After a damp start to the day, 5 Crossfires arrived in Bakewell on Saturday to kick off the meet, UK Ken was allready there having arrived the day before, followed in by Stevieb from London. Then Hairydalek and ZeroZero pulled into the market place as the time approached for our Crossfire Cruise.
Ken was excused from the cruise, (rumours of Dehli-Belli) - as was Stevieb, a wise decision having spent the afternoon testing out the refreshments in the Peacock! That left the three surviving drivers to take the 18mile circular route on nice dry roads.
The group had a meal a few beers, and a good natter, then later on the remaining desperados carried out an inspection of most of the local pubs in the town, the rest of the evening is a blurr...........
Sunday morning brought sunshine as beeblebrox and bollox arrived in town to make up a convoy of seven cars for the run over to Chatsworth! On arrival the parking area was allready filling up but a good spot to park together had been found by woody who had arrived earlier. We were then joined by TIGER and bamp making the total of 10 cars - a UK record! Interesting to note that six of these had come to their first Crossfire meet so who knows we may break this record at the 4th meet! This was a great opportunity to meet and put faces to names, and for owners to exchange ideas and experiences. No matter how well you know these cars, theres allways something new to learn. A BIG BIG thankyou to everyone for attending, especially those who had long - long journies to Derbyshire.

• stevieb - Saphire Silver Blue Coupe
• woody - Saphire Silver Blue Coupe
• UK Ken - Black Coupe (the one with the furry dice)
• bollox - Black Roadster (the one with all the bling)
• beeblebrox Aero Blue Roadster
• Steve - UK Aero Blue Coupe
• Hairydalek - Graphite Coupe
• bamp - Red Pearlcoat Coupe
• ZeroZero - Red Pearlcoat Coupe
• TIGER - Red Pearlcoat Coupe

This artwork prepared by Woody!!!

 

YES, let me be the first to say what a great time i had...hic!!

It was great to put some faces to the members and chat about our cars.

Oh and let me recommend bakewell, GREAT BEER!

 

Hi All , Great place , great people , Great cars , do i have to say anymore , Ok just one thing when is the next one , .

 

Hi,
I thought I had posted last night - maybe I hit the wrong button. I did get back rather late - we stopped over at Amanda's parents on the way back.

It was a great weekend - I’ve never seen so many Crossfires in one place before - oddly we saw a few more out and about that weekend which had nothing to do with us, which makes up for the usual lack of them where I am.

The weather was just right I found - the sunlight showing off the paint work to its best. I find that metallic paints can look dull on cloudy days, that day I think they couldn’t have looked any better.

It was great to meet everyone, and to see how they enjoy their cars - seems that everyone has different reasons for owning one, and this can only be a good thing.

I haven’t done a full tally of my milage yet, as this usually involves tracing a line on Google maps and getting a fairly accurate figure there (I forgot to reset the counter on Saturday, and I am keeping a record of the pleasure cruises on Google anyway). These things have a massive range. I got back to Chesterfield on Sunday with just under a half tank of fuel. I filled up for the journey home, and I have just over a half tank left. I suspect that with some careful handling, I could have done the whole weekend on one tank. That’s pretty impressive. I am guessing at around 400 miles in total. I’ll know more later the Google plotting can take a while to do.

That was my first car meet - I've never been to one as a participant before, and I’ve come away knowing a lot more about the car and what it's capable of before I arrived. I’ve also been able to see the full extend of the bling (coff), and I suspect that I’ll be adding some shinier accents myself as I go on.

One question: I have some photos which I’ll try to get posted over the next couple of days. What's the consensus on number plates? Should they be obfuscated, or left as they are? I’m thinking that they really need to be blurred or masked in some form - is there a group preference?

 

blurred or blank sounds better

 

Hmmmm..... Just like sunday morning!

 

I'm sure all those that attended the third UK xfire meet will agree that Steve-UK did a fantastic job in arranging the locations etc. Chatsworth House was a great idea, there was somthing for everone to do and compaired to some open eststes, the charges for food etc were very reasonable.

Really good to see some new faces amongest the old. We only need a yellow xfire fire to have attend and I think we would have had the whole colour range.

Thanks again Steve-UK for a great 3rd UK Xfire meet.


Ken.

 

Yup - it was a well thought out couple of days. The drive on Saturday showed us some really great views - and I love that kind of driving anyway. Chatsworth was a good venue too - as long as you ignored the parking attendants.

