Bacon Butties, Brews and Spanners

CCC cars gathered outside Neil Crook's place near Warsaw. Foreground is the superb Triumph TR 6 owned by Paul Ayre. Middle row Lt. to Rt. Iain Batty's fine Jaguar XJ Supersport, Blazej Zulawski's Series 1 E-Type convertible, Iain Booth's E Type Series 11 2+2 coupe. Just visible at the back is the blue Ford Mustang belonging to Michael (or Jan) Motz and Michael Moran's black 1949 MG TC and the tip of a red Fiat Maluch

At last a Sunday of perfect weather for the CCC when something had been arranged! 

We have had far too many disappointments this season so far. We decided to meet for a general 'Natter' (without the 'Noggin' - Polish rules on driving with alcohol in the bloodstream being severe these days - an irrelevance for many drivers in this anti-authoritarian country who ignore rules at our peril).  So it was bacon butties (bacon and eggs in a bun) with much tea and sympathy, classic car owners being the masochists they are.

One of our members Neil Crook lives at picturesque Sulejowek about 35 kms from the centre of Warsaw. Nearby he has an attractive converted barn with various classic cars in various stages of restoration .  

The drive from Warsaw is through a very lovely heavily forested area with particularly friendly and uninhibited local people as I found when I got lost on a Polish detour centered on railway crossing works. A Polish detour or Objazd  is like no other on the planet generally re-routing one through Dresden or Minsk. Members took their classics and I in some trepidation took the 1949 MG TC. The solid prewar designed cart suspension, turbocharged Polish drivers and road surfaces are a challenge both to one's back anatomy, stomach and ability to control uncontrollable panic.

Neil generously played the part of 'Mine Host' and chef particularly well although the BBC were not present on this occasion for the TV series. The conversation veered from the comparative microscopic costs of repairs in Poland compared to the UK (although from some some reports Polish mechanics are fast learning the tricks of  another variety of CCC namely Classic Car Capitalism), bringing a Lotus Elan to Poland, driving Ferraris in Brittany, beautiful Bentleys transformed by dodgy dealers into monster toys and of course that staple of men when gathered convivially together, what make of car best attracts the ladies and why. 

It is some time since I thought about that subject and looking in the mirror of a morning I notice drawbacks vastly more significant than the marque of my car. I must say though driving home after this event, beautiful Polish girls cycling with the long tanned legs of late summer, nether regions sort of sheathed in tiny shorts (a wonderful, welcome and common sight in Poland in summer), shouted appreciative remarks to the old geezer in the TC.  Well we all need our dreams. 'Polish women - the best legs in Europe!' a journalist once enthusiastically commented to me at a diplomatic function.

As ever, here are some photos of what turned out to be a very pleasant morning and afternoon with important car information exchanged.

Click on photos to enlarge - far superior rendition

CCC members in animated conversation gathered around the bacon buttie tea table

Our host Neil Crook skeptically hearing news of available Ferraris at rock-bottom prices. The high technology implements of his breakfast trade at back left

Paul Ayre (TR 6) and Ian Booth (E-Type) arrive at the barn

The Motz 1969 Ford Mustang

CCC members admiring some exotica within...a bottle of champagne is the prize for accurate identification of all visible cars

     The Maserati Indy America - a runner and star of the show

Maserati Indy America dashboard

Superb dashboard on the Alfa Romeo 2000 GT Veloce

Instrument panel on the Maserati Quattroporte III

A very pleasant day of car natter for the CCC, common ground where Poles and Englishmen can meet and chat about a subject mercifully detached from party politics, religious extremism, property prices, health and hospitals.....refreshing I must say.

