Despite the amateurish way the whole event was organised I have to say it went rather well!

We managed to have a grand total of 12 different 300's over the 2 days with a minimum of 8 per day which is quite frankly amazing considering we normally struggle to get that at any meet, even the VOC National show. Hopefully next year both Foggy and Pettaw will have their 300's back on the road, and with just a few more people turning up like Adam and the Geordie crowd we might make it to 20 cars!

Huge thanks are due to all the participants who helped make the weekend go so well;

The Helldriver clan (Andy, Rachel and Jack) with their 340 1.7 on Sat and the immaculate 360GLS on Sun.
Petefarrell360 (Pete and Katy) and the 340 Vario.
KrisSWFC (Kris and Julie) and their 340 1.4 (Sat only).
MickT (Mick) and his 360GLE.
Alex Laidlaw (Alex) and his 340 1.7.
Mckie740 (Ben and Sam) and his tidy 360GLEiSE (Sat only).
Chris C (Chris) and his 340 16v (midday Sat onwards).
SteveP (Steve and Michelle) and the tidy 360GLS (midday Sat onwards)

Sion (Sion and Oliver) and the tidy Mk1 340 (Sun only)
Jeremy and Janet Valentine and the red 340 that they've owned from new (Sun only).
Richard Staley & co and their grey 340 (Sun only).

V6Man (Me, Moira and Evan) and our S80 2.9SELux.
Foggyjames (James and Ruth) and his V70R.
Mac (Mac and Debbie) and Debbie's S40.
Pettaw (Andy) and his (now sadly damaged) 850T5.
Nibbles (Ryan) and his C70 T5GT (Sat night and Sun only).

Pete Smethurst, his mate and son, and his immaculate 164 (Sun only).
Gelnys Tinson and her Husband Ken and their tidy V70 (Sun only).
Chris Wickers and his V40 (Sun only).

I make that 34 people and 20 cars - a fine turnout for a half baked, last minute dry run of an event - many thanks to all.

Thanks are also due to the Volvo Owners Club for helping to 'officialise' the Sunday event and provide funding to allow a much reduced entry fee.

Some images from the Saturday

a nice turn out! looks like its a shame about the weather though
i know what people mean when they say they are ugly cars haha - thats why i love em

A cracking time was had by all - many thanks to all who attended! More later...

cheers

James

First of all I'd like to thank both Rupert and Foggy for putting in so much effort to organise the meet - one of such size isn't exactly plain sailing but the route was spot on and Crich was a good venue (despite my cynicism against trams ) Plus the choice of camp site was also great - I can speak for our table that we all very much enjoyed the grub in the evening!

valman - that picture in the rain isn't really a true representation, there were a couple of showers but overall the weather was great - surprisingly! I shall upload a few pics when I get a spare minute to upload them.

The GLS performed really well - and even averaged well over 30mpg, I was shocked that I only used half a tank all weekend over approximately 240 miles. But then the trip has highlighted something does need to be done in the handling and performance areas

Congratulations to Andy (Hell Driver) for being the winner of the 300 series judging competition - that car is lovely and is a definite deserved winner! Oh and from what Jack was telling me and Michelle you have a Volvo nut in the making there...

On the Saturday we had B,C,D,E,2xF,G and H reg cars and, for reasons of extreme sadness lined them up in age order for the layby pic. If you add the V and Y reg cars that arrived on Sunday it means we were only missing S,T,W,X,A and J reg cars to have had one from every year that the non DAF styled cars were made. Foggy's 343 is a W so if anyone knows of anyone with the missing years cars please give them a prod for next years event!

Stefan's Black Beauty is a T, I think. I also know where there's a very early car.....either an R or (more likely) S plater.

cheers

James

The weather wasn't that bad, Sunday was great, sunny and warm all day! I just put the garage one in cos it was a laugh when all of a sudden it was taken over by about 5 or 6 300's I'm sure there are plenty of better photo's to come, I'll upload some more later

Yes, thanks to Foggy and Rupert for all the work behind the scenes and all who attended on either day(s)

Well, I'm really glad I managed to make it to the weekend! The waterpump for the 340 arrived Thursday morning, was fitted late Thursday night in the dark, under floodlights and all was well and good and we were able to consider coming along!