 

Ok - had a chance to do a reckoning of my mileage. In total, I covered around 423 miles. I left Chatsworth House with just under half a tank, so to be sure I refilled in Chesterfield before the drive home. After that, I have just over half a tank, so it's highly possible that I could have done the whole weekend on a full tank (especially if I didn’t have that queue of traffic in Chesterfield to sit in). I just didn’t want to risk it.

 

Hi Steve.

It looks like the 3rd meeting was a great success. I bit warmer than the last 2 meetings.
As you may know. April and I were planning to be with you on Saturday and Sunday, but for personal reasons I couldn't make it. Anyway it just wasn't to be for me. You may of heard, my room was flooded at the Peacock Inn.
May be I will make it to the next one.

Cheers for now
Jon

 

Jon - Hi,
Yes I understand, its a shame that April & you (and that fab' car!) could'nt be there this time - Im sure you will be at the next gathering. As for the flooded rooms, we were in the same boat as you (allmost quite literally!) with the room situation at the Peacock, and we ended up in the Rutland Hotel at twice the price! The pics from the meet tell it all, they just needed
your car in there to complete the line-up!
Cheers, Steve

 

Hi Steve-UK/Woody

Regarding the 4th Xfire meet. Woody, I recall you mentioned spending a fulll day driving (not racing) your Xfire around a track with other like minded car owner's including Steve, which did not cost the earth. A thought, as part of the next meet could we not check out the interest and perhaps have the track event as part of the meet.

I would suggest meeting on the day at the track and those wanting to stay over could meet in a local pub before retireing to their arranged B/B or hotel. Subject to costs etc this would make a good change to the current meet routine and generate some interesting photo's.

Xfire owners not interested in partaking in the track day, could still attend as spectator's and join in the fun and the lunch/coffee breaks. An evening car cruise could be arranged before we test the local ales! Or perhaps a morning cruise before we depart for home.

What do you all think?

Cheers

Ken

 

Hi All , Is there any tracks that will get you lessons in track driving in your own car , I would love to give ours a go around a track but as i have never used a track before it could be all over on the first corner .

Cheers

Andy

 

I’m in the same boat really - the idea is tempting, but I suspect that I’d find myself well out of my depth in seconds. Maybe the meet could be built around a beginner’s day or session? However, the chance to take photos of Crossfires on a track is also very tempting.

Am I right in thinking that track days are rather heavy on tyres and fuel? That’s something I’d need to factor in too.

 

Hi ZeroZero & Hairydalek.

From past personal experience on the Castle Coomb track, I found that you can drive at your own limit, be it slow and steady or at a faster pace. After a few laps and getting accustomed to the bends my speed and confidence incressed.

Regarding tyre wear etc, its all down to how you drive the xfire on the day.

Driving on the track is not as daunting as it sound's. Have a word with Steve-UK and Woody who are past masters ( see earlier posts) for more info.

Ken.

 

Hi,
well it doesn’t look too bad on Google maps:
Clicky for the Google Experience Here

It's certainly something to think about. I think that cost may be the final decider for me.

 

Thanks for the info on the wheel centres - got 4 on warranty arriving on tuesday - saved £200. Bad news - developed a rattle on the way home - one of the cats has loose bits inside - good news covered by warranty another £800 saved

 

http://classically-modern.com/Videos...n%202008CD.mov

Here's a reminder of what its like to push the Crossfire round Cadwell Park,
this is woody driving his Coupe' with me riding shotgun. A fantastic day - there are some awsome pics of this session on the forum.
Cheers Steve

P.S. and heres another pic, this time taken at Bruntingthorpe - here you can see woody is realy leaning hard on the Crossfire, the car performs incredibly well on the corners, the car proves itself over and over again on the track. A real thoroughbred!

 

Hi, I would just like to say how much Anne and myself enjoyed the Sunday. Thanks Steve for organising the day. I thought it was a good mix of a relaxing "do what you want day" and some interesting chats on the technicalities of the cars.

There are some clever people who understand a lot more about what happens under the bonnet than I do !

The friendliness and open advice was welcomed, and great to meet just a nice bunch of people.

Looking forward to the next one !

Paul & Anne

 

Oh - I forgot to mention, I saw some bonus wildlife on the way back. For the first time in my life, I saw a real live badger crossing the road as I drove though some woodland on the Chelmsford approach. I have seen dead ones a fair few times, but I have never seen a badger in the wild before.