If you own a classic car or are simply a classic car enthusiast, live in Poland and would like to join our Warsaw Club you can email me as the Chairman: Michael Moran mjcmoran@wp.pl 

Goodbye!  A typical Polish bicycle girl on a rather typical Polish pavement

Dinner at the Bristol Hotel Warsaw 17 June 2013

The superb 1958 Chevrolet Corvette belonging to Jan Motz outside the Bristol Hotel, Warsaw 

Click on photos to enlarge - a far superior result

The Bristol Hotel has been a favorite of mine since I first came to Poland in 1991 managing a number of temporary joint-venture contracts. At that time this historic hotel was in the process of an heroic restoration against all the odds by the then excellent manager Michael Goerdt and his wife. It was always my 'refuge' during those difficult, even surreal but always entertaining early days after the fall of the Polish Socialist state.

Some History

The Hotel Bristol was constructed from 1899-1900 on the site of the Tarnowski Palace by a company whose partners included the great Polish pianist and statesman Ignacy Paderewski. Some of its interiors (such as the wonderful Secession Column Bar) were designed by the brilliant Viennese architect Otto Wagner. After Poland gained Independence in 1919, Paderewski became the Prime Minister and held the first session of his government at this hotel. It miraculously survived the systematic destruction of Warsaw by the Nazis relatively undamaged, standing as an isolated beacon of civilization in the ruins of the city. It became part of the Orbis chain in 1952 but closed in 1981 and fell into disrepair under Polish Socialism.

I was invited to the reopening of the Bristol on April 17, 1993 by Margaret Thatcher. I had never seen her ‘in real life’ and she was a formidable presence indeed! I chatted to Denis about motor cars. He felt his personal choice (an R-R if I remember correctly) was frustrated by Margaret’s insistence on creating 'the  correct' image politically. Did they decide on a Jaguar in the end?

Under Rocco Forte the Bristol became part of the Forte Hotel chain and was at this time rated number 25 in the list of ‘Luxury Hotels of the World’. From 1998 to 2013, the hotel was part of the Le Méridian chain. The interior was redecorated in an Art Nouveau style in 2013 and the hotel is now part of The Luxury Collection division of Starwood Hotels.

The Dinner

We had dinner in the private Moniuszko Salon accompanied throughout by some excellent Baroque music. Stranislaw Moniuszko incidentally was the renowned patriotic nineteenth century Polish composer, conductor and teacher considered to be 'the father of Polish opera'.

As ever I will allow the photographs below to 'do the talking'...the cars parked outside caused tremendous interest. I really hope the CCC will develop and we can attract some international drivers and exotic machinery to this great country and particularly Warsaw which continued to exist after WW II by some sort of miracle.

Members of the CCC in rather animated conversation concerning the choice of a logo for the club. Not yet decided upon...

Warsaw chic outside the Bristol Hotel on the Royal Way. The Corvette yearning for a blondynka  and a fast blast along the Grande Corniche at dusk on the Cote d'Azur

A rear detail on this quite superb restoration. Such art cannot be created by a computer, however skilfully programmed. You need imperfect men of great imagination with ergonomics well in the background.

Whilst waiting for the main course the group discuss weighty car matters and the scandalous treatment by Britain of the valiant Polish airmen after WW II. The projector was beaming shots of the 2010 Goodwood Revival on the screen

The 1974 RR Silver Shadow owned by Michael Moran for the last 30 years and the E Type driven anger by Blazej Zulawski. In anger because in a cooking incident a few days ago he had dropped a cutting board on his big toe which necessitated the nail being removed in hospital. 'The most painful thing I have ever experienced!' During dinner this gave rise to 'an interesting discussion' on ghastly medical matters, the nature of gravity and falling objects as well as various forms of torture. The damaged toe bandaged in white gauze could be glimpsed on occasion resting on its flip-flop, a shoe being quite out of the question. A contrast to the sartorial elegance of the remainder of the figure. 
Incidentally the 'HRH' number plate was chosen by the Sultan of Oman who owned the car before MM as part of his RR fleet in Berkshire

One of many pictures of the superb 2013 Villa d'Este Concours d'Elegance on Lake Como in Italy. Despite his cruel wound Blazej Zulawski in the stoical manner of the Good Soldier Schweik  'kept on keeping on' and gave us a fluent and detailed commentary in his excellent presentation after dinner. This picture is of the Bugatti Atlantic 57 SC owned  by Ralph Lauren that won the 'Best of Show' at the event

