Hard Top Relay 2016

[4wheels]

Adrian , if you have any idea as to when our area can take part in this please

[adrianclifford]

Jeff, there's a draft of a schedule taking shape in the committee/reps area, maybe you can grab a slot from there ?.

[nigelandjo]

Made the most of a dry day and swapped hard top's over, so the Relay hard top is ready to make the journey to Stoneleigh from the Archive.

Donation made to Guide Dogs for the Blind on the MGF Register's MyDonate website https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/mgfregister2016

[adrianclifford]

It lives ! Good to see it on a car again,

[Worzel]

I'm back now Adrian, bucket & spade put away, so ready to do what ever needed for the Thames Valley Region.
How easy does those things fit by the way, as never tried before!

TV will be at the AGM, taking part in the Old Speckled Hen Run, the Arundel Castle event, and others so should be able to relay ok. I may need to take on Uxbridge organisation too.

[adrianclifford]

Hi Ian, funny enough the first time I ever used a hard top was the relay in 2012. It's easy we'll show you at the AGM.

[Geoff and Vicki Edge]

Hard Top Relay discussed at Lincolnshire's meet last night and everyone is up for it again this year - so please include Lincolnshire in the schedule!!

[adrianclifford]

Thanks Geoff/Vicki, I'll do that and I'll be in touch.

[nigelandjo]

Hard top has been out and about today around Somerset and Dorset.

[nigelandjo]

Hard Top transferred to Pete this evening, so it's now in Devon and shortly to head into Cornwall.

[Pete & Lin]

Good to meet up with Nigel & Jo at Exeter Services this evening.

Hard Top Relay has now moved on to Devon & Cornwall and is safely under lock & key.

[adrianclifford]

Well done Nigel & Jo and Pete.

It's not too late to join in. I'm still planning it's coverage areas after Brooklands on 10th April, it's free until early June (but must be at MGLive).

[Pete & Lin]

Soon be time to pass the Hard Top on to the next Region.

Gateway to Cornwall.

[colintf]

Soon be time to pass the Hard Top on to the next Region.

Gateway to Cornwall.

IMG_0984b.JPG

great photo Pete

[Pete & Lin]

Will be handing over the hard top tomorrow at the AGM, weather fantastic while it was with us.

Sheeps Tor, Dartmoor

South Devon Railway

Printed and added a couple of Guide Dogs logos to the rear window (one each end)

[Worzel]

.... there's a draft of a schedule taking shape in the committee/reps area, maybe you can grab a slot from there ?.

Ok. being a total muppet - I cant seem to find the schedule Adrian

[TimM]

The Hard top came to the South East region after the Chairman's weekend.

Pete & Lin handed it over outside the front door of the Oxford Abingdon Hotel (it doesn't seem to quite know where it is!). It is now with Tim & Liz who will hang on to it until Friday when hopefully someone else will take it at the Regions regular "Bunny Blast" event.

Pete & Tim removing the Top from Pete's car

The obligatory handover photo!

Here it is on Tim's South East F - ready to go!

After collecting the Hardtop we took it to the start of the Chairman's Charity Run the next day in the Market Square in Abingdon where we met up with lots of other F/TFs and some interested Guide Dogs and their owners who wanted to know what the Hard Top Relay was all about. All the donations made on the relay will of course be going to the Guide Dogs charity which you can donate to on the Register's online fundraising page.

We trundled along the country lanes with the wind whistling around the edges of the hardtop until we came to the home of the forefather of MG , William Morris. A fascinating house and a great history of course. Morris was a renowned philanthropist and gave millions of pounds to charitable causes, let's hope that some of that magnamity rubs off on the Hard Top which was parked right outside his front door!

Hardtop in the Market Square, Abingdon

Here with a couple of the GUide Dogs who will benefit from our fundraising this year

The Hardtop outside the front door of Nuffield Place

After the run we followed the Thames home from Henley via Runnymede and stopped off to take a picture of the Hardtop with the Queen looking out over the river at the site of the signing of the Magna Carta 801 years ago.

The Hard Top with the Queen

Her Majesty conveys Her Royal approval upon the Hard Top relay

So on to the next instalment soon............

[TimM]

It was back to work after the Chairman's weekend so I thought I'd get a few pics of the Hard top in the office car park.
Luckily where I work is not a terribly ordinary office car park as you can see from the pictures below!

The main office

The approach road

Some other methods of transport

The view from the office window

Hard Top with some of the other cars in the office car park

So the Easter weekend approaches and the Hard Top will be heading out on the South East Bunny Blast on Good Friday heading for the South Coast. Hopefully it will be returning home with a new custodian . It will be with us in the South East for a while longer and will be heading to Kent after 10th April so if anyone wants to take part please go to the South East section and sign up.

[churchsquare]

The Relay Hardtop has now been handed over to us. Back home where it all started from. The hand over took place at Chichester Harbour at the end of the Bunny blast .Lets see what we can find for it.

[TimM]

Just to add to David's entry above on the last day of the Hard Top in our care.

It was the South East Region Bunny Blast that started at Secretts Garden Centre in Milford where the Hard Top began its day. Joined by a brace of MG3s and a Peugeot Cabriolet it went with the F/TFs on a typical SE Blast route taking in muddy single track lanes with plenty of potholes and some nice slightly smoother B and A roads. We finished at Dell Quay in Chichester Harbour which, being Good Friday was pretty busy! Nonetheless a fine blue sky day with hoods down, except for us who had the Hard Top....and David who took it off us at the Crown & Anchor pub right on the water edge. That did mean we had a nice top down run back home again though!

It's now back at Church Square Autos, the original sponsors of the event and the start point for the first Hard Top relay in 2012 (although the premises are now half a mile away from where they were four years ago !).

Let's see where it ends up next....over to you David.

The Hard Top at Secretts for the start of the Bunny Blast

The hand over cars in front of the Crown & Anchor

David and Tim half way throught the Handover process

Now on David's LE500 160

The Hard Top on the slipway at Dell Quay now in David's custody