Sunday 15th June at 8:30 we arrived at Harewood House near Leeds to join with several other Scorpio owners for the first formal meeting in the North. A large area of grass had been roped off for us so they first job was to decide how best to arrange the cars, to form a decent display, before the general public were allowed in. After some discussion and lots of reversing, we decided on a crescent shape facing out into the main aisle.

I had prepared a display board with three sections to show visitors the forum, the mailing list and the website itself. together with photographs of the work on my car. To stop the board falling over it lent up against my bumper. An ideal way to hide all the stone chips which I haven't yet tackled. Andrew had provided a standard Scorpio details sheet that we all filled in and placed in our windscreens. Barry brought a four-meter banner from the German Scorpio launch, which set the scene nicely.

The cars proved a great attraction, particularly with the bonnets open showing the always impressive Cosworth name. One visitor remarked that he was amazed how popular these cars now were because he had been a Ford salesman, trying (without too much success,) to move them when they were new!

We were persuaded to enter a team in the pit stop challenge. All we had to do was change the wheels on a Fiesta "and it's already jacked up" they said. What they didn't tell us was that it was at the far end of an arena, in front of the 3000 people, and we had to run up to it and back again in the blazing heat.

Sadly, team Scorpio came top of the heats so we had to do it again in the semi-final. Fortunately we had the sense to lose the semi final and avoid doing it for a third time in the final. My job was easy, just pushing the brake to stop the wheels turning while BARRY, Steve and Kevin rushed round with spiders, torque wenches and heavy wheels.

Our area was just a small part of the Harewood Classic Car Show. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but between 500 and 1000 cars were displayed and I gather over 20,000 people turned up. Certainly the traffic was queuing so far back that it took some people two-and-a-half hours to get in. Across the aisle from us were the Capri owners Club who obviously do this regularly and tried to persuade us we should take part in the next event near Southport which some members showed interest in.

Harewood was originally chosen when I asked my wife to think of somewhere a few of us could meet and which was suitable for families. She rang Harewood to see about a bulk discount and they suggested we joined the show. Can you imagine, claiming I own a classic car, and it's only five years old! To prove it, we were all presented with an official metal exhibitor's badge. Since this is an annual event perhaps it could become an annual event on the FordScorpio.co.uk calendar