An old man with a grand passion - Ralph Lauren at the 2013 Villa D'Este  Concours d'Elegance 
[Motor Authority photo]

Hours of endless fun and envy perusing a remarkable number of fine photographs of the Villa D'Este event:

http://www.sportscardigest.com/concorso-villa-deste-2013-results-and-pictures/

And so another dinner date drew to a close centered around our 'redeeming vice', our innocent passion for cars. For an all too brief time it lifted us out of the mundane duties of so much of life and was a welcome distraction from the appalling inhumanity contained in the daily news.

Spring Picnic Cancellation

Ratty and Moley having their Picnic in ‘The Wind in the Willows’ 

(Illustration by Arthur Rackham)

Dear CCC  Members

I am genuinely averse to cancellations of events but in view of this miserable unseasonal weather I really cannot see the point in ‘soldiering on’ tomorrow in the best English spirit and having a picnic.

It is not Royal Ascot or Henley after all. Even Mr. Toad does not like driving his classic in the rain.

May and September are my favourite months in Poland and usually wonderful – sunny, wildflowers in the meadows, trees in vibrant green with just a hint of coolness. Of course last week was the week of choice. Sods Law.

I am writing now to give those who booked a chance to arrange an alternative weekend’s entertainment.

It is cold, miserable and wet and the ground at the open air museum is soggy and muddy so the custodian tells me. No fun at all. Even if sunny tomorrow the area will remain sodden. Not for picnic rugs.

In view of this I will postpone the picnic until sometime in June to be arranged when hopefully the weather will be more predictable and drier.

In the meantime I am in the process of arranging another dinner at the Bristol Hotel in Warsaw with a speaker to entertain and inform us on some interesting aspect of classic cars and motoring in Poland and elsewhere.

Details to come

The car is a pre-war Lagonda

                                                     

Excursion and Picnic to Sucha Open Air Museum

The CCC has planned a picnic and excursion from Warsaw to the Sucha Open Air Museum about 70 kms east of the capital on Saturday May 25th.

The village of Sucha is the site of the Museum of Wooden Architecture of the Siedlce Region. Each building, saved from imminent destruction, was moved to its present location. The baroque single-storey manor, with an annex on each side is covered by a raised roof lined with shingles. 

In 1787, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski was a guest at the manor. In 1814, August Cieszkowski, philosopher and economist, was born here.

Sucha village lies on the banks of the Kostrzyn river, next to an extensive group of lakes, close to a beautiful forest with a unique larch alley.

Many classic Polish films have had scenes shot here.

Web:   http://www.sucha.podlasie.pl/en/history.php

We hope to take advantage of the beautiful Spring weather! 

If your classic is 'out of commission', off the road or otherwise in a decrepit state you are quite welcome to come in a modern armed with CCC enthusiasm for a 'natter and noggin' about the challenge of running and maintaining classic cars in Poland.

If you have a classic car and would like to join us on this excursion or simply join the CCC (being a 'casual' car club of course there is no subscription) contact the present Chairman    Michael Moran   mjcmoran@wp.pl 

Excursion to the Country House of Nieborow and the Romantic Park of Arkadia - 170kms - April 20th 2013

Have a decent Easter break everyone !

I have even managed to obtain some M&S Hot Cross Buns!

Hello there !

Matters are now organized for the anniversary outing to Nieborów Palace on Saturday April 15th.

I have arranged private parking for our cars in the park.

I have also set up a tour of the Palace in English. It will cost 300 PLN (divided among us) + the individual entrance ticket 20 PLN for the Palace and 16 PLN for the Park

I have arranged lunch at an excellent rural restaurant which I have tried and can recommend  https://zlotyprosiak.pl/

However, I will need to know exactly how many persons will be having lunch so that I can book.

Can you add simply send me an email ? mjcmoran@wp.pl

It will be best to meet at my place in Młociny at 10.00 am and to leave punctually.

