(OR TOTTY WATCH 1996)
With Skoda handing out it's end of season trophies at the NEC, registered entrants were invited to attend along with guests- As we've never been shy of accepting a freebie, Peter Boddy, Andy Kirk and myself duly turned up with our passes on Friday 25th October. The editor having dropped out due to a problem with his pussy! (Cat needed trip to Vet's-IJ)
The first task was to locate the Skoda stand which we achieved relatively easily, the stand featured the new Octavia and a rather fetching yellow Pick-up complete with surfboard which will no doubt be appearing in the Czech version of "Baywatch" shortly.
Also appearing was a Felicia kit-car with Carl Stevens (Pete's old sparring partner in the '94 & '95 championships) dressed up in racing overalls (Very Sexy)- Poor Carl spent most of the day signing posters, but as he looks remarkably like Mika Hakkinen we wondered if people were just a little disappointed when they saw the signature.
Having caught up with the gossip, Carl advised us to go and watch the Honda Show which had just started- I'm not sure what cars they were featuring but it was a damn fine show!!
The Skoda presentations followed shortly afterwards and then we decided that we really ought to go and look at some girls- sorry, I mean cars.
Ford had a huge stand which heavily featured the new Ka, general opinion was Stupid name, Stupid car.
Proton had a couple of rally cars featured on their stand and Chrysler had a Viper race car looking very mean.
Then it was back to the Skoda stand for lunch- It was very nice to be up above the mass of humanity, looking down drinking free beer- it was even better when the Honda show started again and especially interesting was how the dancers demonstrated the amount of legroom in the back of the Prelude. The suspension seemed pretty firm too!
Then it was back to the cars, Andy got very excited by the Peugeot stand - Thought he saw enough of them in the week!, still the 106 and 306 GTI's did look very smart- or maybe it was the girl in the Barbarella costume on the concept stand that got him going.
Saw Steve Soper and Smokin' Jo on the BMW stand and a VR6 Police Car. Don't even think about it Pete.
A large crowd announced the arrival of "Our Damon" on the Top Gear stand being interviewed by Tiff Needell and Quentin Wilson.
We then finally made it to the TVR stand where Andy nearly wet himself _ I told him they were only cars but he just gibbered incoherently.
After looking at lots of other shiny motor cars, we finally wandered back to the Skoda stand for a cup of tea and a chat with the now somewhat limp-wristed Carl Stevens and a few fellow competitors.
Did I mention the Honda show? - Well, when it finished, it really was time to leave which produced problem number one. Where did we come in? After wandering around in circles several times, we finally found the right exit and got in the car, to find that Andy "Don't worry I'm a mechanic" Kirk had left the side lights on.
After a couple of tries, the car bump started but there wasn't suuficient power in the battery to switch the alarm off. Who said motor shows weren't interesting!
Eddie Beilby