MotorMartin has looked at and reported on most of the major Ford Festivals this summer and has been extremely impressed with the consistently high quality of the cars on display. There really is a passion for all models of the blue oval, both past and present, on this green and pleasant land of ours which is evident from the number of car clubs that have displayed over the course of this year.
And now, it is with great sadness that MotorMartin finds himself reporting on this, the final major show of the Ford season and wishing that the show season could just be extended by a few short months. Fortunately, this last show turned out to be a roaring success, with over 8,000 Blue Oval fans and around 2,000 club cars on display, a superb turnout I’m sure you’ll agree.
With both static and action attractions at the show, the famous Santa Pod drag strip was a major draw, with headline sponsors mountune stealing the show by pitting their new Mustang against their heavily modified Focus RS in a high octane battle. 1-0 Mustang…
Heading up the static star attractions was a special display of Fords from the silver screen, after a pre-show survey named the iconic Bullitt Mustang GT 390 as the nation’s favourite Blue Oval Screen star, a survey reported recently on MotorMartin which can be found here. As well as an authentic recreation of the Bullitt car, complete with a home-made replica of Steve McQueen at the wheel, the display included lookalikes of other famous TV and film Fords such as the Professionals’ Capri 3.0S, one of MotorMartin’s all time favourite Fords and the Gran Torino from the iconic US cop show Starsky and Hutch. Also popular was the Fast Ford and Classic Ford stand, sponsored by Burton Performance.
Now MotorMartin has long said that clubs are what FordFest is all about, and this year it was a brand new group that walked away with the coveted ‘Best Club Stand’ prize. The Blue Oval Project was established earlier this year, and its founders, Harry Ford and Karen Aldridge, were blown away to win the star prize for the Kent-based enthusiasts’ group.
Prizes in the Show ‘n’ Shine, sponsored by ADS Car Care, went to Jake McConnell in 1st place for his Cortina Mk 2, Robert Spokes (2nd) for his Focus and Steven Walters (3rd) for his Mondeo ST TDCi.
MotorMartin has also been informed about another very special winner on the day. Ashley, from Kent, won the raffle to win the Auto Specialists Focus ST feature car, which has starred at several Ford events this year including FordFest’s sister events, Ford Fair, The Ford Summer Festival, The International Ford Show and the Classic Ford Show. Ashley bought his ticket on the day, and was astonished to find himself picking up the keys at 3.45pm…
Here’s to another season of great Ford events in 2017 – watch this space for dates and details.
It’s all over then for another year, keep those superb Fords wrapped up ready for next year.
Where will you go?