MARCH 2018
Pembrokeshire Classic Car Club
The driving force of our counties classic cars
When Practical Classics Came to Town
The first episode of the Practical Classics Winter Tour of Wales was published this month, April 2026. The first place visited after the PC team overnight stop in Brecon was Carew Control Tower Museum together with various enthusiasts and Pembrokeshire Classic Car Club.
The day was very cold with a bitter Easterly blowing, however the control tower supporters provided ample hot tea, coffees and biscuits to ward off the cold. That together with the open control tower and the shelter of the buildings warming one’s cockles if not one’s feet.
Practical Classics took the tremendous club turnout and made us all into Page 3 stars with Raymond Rees’ Ford Escort, Paul Ayer’s Lotus Elan and Ian Schofield’s TR4A to the fore.
More of the Practical Classics Winter tour may be read about in the magazine.
In later editions restorers and collections will be featured and these will hopefully include our own Ian Schofield, Will Hughes, Simon Howell, Martin Evans and David Hadley.
Practical Classics, visit from James Walshe – Simon Howell
Some time ago I was asked if Practical Classics could take some pictures of my cars, they are doing a feature on collections and restorations in Pembrokeshire.
After a few phone calls and excellent communications, James duly arrived on the drive in his canary yellow Citroen Dyane.
He was quite an enthusiast, he also has a Citroen 2CV and over a cup of tea was telling me all about long distance European adventures in the 2CV. Very entertaining indeed!
Thankfully, it was not raining on the day, the cars were pulled out of the garage after a long lay up since October, but the bitterly cold wind was no fun!
James had very strange ideas in his head about how he wanted the cars arranged for the pictures, he explained a few times, in the end I said, give me hand signals when you are up the step ladder and I will drive each car to your ideal spot!
It took some arranging, but eventually we got there!
WOW! That man knows how to set cars out for a magazine photograph! I have been so used to getting all cars in a neat row for a smart picture; very boring!
After the “shoot” I was expecting him to come in for another cuppa, but no, he was off to Carew to meet the rest of the team, he is going to phone me for an interview about the buying of the cars, the reasons for choosing those models and the work done on them.
He was back in the canary and speeding over the horizon, leaving me to restock the garage and try to get warm!
Martin Evans hosts Ed Hughes
While James was visiting Simon Howell, Martin Evans says he had “a delightful visit from the Practical Classic’s technical advisor Ed Hughes who came to look at my collection arriving in his orange Lada.
After looking at the cars, over coffee we had such an interesting conversation about his role with the magazine and all things technical including Eastern European cars that we arrived late to Carew Control Tower.”
A great turn out on the day.......
Will Hughes hosts the two Matts
A few words to recap on the visit from the Practical Classics crew.
It all started with a call from Dave Esmond asking whether I would consider being involved in being part of a feature with Practical Classics. I wasn't really keen to be honest as I am quite a shy type of person and would normally stay in the background. However, as I have a lot of respect for Dave, I agreed.
My first job, with a couple of weeks to go before the planned visit, was to give the workshop a good clean and tidy up together with giving the cars a good dusting off after winter!
On the day of the visit I had a message from Matt Tomkinson that they should be arriving at around midday and true enough the Morris Thousand traveller came up the drive at nearly exactly that time. Matt and Matt the photographer introduced themselves and it was straight to work taking light refreshments whilst on the go. We spent the next 2 hours moving vehicles around to obtain the correct photo whilst having a general chat and answering questions.
The 1968 Landrover Series 2 restoration was the main subject and the other vehicles were for the collection feature. We actually went out for some 'action' photos as well, and as our village has recently been bypassed, we were able to find a quiet section of the old road to do this.
That ended the visit to me before they moved on to Carew.
Further Update:
The issue of Practical Classis released in April features club members David Hadley and
Stuart Payne.
