Swedish Day UK 2010

Swedish Day 2010 was a bit of a colder weekend. Saturday threatened to rain on us as we did a bit of pre-set up. Sunday was dry (apart from a quick shower just before we got the gates open) but very windy and cool with it.

The weekend started on Saturday evening with a successful Carvery at The Sparkford Inn. 46 Swedish Fans enjoyed a two meat meal with a pudding and lots of chat from six o'clock until about midnight. There were guests from four countries sharing their love for both Saab and Volvo. Luckily for us, the English language was known by everyone.

The day of the show saw Alex and myself and our families turn up at 9am to get things organised, this year we had chosen to hold the event in the field behind the Museum but sadly the gates remained locked until about 9.15 so it was full speed ahead when the keys arrived. The gazebos were erected and flags were put up to fly. The stars of the show, the Volvos and Saabs, started to arrive around 9.30, although a couple of Saabs from South Wales were there before us. As last year, the cars kept arriving and turned into a steady stream of Swedish vehicles driving through the gates. By 11.00 one hundred cars had received their welcome bag and instructions. Like the two previous years, we decided to continue with the idea where everybody parked together no matter which make or model you arrived in. This works quite well as you get a great mixture going on. There were opportunities during the day to have photo shoots with like models if you wanted.

By the end of the day we had had a total of 197 different Swedish vehicles including our first Lorry.  It was great to talk to so many enthusiasts and to see so many people smiling all day.

The variety of Swedish cars was brilliant. The older cars were there, a Volvo PV544 and a couple of Volvo 1800's, a Saab Two Stroke and one of the first Saab 99's driven all the way from The Alps in Switzerland. We had our first truck to the show, a very beautifully restored F10.

The Saabs and Volvos, once again came from all four corners of the UK,  and we had 15 cars from mainland Europe. France was very well supported and they all had a rally plate saying "Frog Eaters Tour to Swedish Day"

The other attraction of being at Haynes was the Museum. Everybody who signed their car in received a couple of tickets to get in the museum at a reduced rate. Almost everybody took a visit to enjoy the great cars in the Museum. The children had the play park, go-karts, diggers as well as the wooden fort/climbing frame and the play bus plus this year an old white Saab to paint, it wasn't very white by the end of the day. Others attractions were taking place, one being a remote control driving competition. You had the choice of a Volvo or Saab and you had to get around the course without hitting the bollards down. Well done to the Rankin family for organising this great attraction. There was also a full size gymkhana taking place where skill was the reward of the day over speed. A raffle took place with many great prizes. I want to thank the many wife's of the South West Saab group for looking after the coffee and teas and Hillary for her great voice when drawing the raffle prizes.

During the day there were six judging competitions going on. Three were named “The Most Admired Volvo, Saab and Truck” and was sponsored by Chris Knott Insurance and Trail-A-Way. Each entrant was given the task of choosing their Most Admired Volvo, Truck & Saab at the show. Another was “Best in Show”, sponsored by Peter Swann from “The GB Motor Book Company”. As Pete said it was very difficult to choose one as there were a great many “Best” cars, so he decided to ask himself, Which car would I like to travel home in? The local Saab garage was there to choose their favourite Saab and Dimitri from www.dimini.ch, an internet shop selling model cars, who chose his favourite Volvo at the show.

The prizes at the 2010 show were awarded like this.
The Chris Knott “Most Admired Volvo” chosen by the people at Swedish Day was presented by Paul Channer to Malcolm Tridgeon and his Volvo P1800ES.
The Chris Knott “Most Admired Saab” chosen by the people at Swedish Day was presented by Paul Channer to Julian Davies and his Saab 99 Turbo.
The Trail-A-Way "Most Admired Truck" chosen by the people at Swedish Day was presented by Robin & Azzy to Rob Davies and his Volvo F10.
Dimini.ch's Favourite Volvo was presented by Dimitri to Peter Smethurst and his Volvo 164.
Astley Saabs Favourite Saab was presented by Dave Irish to Tony Grestock and his Saab 95.
Peter Swann of the GB Motor Book Company’s Best in Show or later re-tagged as "Car I would most like to drive home in" was presented to Russ Tidbury and his Volvo 1800S. 

You can find a few pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/trollpowersaab/sets/72157622727657924/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/23946388@N05/sets/72157623907503381/
There is also a  short video on You Tube, the link being http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViXmtmbkKeA

I would like to thank everybody for supporting this event, the helpers, the five sponsors mentioned above, Marcus and Haynes Museum for the location, my friends Pete, Paul, Mike & Marion, Mark & Carol and Alex & Isabel for the constant support, the local Saab owners group for their fantastic help on the day, the internet forums and blogs, including Saabsunited.com and Saabhuy.net and of course, my wife Kerry and daughter Azabeth. But the biggest thank you goes to all the owners of those lovely Saabs and Volvos that came along on the day.

Next years show will again be held in the show field on Sunday the 8th May. 

Robin.