It's

This is the worldwide club for all owners and enthusiasts of Standard Cars

"Dedicated to the preservation of Standard Cars 1903-1963"

I wonder if "Rally" is the right title for this event. The impression that "Rally" might give is of  bearded car-nutters sitting about in a field comparing notes on the vagaries of Imperial measurements, whilst the little women stay at home doing the ironing. Nothing could be further from the truth for this event. In fact, only one of the party had a beard and the only sitting about was in pubs and restaurants, sampling some of the fine fare that Suffolk has to offer. In between, there were four days of using the cars for exactly what they were designed for, that is for members and their partners to tour about the English countryside, visiting tourist attractions and generally having as enjoyable a time as can be had in the English weather.

Based for three nights in excellent B&B accommodation in Bury St. Edmunds, the party started proper with an excellent evening meal in the Fox Inn. Saturday, it was swiftly off to nearby Rougham Aerodrome to visit the WWII Control Tower. I have to tell you that absolutely no one was looking at the fantastic Model aircraft flying competitions, because we hadn't paid the appropriate admissions. From here it was a relatively fast run down the A14 then across country to Pakenham Water Mill. The party was divided into 2 for the tour, followed by the opportunity to purchase their stoneground flour. John Maxwell kept us all amused by loosing his car keys, this resulting in a frenzied search of the whole area.  Several members found they had keys that could open the door of his Flying 12, which is just as well, as the keys were on his back seat all along!

The next stop was for lunch in a pub, whilst we eat the buffet we were provided with a lecture on "Bio-fuels" that was most interesting, as was the modified Mondeo in the carpark, that Paul, the lecturer was running on Sunflower oil from Tesco's. In the afternoon we visited the pottery at Wattisfield,  no longer working of course, though the kiln is preserved in the car park. Saturday evening comprised of a tour of 5 Suffolk windmills followed by a Carvery Dinner at the Dunberry Arms, Great Barton. From there it was only a short run back to the hotel at Bury.

Sunday was scheduled as a full day at the Mid Suffolk Light Railway. Here we parked the cars to form a visitor display whilst the team could partake of steam hauled train rides. Dry work, these railways, so it was good to see that they also had a real ale bar, which we were soon able to avail ourselves of................ Sunday evening another splendid meal had been arranged, this time at Rose and Crown, Stanton before another short run back to Bury

We had successfully avoided the rain until now, but on Monday morning there was no escaping it. The cars set off for the Saxon village at West Stow. This now has an excellent museum, added since the last time we were there, this filled in the time until there was a break in the weather to allow us to inspect the re-created huts in the village. There followed another run via the USAF base at Mildenhall, back to Newmarket. Here we said our farewells and split up into our separate ways. Our thanks to Ian and Vera for a superb holiday, everything planned and run like clockwork!!

Not everyone on the tour is featured below, as even us professionals " loose" photos sometimes! My apologies to Charles and Damian and Nigel for missing you out! The rest of you are captured on the thumbnails below. Thanks for bringing such an excellent selection of cars! Click on any of them to see an enlargement. The enlargements are not print quality, if you want a copy for yourself, just contact the webmaster, who will email you a copy, by return.