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CONCOURS d'ELEGANCE 9TH JULY 2000

by J-P ROQUIER

Having just come back from Kampala, I lifted the cover on my Concours entry on the Sunday morning, having left instructions and cleaning materials to my staff before departing... The MGA started straight away, and off we went to the racecourse. I was hoping Marcelina would rush and clean every nook and cranny of the car, as everybody seems to do, I had even placed a bucket, a kibuyu of water and some rags in the Citroen FAF “service vehicle”, but she showed no interest in doing so... As I was busy looking around, taking pictures of members’ cars for the VCCCK website and newsletter, the MG did not get cleaned on the day, which probably goes some way towards explaining the unremarkable score attained! (7h in Class, out of 7!). Meanwhile, the Club had a hospitality tent (kindly provided and erected by Charanjit as usual), manned this year by new committee members Jane and Roger Bryson, who did a magnificent job. Alec Davis was not there, but he had masterminded the whole thing and equipment, food and drinks had all been planned. We also had a very nice surprised when a battered Peugeot 504 station wagon turned up: it was our member Leo Murotto who had very kindly brought a selection of Italian delicacies for us to sample! Soon we were enjoying Italian sandwiches and deserts for breakfast, and not missing the car cleaning one bit! After all was said and done, the winner of the day was Grant Stephenson in the ex St Denny 1948 Austin Champ below, which was impressively restored.

The winner's car!

BELOW FIND A SELECTION OF MEMBER'S CARS ENTERED IN THE EVENT.

Vitafoam's 1972 Mini

Gary Farant was here again this year with his nice 1959 220SE.

Another arch regular entrant is Anil Lakhani. Anil enjoys restoring and polishing cars, he actually drives them little! He must be commended for having saved many cars, this 1953 Opel Kapitan is a perfect example, as it was bought by Anil as a total wreck!

Another type of enthusiast, Simon Fisher enjoys driving more than polishing! He was however trying on the day... The fact that his 1934 Alvis Firefly bears 1996 number plates can be easily explained: he bought the car in England as a restoration project, brought her to Kenya, took her with him when his job took him to Uganda, then re-imported the car into Kenya again!

Our very enthusiastic member Firoz Kimji splits his time between Nairobi and Kampala, his 1965 220 SEb convertible is proudly displayed next to a painting of the car. He too was trying hard, he won the prize for Best Red Mercedes Entry from Uganda!!!

This 1957 Morris Minor now belongs to A.M. Selvarajah, it used to be the webmaster's daily wheels a few years ago...

This is not an entry, only Roger Tanner's service car, I'm not sure of the make...

Here's Roger's entry, I was not sure of the make either, fortunately I have the entry list, which tells me it is a 1925 Bentley!

John Wroe is another multiple Concours entrant, here's his1928 Ford Tudor,

and his magnificent 1933 Rolls Royce, which came well placed.

This is Nagin Chouhan's 1956 Dodge Kingsway, Nagin came all the way fron Nanyuki!

Iqbal Manji's 1950 Mercedes 170D

Another entry from A.M. Selvarajah, a 1972 Jaguar XJ6.

The webmaster's entry: 1956 MGA. The service car is more interesting, it is a 1978 Citroen FAF, if you want to find out more, goto: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/jr.marsh/faf01.html

This Faf was built as a demonstrator for a proposed Kenyan factory, which never happened, it is therefore unique in the country! Is it possibly the only RHD FAF in the world????

Meanwhile, there was a good selection of classics parked at the Club's tent, they were perhaps less polished, but more used -and enjoyed than the Concours entrants! See below Mike Seldon's Morris Minor (his only car), Philippe de Coop's Volvo Amazon (also in daily use)and Dominique Antoine's Peugeot 203. Dom was busy judging motorcycles on the day.

INSIDE THE TENT, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: ROGER AND JANE BRYSON, COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN CHARGE FOR THE DAY, AND LEO MUROTTO, WHO KINDLY BROUGHT A SELECTION OF ITALIAN DELICATESSEN!

OTHER SCENES ON THE DAY:

Stuart Allison busy fixing his MGA's fuel pump....

A froggy cleaning his deux chevaux! (Christian Caldara and his 1984 2CV)

The Marchalls Peugeot 203 on the judging ramp. Marchalls have been the Peugeot agent since the 50's, it's nice they're preserving their heritage. Also present on the day, was the last 404 ever built, would you believe in 1991! Photo below: