Sywell Pistons and Props - an Auto Cornucopia - 25 September 2022

An eclectic mix of motors made for a marvelous day at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire, UK, on Sunday. It was all the fun of the fair with something for all the family, but mainly for car blokes. Some were colourfully attired in styles appropriate to their classics on display and brought appreciative smiles from us more contemporarily clad crowd. We enjoyed the drag racing with absurdly powered machines and the alarming ritual of laying down of rubber at the start line before the green light sent them hurtling (mostly) down the short straight. There were a splendid array of British classics and a good collection of impressive and equally loved American chromed beauties.

The mock dogfights between the slow flying and graceful WW I replica Fokker triplanes and British biplanes , complete with simulated bombs hitting the ground in front of the crowd and anti-aircraft shells bursting in the sky, were great to watch and the planes a credit to their DIY constructors. Later a WW II Hurricane made a series of fly pasts.

The planned Giulietta Register stand was abandoned in the face of late and onerous requirements from the event organisers but we all gathered in a grassy corner for a impromptu picnic in a weather with a decidedly autumnal edge. All in all, we agreed the Sywell event was well worth keeping in our calendar of Register events for future years.