show!!!!!!!......and then piss poor marhalling when they shut one gate to entry before removing the signs from the main road directing all traffic down the side road to the gate they had shut........rolleyes

Wasn't even impressed by the show either once in, haphazard show parking and long line of stalls etc., made it feel like a market day at Blackbushe or equivilent.....
No 'wheelsday atmosphere' that you had at Rushmoor arena.

Won't be going back if they have it there next year.


JONSCZ

1,178 posts

236 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Just posted this on the thread in the 'Yank Cars section'. Thought I'd put it on here, too.......


Absolute nightmare getting to the venue. From Guildford to getting in took us 2 1/2 hours (10 miles) and we kept passing cars that were also trying to get in, going in all directions. The traffic marshals needed some form of communication with each other. We were directed away from an entrance (Northern) back to the main road, only to find cars going the other way towards the same entrance from the point we were directed towards. Madness!
There seemed to be people just parking up everywhere and anywhere and just bypassing the entrance to pay money to get in by walking in from the side.
Aldershot used to have its problems with traffic, but nothing even close to this fiasco.
I realise that it takes a great deal of hard work to organise an event like this and I do appreciate the effort put in, but Dunsfold as a venue just doesn't work.
It's a shame as I used to really look forward to this event, but I wont be going next year if it's there.

Skaffen

514 posts

207 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Most years I go to Wings and Wheels which is held there - the organisers of that are very experienced with the venue and do a good job with the large numbers attending, but the traffic still gets pretty horrible - they actually route traffic via local roads right around to entrances on the south side so use the local roads for the queues rather than having it back up on the main roads so much.

F355GTS

3,721 posts

254 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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Skaffen said:
Most years I go to Wings and Wheels which is held there - the organisers of that are very experienced with the venue and do a good job with the large numbers attending, but the traffic still gets pretty horrible - they actually route traffic via local roads right around to entrances on the south side so use the local roads for the queues rather than having it back up on the main roads so much.
Wings and Wheels learned the hard way and now allow large amounts of traffic into multiple internal gates 100's of metres inside the venue. This seems to have worked to get traffic flowing

Digby

8,230 posts

245 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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We met at Clacket lane around 7.00, all convoyed up and arrived around 8.15 I guess.We drove straight in, paid, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, left around 2.30, spent maybe five or ten mins getting out on to the road and then had a clear run back to Medway.

I'm sure I heard them say on the P.A system that they expected 1000 cars, but approx 5000 turned up.Even after being there for several hours, there was a constant stream of traffic arriving.They also said that lots of people got in without paying as they didn't have enough staff to cover the gates.

ClassicMotorNut

2,438 posts

137 months

Friday 18th April 2014
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We left at approx. half seven and drove for an hour and a half until we were two miles from the venue; the final two miles took an hour. I'm not going to complain about queuing, though, because I feel that it is par of the course (and we got to gawp at the lovely arse of a mild kustom '60 Cadillac).

What I will complain about is the fact that we weren't able to exhibit our Midget because we couldn't convince the idiot marshal that we weren't meant to have pre-booked, but I don't suppose that made a great difference because the public car park was more or less indistinguishable from the show field. The car park was, of course, full of show cars which had been refused entry because the supposedly bigger site was full up - full up with stty Honda Civics with stupid camber that I could see at the supermarket!

I also responded to a request by an SSR member for old photos with which to make some 40th anniversary collectibles. I put him in contact with someone who I knew had old photos but the collectibles never materialised. I'll ask about that, though, before I complain.

Digby

8,230 posts

245 months

Saturday 19th April 2014
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ClassicMotorNut said:
The car park was, of course, full of show cars which had been refused entry because the supposedly bigger site was full up - full up with stty Honda Civics with stupid camber that I could see at the supermarket!
Have to say, we walked round the entire thing twice and took several hundred pics (not a single cambered Honda in any of them) and I can only think of a handful of cars which I felt didn't really deserve to be there.There were just hundreds and hundreds of lovely American classics and classics from other manufacturers.I also took quite a lot of video and that doesn't show anything like you describe.Where you in the correct bit?!

iva cosworth

Original Poster:

44,044 posts

162 months

Sunday 20th April 2014
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I call this comic bombing,take a copy of the Beano and stick pages of it on your bonnet.