I must say well done to James and Rupert for their top efforts and hard work that went into making the weekend a success and hopefully the first of many more 300 days, that will hopefully become an annual event for the calendar!

It really was a nice atmosphere, with beautiful scenery, great company and the cars we all enjoy.

Here are a few of my pics from the weekend.



















It was great to see everyone and I look forward to the next meet.

Well... lets start at the beginning....

Sat am. 5:45AM in fact, as I'd set the alarm. Got up, was already packed and then decided to have a bit of a spanner about it all and decided not to go to the 300 National after all. It was a long way and pennies have to stretch at the mo.

Roll on 8AM. Ring Rupert, inform him I won't be along. Get emotionally blackmailed. Still tell him I won't be along.

8:30AM. Put things in the boot of the car, just in case.

9AM. Ring Rupert. Tell him he's a git. Go to pick up big VOC flag and back issues of Driver magazine.

10AM Leave Soton, with most of the parts from the Soton Pimp Shelf in the boot to fund trip. Whats the point of owning pimp 300 bits if you have to miss the first 300 national for a million years

10:30AM Arrive in North. Well, Newbury at least. Take a deep breath and continue further north, whilst getting a text from the Brummie that he's bailing because of weather. After the issues I've had this morning that's just not on. Divert to Brummieland to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him along too.

12PM Meet Brummie and Michelle in fairly civilised location. Most surprising, considering!

14PM Arrive at Tour De La Peak District's Lunch stop, the Snake Pass Inn having travelled across some awesome roads, dam's, bridges and other such awesomeness! Grab a quick Roast lunch and get told to get involved. The Tour De La Peak District is "take at your own pace" kind of affair so I did what anyone who'd just driven 230 miles would do. Take the instructions Ruperts just handed you and get to the exit of the carpark first so you can have a play without obstructions (Note, as I made a sneaky dive for the exit at this point in the rear view mirror I saw Rupert eyeing his chance as well ) Much fun was had on the rest of Snake Pass onto the petrol station shown in Andy's pictures above.

At this point, I got the camera out.

As Rupert mentioned above, the not at all Anorak-eque H through B plate chronological shots



Then we moved on for a bit more of a drive around, until we found some places to take some panning shots. These were annoyingly cut short by a Vauxhall driver, on the plus side though work have bought me a new chair. Turns out the back pain I had on Sat (and went away) only came back when I sat down at work today in an el-cheapo office chair. A new one is on order
Steve, lamenting his lack of twin Stroms


Alex enjoying the drive

Pete and Katie at full rubberband boingyness

Andy (HellDriver), Rachel and Jack

Mick (who has the honour of being slightly out of focus compared to everyone else, as Andy (pettaw) was having his T5 modified at the time.

Hereby end's Saturday, seems I was too busy selling pimp things at this point to remember I was supposed to be taking photos. I'm sure Pettaw and Steve will be along to fill in the gaps

Sunday!
After being woken up at 7:45 by Rupert (seriously... it's a Sunday ffs) I did the only decent thing and decided to stay in bed. That is, until Rupert also decided to set up the worlds most unstable gas stove inside the tent. Which promptly fell over. Health and Safety Chris decided that the healthiest and safest place at this point was anywhere but in the tent, so sat outside. Then, Nibbles rustled up a million bacon butties (thanks bud!) and we all headed over to Crich




Awesome venue and they let us go right down to the tramway. Brilliant location all round really. We were next too the epic bridge:



How awesome would this be for a unit


VOC people turned up too, it wasn't just 300's. Having said that, I failed to take pictures of anything else. Well, apart from this...

