Aberdeen Voice

With thanks to Martyn Smith, Marketing & Events Organiser, Grampian Transport Museum.

With a little over a month to go, the countdown to this year’s SpeedFest is now well and truly underway! The flagship fundraising event for the Grampian Transport Museum in Alford, SpeedFest takes place on Sunday 3rd July and the event, which is now in its 7th year, will showcase some of the finest record breakers of the motoring world.

Record breaking stunt driver Russ Swift has already been confirmed as the star act and returns to the North East to wow the Alford crowds.

The legendary Issotta Fraschini Fiat Special, built to plans produced by Fiat in 1905, will also be attending the event. Powered by a mammoth 16 ½ litre V6 Zeppelin engine and producing around 250hp, the engine was acquired from the collection of Gar Wood – the American equivalent of Malcolm Campbell.

Gar was well known for purchasing surplus engines at the end of the first World War, most of which went on to be used in speed boats.

A custom built steam motorcycle, a current land speed record contender, one of several record breakers from the Isle of Man transport museum, will also be participating plus a world record holding electric car, produced by the University of Stuttgart. E0711-5, which is currently the fastest electric vehicle in the world, will be presented by its enthusiastic student builders.

There has been an amazing response from vehicle owners, from near and far, and this year’s event will see a very rare collection of Italian vehicles pulled together, certainly for the first time in Alford. A Ferrari F40, F50 and Enzo will showcase some of Italy’s finest offerings to the supercar world.

The impressive displays will be topped off with the addition of a stunning Type 59R Bugatti Grand Prix racer, owned locally by the Oag family.

The action will not be confined solely to the arena, with an amazing trade presence including a mix of high profile car manufacturers. Tesla are the latest name to put pen to paper for the event and will be joined by the Peter Vardy group, who will display the very latest offerings from Porsche. Parks of Hamilton will showcase a range of supercars from McLaren, among many other prominent marques.

A number of local suppliers, including JoJo’s jam and CC Coachwork will further enhance the trade displays and ensure the event retains its family focus.

Museum curator Mike Ward commented:

“I’m particularly pleased to see electric and steam record breakers at SpeedFest this year. It may come as a surprise to many to know that Stanley Steam cars were doing 120mph in the early 20th Century! 

“Tesla are a very welcome returning manufacturer to SpeedFest. They bring electric car technology right up to date with their fantastic all-electric cars, giving SpeedFest a topical and even futuristic aspect!” 

With thanks to Martyn Smith, Marketing & Events Organiser, Grampian Transport Museum.

There is less than a week to go to the second How Many Left? – a celebration of the endangered cars which were once a common sight on the roads.

The event, now in its second year, will once again be held at the Grampian Transport Museum and highlights cars that were at one-time mass produced but of which there are now less than 500 still remaining.

Building on feedback from participants and visitors to last year’s successful inaugural event there has already been more than 140 vehicles registered to participate this year, and entries are now closed.

Amongst this year’s entries is an Opel Commodore A Coupe.In production from 1969 to 1971, it was a six cylinder version of the Opel Rekord. 156,330 were produced including the 2.5 automatic version owned by Alan Norrie of Longside which is the only registered example left in the UK.

This car was originally sold in 1972 from University Motors, King Street, Aberdeen and Alan has owned it since 1984. He used it as his day-to-day car prior to putting it in storage, but fully restored it last year.

Also appearing will be a ‘model’ Lotus. Gordon Masson of Aberdeen is the owner of Lotus Esprit S1 with a chassis number 0100G, making it the first ever production model of the famous Esprit line. The car is undoubtedly a star and Gordon’s Esprit has been used as part of the Lotus Esprit ‘time-line’ at Brands Hatch in 2013 and has featured in many photo shoots including last year at historic Brooklands, which featured in Octane magazine.

Last year Corgi models, in collaboration with Lotus, approached Gordon with a view to creating a 1/43 limited edition scale model. The scale model was released this year and is extremely accurate right down to the registration number.

An unusual visitor this year comes from behind the Iron Curtain. Dominik Walicki is the owner of an ex-Polish Army UAZ 496b off-road light weight military vehicle.

From 1987 until 2007 it was a mobile radio vehicle before being sold to a private owner. Dominik purchased it in 2013 and has spent many hours checking and repairing the electrics and mechanical parts.  The car, which is believed to be the only one in Scotland, was described by Jeremy Clarkson as “the worst in the world”, but Dominik strongly disagrees saying that his work has resulted in a very reliable car that can be used every day.

How Many Left? – A celebration of the forgotten classics
Sunday 22nd May 12noon to 4pm.

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