Ralph
Been there, done that!
Posts: 376
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Post by Ralph on Aug 20, 2006 23:12:49 GMT
Just got home from the Kempenrit!
Firstly, a big thank you to the organisers of the event on both sides of the channel for a superb event. Apart from a couple of 'mishaps' everything seemed to go very smoothly.
I hope the Art Jacks and partner are well after their run in with a BMW, and that their car is not as badly damaged as first reports indicated.
Hopefully everyone else from this side of the channel will find their way home without further event.
I'll post some photos tomorrow (or rather, later today).
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Post by Tony Williams on Aug 21, 2006 0:23:13 GMT
I've just got home from Kempenrit.
I wanted to say a big thank you to all the orgasanisers.
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Post by Adrian Clifford on Aug 21, 2006 1:30:06 GMT
I will be putting my pictures up later as I need to do it tonight before my Internet connection goes down in the morning. But on to the trip, as before a huge big thank you to all at www.mgf.be for their attention to detail in the planning and organisation of getting us there and arranging the raodbooks and setting up lunch, it is co-operation like this that makes these large scale European events possible, I won't mention you all in case I miss somebody out, you all know who you are. Next thanks go to all at the MG Car Club Antwerp for holding the annual International Kempenrit again for the 6th time. You no doubt will hear more stories of the busy and hectic weekend, for many Kempenrit is a day, for us it is a full two days, so much so, in fact that next year I have already reserved the entire Hotel Vé again, however the format will change, we will depart the UK on Friday, two days is not enough, there is so much going on throughout Saturday it is becoming a full 21 hours or more, therefore, a more gentle pace with our hosts once again treating us so well. Maanrock, once again proved excellent, the nearest stage was 30 feet from the hotel door too, appearing were Erasure, Boney M, Fun Loving Criminals and a fantastic local group that kept us entertained until gone 2am, not bad since many of us had been up since 5 o'clock. The brand new Hotel Vé was as expected, although a few hiccups occured with Steve and Angela having two showers, one came through the light fitting and our one not working at all, the food was mammoth in portions and ever so tasty, the underground car park was like a dealer's showroom with it's sparkling floor and 35 MGF/TF's situated in loads of space. This year for the first time we had rain on Kempenrit Sunday and the event was slightly shallowed by a few mishaps, firstly poor Mark Ward who had just collected his car from HGF repair at 5 o'clock on Friday then drove all through the night to be at Dover on time the following morning, only to suffer a total water loss on the road run yesterday, leaving the car in Belgium to be repaired today. He knows we all felt so sorry for him and wish him speedy repatriation whith his Blue Roadster. Later yesterday, again on the road run Art and Christine Jacks were hit by a BMW pulling out of a side turning, this has probably written off their beautiful white TF160, a rare car too, however the important part is that they are bruised, shocked and "beaten up" but are otherwise unhurt as best as I am aware, once again we all wish them a speedy recovery. Here mention must go to the immediate help given by all at the scene including the Belgian and Dutch car club members, who arranged all help, assistance and co-operation that anybody could give in arranging a recovery truck, liaiasing with the police and ambulance, staying at the site and so much more with no fuss or trouble, Bruno, Erik, Luc, Daphne and whoever else was there I know you ask no attention but you indeed were the best friends that anybody could ask for at the time, a big thank you. The MGF Register supply an award at this event for the furthest travelled car, using the AA route planner as an impartial guide to distances I hoped it would go to a European car, however, with the furthest coming from Hamburg, about 540km's if I remember correctly, that in itself is superb we actually had five cars that would cover over 600 km's, Jerry, Jay, Emma Ferguson, James and Mark, however as Mark's car didn't make it the honour of the inaugral award went to James, with 663km's, well done to him and Fiona Kempenrit set another record this year with 131 MGF/TF models attending from 6 different countries (10 up from last year). Let's increase it again next year for them.
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Post by Adrian Clifford on Aug 21, 2006 2:33:26 GMT
Just a few pics here, webshot's is playing up again and has lost the album, so just a few, I'm too tired to argue with it. The church at Ardooie. The Hotel Vé. The dining room. Boney M in concert at Maanrock James collecting his trophy from Hans, Annick & Fran. Have you ever seen these on a TF before ? this one from Luxembourg. Close up.
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Post by Nigel H on Aug 21, 2006 6:17:47 GMT
I just knew that I should have gone. The AA route planner shows that I would have travelled 11 miles more than James, so I would have bagged the prize for furthest travelled. Before next year we are going to move to Land's End!
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Post by spike on Aug 21, 2006 8:44:29 GMT
I hope everyone gets back okay with no further incidents,and that youve had a great time.The piccies look brilliant!!I wish Id been able to go now,but hopefully will be able to attend next year.
