From: Douglas Greville (dgrev@ruralnet.net.au)
Date: Thu Dec 12 2002 - 03:11:24 PST
Ryan
Re your suggestion about a US Beltring. Really the foundation for it
already exists, the MVPA meet. Which, until I found out about Beltring
and actually attended it, I had every intent of going to the MVPA meet.
However, reading the reports of the MVPA meet I will put things into
some kind of perspective and you will see why I never actually got to
go to an MVPA meet.
In England, it has always been said that no Pom (the Brits reading
this will have to excuse my colonial slang) lives more than 60? miles
from the sea - it is a small country, it would comfortably fit into
just 1 of most of the bigger US states. It is only the crippling cost
of petrol and diesel that inhibits travel there and perhaps the
escalating attendance fees at Beltring. Never the less,
lots of collectors have traditionally made the effort and bore the
cost of going to Beltring with their vehicle(s).
This includes the Europeans, even 2 legendary Russians who drove a Jeep
all the way from Moscow!
Andreas drags his Kettenkrad on a trailer each year all the way from
what was the inter-German border (aka Berlin Wall).
They are not put off by channel ferry costs or multiple country travel.
Whilst at Beltring I daily walked past and ignored more vehicles in
any 10 minute period than the total MV roll up at the MVPA meet. Not
because I wasn't interested but because I simply did not have the time
in a 5 day period to see them all!!! This was purely because the
swap meet (dealers tables) took 2 days alone of walking and looking to
do it justice. Then there was a day spent sitting on the arena berm
watching only those parts of the show that interested me and getting
covered in dust from Hetzers, M18 Hellcats and an M60 . Throw in
socialising (talking MVs - not drinking!) walking time just to get
around the site and having a good look at specific vehicles eg, David's
running full restored Churchill and I could not even find time to get
a look at all the M8 Greyhounds on site, let alone the tracked
vehicles. So such interesting things as the owners of an FV 432 who did
an engine pull and re install over several days, the Chieftain that
broke down and was under going repair, the Gulf War diorama (1:1 scale)
complete with Rapier missile battery, all got a mere glance in passing.
Such is Beltring and why there is such a love hate relationship
regarding the facilities (or lack thereof) amongst
those who have been there - it is huge and nothing comes even remotely
close! I know that Tom Woodburn has been to both shows and should be
reading this email - he may like to comment. Many other Americans have
also attended both shows and may like to comment.
For the US to stage an equivalent show you would need to have a
thousand MVs attend and I don't mean just Jeeps, M37s and M35s -
probably around 10% of vehicles at Beltring are armoured -
then there is the 150 stall holders, most with multiple stall spaces,
some occupying 1/8 of an acre etc. I hope it
happens as it is really the next level of evolution that the US scene
appears to need, as the comradery amongst the nationalities AND the
different collectors, despite the variety of vehicle interests is
great to be a part of.
Regards
Doug
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Armoured Vehicles Collector
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_/|___|_|___|\_ /____\
/ [___] [___] \ Douglas Greville _/[o]___\_
/\_ [o] [o] _/\ Broken Hill __/=_|____|_=\__
|w||___________||w| N.S.W. /__\__________/__\
|w|\u u/|w| Australia |w| \ / |w|
|w| \_________/ |w| |w|$ \______/ $|w|
[w] [w] [w] [w]
M8 Ferret
dgrev@ruralnet.net.au
Web Armour site at:
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/lsm/dhmg/index.html (UK mirror site)
and
http://www.trackpads.com/heavymetal/index.html (US mirror site)
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