Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland

 

This trip was the first run organised by John Gardiner as the new head honcho of the Northern Ireland MR2 Drivers Club. It was also the first run for the newly formed Eire Region of the Drivers Club. I took on the task of officially forming the region in the hope of getting more benefits for Irish members (more on that to follow shortly). As i only took on this task the week prior to the run it was decided to continue with the current format of joining the lads up North until I get my bearings enough to organise a run down South. This is in the pipeline now and will be run in conjunction with the lads up North as it was decided that we would get more cars at the runs in that case. This was proven this time with the biggest turnout yet of 17 cars.
 

The run for us Southern lads started at Swords with 2 lads coming from Limerick and 1 Dublin man coming back from a weekend away in Galway to meet up for the run (I'm not sure if his girlfriend is still talking to him). The meeting was for 10:30-11:00am but one keen driver in a Turbo was already in Drogheda by the time I called him at 10:45am. He thought he had missed us at 10:30am and headed off on his own to catch us. I should
probably point out that Drogheda is a 30 minute drive from Swords and he managed it in 15minutes. I'm not sure what speed he thought we had headed off at but I think he would probably have caught up if we had gone ahead.

 

Stephen Forsyth very kindly met up with us at the Newry bypass to lead us up to the initial meeting point. The fact that he was in a Peugeot at the time won't be mentioned again as he did dump it at the first opportunity and joined me in my car for the trip up
 

As usual the meeting point had a cafe for the obligatory eating session that pre-empts all runs. The eating was quiet calm mind you and didn't prepare us for the meeting later that day between Harry Ramsdon's and Stephen Forsyth. It was like Moby Dick meets his maker. The poor White Whale didn't stand a chance. He even ate his free desert after. Hopefully he will scan his certificate in for us to see.

 

There was a nice selection of cars there from pretty much all the model years wuth the only model missing being a Supercharged version of the MKI (which were in surprisingly small numbers compared to previous runs).

 

We made a stop at a transport museum past Belfast to get photos and look at some old automotive wonders, including a DeLoreon alongside a rolling chassis of itself which was interesting, if only to show why you shouldn't buy one. Oh Dear. From there it was on to the aforementioned visit to Harry's Fish house for the Stephen incident. Never before has one man eaten so much.

 

Thanks to all from the South for coming along, especially the lads that made the LONG trip from Limerick and Galway to Dublin and then up beyond Belfast. This is a good 7 or 8 hours roundtrip to put it into perspective. We will be organising runs that will suit you lads better, don't worry. An overnight in the area will definitely be on the cards for this year. Stephen very kindly offered to let the lads stay in his house the day before the runs in the future so that might make it more appealing to you (if you survive the night out with him).

 

Anyway. On to the important part. The pictures. Unfortunately two of the cars had headed off before we got to this point. Hopefully we will get them again and take some pictures of their cars.

 

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