Can I just say Im so sorry to hear Art and Christine have had their car smashed up by some gimp and I hope that they get it all sorted out as smoothly and quickly as possible.Im relelieved theyre nothing worse than bruised and battered (thats bad enough!!) and I hope they heal up quickly and get back to normal asap.Get well soon Christine and Art. I think a huge thanks to all who helped at the time,as I havent heard of anything like this outside of biking circles,so well done whoever was there. Also I hope Mark gets his car fixed up as good as new,what a thing to happen eh and the rest of you get home safely without further "adventures".
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Post by mgtfnut on Aug 21, 2006 9:10:18 GMT
Back home at 03.30 !! Thanks again to Adrian and Dawn, fantastic trip. The car looks like a WRC competitor after the road book around the countryside ;D Few hours sleep, coffee, and back to normal Thanks to everyone for an excellent "team" trip. Jerry and Diane
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Post by Davidt6dcm on Aug 21, 2006 9:32:26 GMT
Welcome home all, Art im'e so sorry to hear what happened and glad your both ok, and Mark im'e gutted for you mate,see you on swmf forum for more news,Dave
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Post by Bruno on Aug 21, 2006 10:28:14 GMT
It was a wonderfull week-end. I'll hope you all enjoyed it as well as I did. I promise you all, next year, the weather will be better. Pictures from the mgf.be tour to Mechelen can be found here, this set of pic's were made by Luc. The first set of pic's from Luc again of the Kempenrit can be found hereSome of Erik's pics, can be found in this topic of the mgf.be-forum : www.mobitronics.net/mgf/viewtopic.php?t=2954&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15But I also found pictures in this topic of the dutch MG-Rover forum, they were responsable for the Z-cars on the event. www.mg-r.nl/club/viewtopic.php?t=8594&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0I'll hope that everything will become ok, with Art and his wife, and that there is a possibility that there will be an old english white MGTF on the road again soon. Also I'll hope that Mark's car will be on the road again soon.
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Post by kasper on Aug 21, 2006 10:32:41 GMT
Happy to hear you all made home safe and sound. We have to thank you all: you were great guests. It was good to have over. It was a joy to team up with you on this weekend. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Many thanks to all who made it possible organisors and attendees as well!
Unfortunate things happen too at events. Sorry Mark we had to leave you at the exit road in Leuven. As I understand the local support helped you out for the moment after we left. We hope you'll sort out the tech. problem and get Bleu roadster up and running again soon to catch up what you had to skip this year!
Also for Art and Christine we do hope you'll be back on the next event. Get well soon!
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Post by Howard Jacks on Aug 21, 2006 11:18:03 GMT
Thanks for all the kind words. My parents have both stated they are well and are returning home from Belgium tonight.
The car has done its job in protecting it's occupants well but I do hope it is repairable. Finding another white 160 will be near immpossible and although they have a second TF it isn't white and I had my sights set on it!
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Post by Tony Williams on Aug 21, 2006 12:03:02 GMT
I'm happy to hear they are OK after the accident.
As sad as it is that a TF has been badly damaged at least its repairable or replaceable (even if not easily replaceable). All that matters is that no-one was badly hurt.
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Post by herbie on Aug 21, 2006 15:02:37 GMT
Just wake up after my trip back home to Bremen. I started at midnight and got home at app. 8.30 in the morning haha. Feeling still a bit knackered although I had some rests at resting stations. I would like to thank all the organisers of this great weekend !!! (as Adrian said especially to all of the www.mgf.be and of course to the Antwerp MG club). For me it was an absolutely highlight to meet everyone and spending a good time, I was sooo pleased, it was nice putting faces to names and I will never forget this. You can call Andie, David and me the new members of the "Club round and round (c)" ... searching our way back to the hotel is one of our easiest jobs LOL Art and Christine: I still feel so gutted for you and hope that everything will be sorted. All the best from here !!! Mark: I was also sorry hearing about your bad luck. Best wishes. Thanks to the great weekend to EVERYONE, Everytime again !!! Stephan
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Post by Emma Jackman on Aug 21, 2006 15:07:43 GMT
Got home at around 12:15am last night. Excellent weekend, if a bit wet - I had to sponge out the interior of Envy a couple times, my fault for flatly refusing to put the hood on! "It's August, of course the hood's staying down".
I might write something up in more detail later and get some photos online (didn't get many unfortunately, driving and taking photos is something I can just about manage in the UK, but driving on the right is something of a challenge).
As everyone else has said, my best wishes go to Art and Christine, and of course Mark.
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Post by Bruce on Aug 21, 2006 16:28:11 GMT
I 2 had a great weekend, I agree with Herbie, it is nice to put a face to a name or a car. Talking to someone for some time and then finally knowing who he\she is.. Very nice hotel, I counted 71 MG details in the whole hotel. Dinner was very good, unfortunately I missed the concert but if I had known there was free beer outside I would have joined. We (a couple of members of the mgf.be team) followed Luc on the Kempenrit at high speed. It was fun to see so many F’s and TF’s from all different directions. A big thanks to the organisation, but also to you lot for showing up.
And now we start the countdown for next year..
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