Latest News (Archive)

24th Southern Classic Bike Show 21st May 2011 - Exciting news this year as the Ace Café is giving a special prize for the best café racer in the show. As usual there will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for the best stand plus a best in show prize for the best bike. Also, everyone who enters a bike at the show will receive a gift.
Don't forget that there will be a bigger than usual jumble on the day plus the fantastic bike-mart if you want to buy or sell your bike. We look forward to seeing you there.

We are pleased to announce that there will be be an extra autojumble date in 2011 making 7 in total. Please make a note of the extra new date - Saturday 2nd July 2011. We are also keeping the prices for our stalls in 2011 exactly the same as 2010.

See the 2010 Southern Classic Bike Show Report here

Eric is heading back out to Bonneville Salt Flats during the last week of August 2010 to try again to break his own AMA world record. The bike has been finely tuned by Dave Degans and boasts a state of the art four plug ignition system and Eric is confident that this will be a successful record breaking trip.

Unfortunately Eric's first run at Bonneville Salt Flats earlier this year (2009) failed for mechanical reasons; the rev counter cog got mashed with the magneto drive pinions. This is a photo of the bike that collected a lot of rather wet corrosive salt....so better luck next year for Eric and his sponsors. The initial signs were that his previous record would have easily been exceeded with the much better state of tuning now achieved.

THE SOUTHERN CLASSIC BIKE SHOW REPORT
May 9th 2009

Proving that people still appreciate fine old things, a Triumph Ricardo won this year’s Best Bike prize at The Southern Classic Bike Show. Meticulously restored by John Guy of the VMCC’s Stonehenge Section, the Ricardo also got a prize from The Ace Café London. Top prize for Best Stand went to the Ariel Owners Club, with the Vincent Owners Club and Douglas OC taking second and third places.

Hosted since 1988 at the famous Kempton Park racecourse, just sixteen miles south-west of central London, the Southern Classic is ideally situated for southern Britons and Continental visitors alike, whether coming by road, ferry, tunnel, rail or air. Judging by the various languages in the air at the show and the adjacent autojumble, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Poland and Scandanavia were well represented and quite of a few of them found bargains because of Sterling’s current low value. Indeed, sales of classic motorcycles are one of the few areas showing growth in Britain at the moment. Although the Southern Classic fills a gap by providing an event close to the nation’s capital, it should be seen very much complementing rather than challenging other major shows like April’s Carole Nash International Classic Motorcycle Show in Stafford.

Some pundits had forecast hard times for smaller motorcycle events this year but EGP Enterprises currently run five autojumbles a year at Kempton Park in addition to the show every May. The Southern Classic’s strengths include value for money from the viewpoint of exhibitors and visitors alike, the afore-mentioned ease of access, and an old school ambience of friendly intimacy that marks it out from many other shows, evoking memories of how things used to be before the classic motorcycle world went a little too far down the corporate road.

Getting into the Southern Classic and the autojumble areas is easier than it used to be, now that the two main entrances are open, and visitors dealing with Eric Patterson and the EGP Enterprises team are assured of friendly treatment and a square deal. The show bar is well-stocked and reasonably priced and there is a good selection of food stalls in the autojumble area. Entrance for adults is just £6.00 or £5.00 for Senior Citizens and children and stands are around half the price of many comparable shows.

Many of the machines on display at the Southern Classic having arrived under their own power, visitors hanging around chatting over tea or beer at the end of the day were treated to the magical sounds of yesteryear, redolent of the opening scenes of Lawrence of Arabia or Roger Livesey’s doctor from A Matter of Life and Death on his Rudge, rising and falling on the Surrey air as their owners nosed out of Kempton and headed for home.

Eric is returning in August 2009 to attack his own AMA world record. More details can be found at BUB Speed Trials and the Landracing Forum. Much tuning and adjustment has been performed in the Degens workshop. New critical parts were supplied by Cameron Engineering. He has his first sponsor "Brough Superior Motorcycles Limited" and is very grateful for their help and encouragement.

9th May 2009 Classic Show.....Now bigger than ever with an enormous autojumble and improved access and parking  with two main entrances at all times to minimise queues......this is the same for all events now. Clubs and private entries for the show are most welcome but we are almost fully booked although there is still plenty of room for outside stands at present.

--- NEWS FLASH --- Eric is returning in August 2009 to attack his own AMA world record and much tuning and adjustment is being performed in the Degens workshop. New critical parts are being supplied by Cameron Engineering. He has his first sponsor "Brough Superior Motorcycles Limited" and is very grateful for their help and encouragement.

In the 2008 BUB meeting at Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA, Eric Patterson smashed the class record of 100.022  mph previously held by an Indian and then beat his own record the next day which now stands at 121.8 mph. The photographs below show the official photo, the actual timed print outs, Eric and Ken Joslin with the Norton Jap and the 'pit' proudly displaying the Union Jack. (also see below)

Eric Patterson is making a record attempt during September 2008 in the BUB meeting at Bonneville Salt Flats in the USA. See here. This is a photograph of Eric's beautiful Norton Jap with 1200cc of magneto powered engine. See entries nos. 880 and 8880 n the entry listings here

Report from the 2007 Southern Classic Bike Show here