At this point, prize giving occured and Rupert somehow managed to armtwist me into helping Foggy present. He has now taken over on the camera and with superb inept-itude still hasn't managed to make too bad a picture

Runner Up, Best 300 (Steve_P, Brummie GLS)

Winner, Best 300 (Andy HellDriver, Shiney GLS)

Runner Up, Best Other (Debbie, Mrs Mac, Red S40. Rupert failed to get a picture of Mac at this point, he was running away at pace for the nearest thing to hide behind)

Winner, Best Other (Pete, 164)

Runner Up, People's Choice 300 (the one that might not be the shiniest, but you'd really like to take home with you) - Pete Farrell, White Vario

Winner, People's Choice 300 (Sion, Mk1)

Pete, dubious from winning the above with Katie

And here we come, to the end of the day and time for one final tramride






Worth selling random pimp 300 parts for? Hell yeah. Thanks guys

Cool pics all.
Looks like it was a good time which was had by all.

Some excellent pics there! Am really glad the weekend was a success, and am really gutted I couldn't be there.

See you all next year, I hope ...

Tom

Hi lads.
Great pics. Wish i was there to enjoy. Mybee next year.
Heres hopeing. For me to get there would meen a lot of advanced notice
so a date for next year soon please.
Cheers Mark.

First I've got to say much thanks to Foggy for having the idea of organizing this, and then Rupert for putting a lot of it together, particularly the driving route on the Saturday. Apart from the Vauxhall driver that tried to ruin the weekend, it was fantastic, and we drove along some great roads and stopped to take some fantastic pictures.

Speaking of photos:
Driving round and a few line up shots.

Ben Bennett Jr Quarry

The convoy moves off again to the next stop

Bah it starts raining, and plenty of low cloud. Luckily the rain showers are intermittent rather than continuous

All the 300s that made it, along with their owners


Ladybower reservoir.

Lunch time at the Snake Pass Inn, where we were very well fed indeed.

Up in the clouds over and around the Snake Pass

More 300s joined us after lunch.



Campsite in the evening, just before dawn and just before breakfast.


Much thanks to Crich Tramway Museum who let us park the 300s right next to the tramway!





The Museum is set inside an old quarry, but is built round some amazing scenery.





A fantastic setting for a fascinating place, and great to see the trams actually running and working rather than sitting around.

Then down to VOC business:
Congratulations to all the winners and runners of the various categories.

Runner up 300 SteveP for his 360 GLS

Winner 300 Helldriver for his fantastic 360GLS.

Runner up non 300 Mac and Debbie's S40, Ford edition

Runner up non 300 Pete's fantastic 164

Runner up favourite car Pete Farrell's 340 CVT

Winner favourite car Sion's Mk1

That's it folks, thanks again to everybody for a fantastic weekend, and to the hammers, I have a 850 to take a hammer to.

Another great write-up with pics...thanks Andy!

I should probably explain briefly about "the drive". We wanted to make this more than just a 'big' regular meet...to make it something properly special, and to give it a bit more of an identity as the major annual event for the 300 series. We decided to go for a trial run of a drive / convoy around the peak district with a few friends, ready for a full 'launch' of this next year, along with a stop-over at a campsite near the tramway museum. In the event, far more people turned up on the Saturday than we originally expected, but it went reasonably smoothly (Andy vs Vauxhall incident aside!), so I think we're good to proceed with this with a couple of minor tweaks for next year.

I think Chris and Andy have said it all, but I'd just like to re-iterate my thanks to Rupert for his very significant contribution to making the weekend what it was, and to the VOC board for their support and assistance with funding...and, of course to everyone who made the effort to turn up. We'll not mention the two who nearly bailed... It's particularly good that we had such a wide spread of cars there age-wise. Traditionally, the line-up would have been dominated by late mk3 models, but we had good representation from mk2s, and even a mk1...which is quite an achievement, given how few are left!

Anyway, here go my pics...


























Many thanks again to all who attended, and made the days what they were...until next year!

cheers

James