The Naked Rallye with Blue Steels

[Orta]

I really wanted 2016 to be the year I moved the Rallye forward. But alas things seem to have gotten in the way. Since my last update RE: my chav-wiper conversion and hekos I've had my new beam installed (alongside 21tbs and hybrid arb) and bought (but not yet fitted) a set of standard coloured Rallye decals for a swap probably over the summer.

I've also attempted to gloss paint my wing mirrors, which hasn't had the desired effect, so I'm binning them and have bought some DTM mirrors (Really liked them on Ben's white Rallye, so I'll give 'em a go) they'll be on soon enough as well.

I've fixed the irritating rattle from my stereo with a bit of tape / foam surgery and fixed the rattles from my driver's side door card with the same technic.

It went straight through it's MOT with no advisories...

And that is about it. So, bring on the Pugfest write up.

Having missed FCS (Which I know everyone slags off, but I still thoroughly enjoy the weekend) because of my brother-in-law's stag do I was determined to make the most of this weekend so convinced the Mrs to "let me" camp the Saturday night. Didn't regret this at all as BBQ was excellent, my 10 second tent really was up in 10 seconds and the weather held (although it was a little chilly). It was great to catch up with everyone, and I even managed to get a decent nights sleep (Dum-Dum must've been quiet for a change!)

Me, Sam and Sam, were the first on the stand at about 07:30. Which brings me to the only picture of my car from the show (Unless anyone can come up with any others?)



Our stand as usual was in the car park, this year our neighbours were Pug306 (a departure from their regular slot at the top of the hill) and the usual 406 Coupe OC, and 306 Cabs. But with this year's theme being the 20th anniversary of the 306 GTi-6 the GTi6 club stand got pride of place which was nice, and it was the best turn out for that club I've seen in years so that was pleasing.

The cars on display this year I felt was a really good. The 20th anniversary of the GTi-6 seemed to bring all the 306s out and were a very strong second behind the 205s this year. The amount of modern Peugeots was also really good to see. For years the marque we love has been slipping into the obscurity of mediocre "beige" vehicles which saw Pugfest becoming a homage to a past that couldn't be reclaimed with the most modern car there being the late plate diesel 306 estates! I counted two 206s and a solitary 207 GTi, but some dozen or so 208 GTis, a 308 GTi and a 308 GT-Line Estate. It represents that the future is potentially quite exciting as the real enthusiasts can get hold of these 208s as the prices start to slip toward that £7-8k where the fun typically begins.

The "No non-Peugeots up the hill this year" was broken only by two cars I saw, a staffer Focus ST and a Saxo hero, who was booed off when he tried to make a second run at it. Think this may have hampered their sales of hill runs however as the queues for the hill weren't as bad as last year.

I did my customary 4 runs up the hill on the early bird (So there's obviously no pictures of me going up ha!), did a couple on my own and then shared the fun with Luke (retropug) and Matt (Mattrallye - apt username when I haven't seen your Rallye in two years!). The latter of which shared my slightly side-ways moment in the esses!!

I spent the afternoon blagging a few passenger rides and generally moping around checking out the metal on show. At 13:15 us GTi/Rallye owners joined in a similar "cavalcade" experience up the hill that the 205s got last year. The 205s were more numerous and went up colour coded and I think it had a better effect, but it was still nice to gather all the proper 306s together.

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I counted 6 Black Rallyes, three Reds, and not a single white! Looks like I bought the wrong colour if I was after rare! Some really impressive cars, particularly ozone's nile GTi (despite losing reverse ), Damon's jenvey beast, and a number of noisey black coally diesels!!!

Next up for the Rallye is Fast Car Festival at the end of July. It's a long story, but the essence is I follow Fast Car mag on twitter as they daily post up shots of various modified cars (Normally slammed and stanced, which is a "look" I'm into). The tweeted last week looking for cars for a particular segment of the show (It's called like working class heroes or affordable cars, or something of that ilk). The segment is being divided by country of origin and they were advertising for certain French cars. A 306 Rallye was amongst them, I tweeted them with a pic of the car saying I'd like to be a part. They responded and I'm getting a pair of free weekend camping tickets!! (Worth £60 each!)

It seems a pretty good show on paper. There's all sorts of attractions, from the regular club stands, to F1 cars, to Lotus stuff, to passenger rides in Caterham 7s, and there's even a giant BBQ and evening music entertainment. And for free and to get the Rallye in a magazine and representing 306s to the "non-Peugeot" masses it's quite exciting!

I'll try and get some more pics of the car that weekend and I'll update then