It is on the route I have planned to Nieborów through Kampinoski National Park.

Weather report at this time distance is warm, dry and promising.

The members of the Polish Section of the RREC automatically become members of the Warsaw based CCC – the reason you are receiving this email. I feel it is better to have joint outings to raise the numbers a fraction if it is logistically possible for you to attend. I know we are all scattered around the country and it is not always convenient to meet together for many reasons!

If you want to join us or simply cry off just alter the Doodle as required

https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/b46gGG1e

Have a wonderful Easter break!

Michael

Our small party of 5 cars assembled outside the Palace at Nieborow.
Lt to Rt.  Blazej Zulawski   Series 1 E-Type convertible, Iain Booth's E Type Series 11 2+2 coupe,  Michael Moran's Rolls-Royce 1974 Silver Shadow, Marcello Sora's Porsche 911 and just creeping in Iain Batty's Jaguar XJ Supersport    (BZ)

Click on photos for larger reproduction - pictures by Blazej Zulawski (BZ) and Michael Moran (MM) 

The Casual Car Club (CCC) was formed recently in Warsaw in Poland by a few English expatriates, some Polish enthusiasts and one notable Australian.  It is an attempt to socialize in a civilized way over excellent dinners, chat about the challenges of owning and maintaining classic cars in Poland as well as to take advantage of the splendid, relatively unregulated, motoring pleasure the country still has to offer. It is also an attempt to avoid the  bureaucracy, management committees, detachment from the interests of the members and political infighting that afflicts too many large single marque car clubs. Small is beautiful.

As luck would have it we chose the final day of a terrible run of poor weather this year for our first spring excursion. The weather was the determining factor and despite contemplation of increasingly complex meteorological diagrams verging on  flight plans for a Boeing Dreamliner en route to New York, it was raining lightly at dawn. However this had ceased by 8.00am and the day brightened a bit although chilly. With members and their guests we were expecting around 20 participants (including four keen children) at the start. However by 9.30 only two E Types (Blazej Zulawski and Iain Booth) and that Australian chap in the Rolls-Royce had assembled. We waited until 10.00 before leaving but no stragglers arrived.

A few members had a week ago sent their apologies for not taking part which was appreciated. David O'Driscoll was unable to come but turned up at Mlociny to give moral support which was great and rather needed  in the circumstances. We were to meet Iain Batty and his son Jasper in his cracking new Jaguar XJ Supersport en route at Teresin - or so we hoped. Marcello Sora was still in the shower after a hectic Friday night but would soon be toweled down and on the way.     

Blazej planned a particularly nice route to Nieborow on minor roads. We first called in on Antoni Borzewski at his Palace at Zaborow completely unannounced. In true Polish style he welcomed us in without hesitation. He was about to leave for an urgent business appointment in Warsaw but what of that? Here are friends!   This was a truly 'lived in' Palace built in a rather eclectic French style at the beginning of the twentieth century. No immaculate Downton Abbey costume drama in this place - real life with huge dogs, a burly and charming mustachioed guard in black and all the accumulated paraphernalia and detritus of a busy world view. Marcello, now dry and refreshed, had joined us in his raucous blue Porsche 911.

Outside the Palace at Zaborow   (BZ)

Michael's 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Chassis SRH 18723  (BZ)

Our group in the Conservatory at the Palac w Zaborowie   (BZ)

The formal gardens at the Palac w Zaborowie from the Drawing Room.  (MM)

Resuming our tour we only encountered one detour which slowed us up slightly. The E types managed to retain their exhausts but I had my doubts knowing that what appear to be quite innocent Polish detours often turn into moonscapes or worse. We even had a faultless rendezvous with Iain in the Jaguar. And so 5 CCC members with their assorted guests and children arrived at Nieborow.

The booked tour of the house in English was professional and informative. Below are a few pictures which scarcely need any explanation.

The unique Baroque staircase at Nieborow entirely lined with blue Delft tiles     (MM)

One learns something new every day - amazing really   (BZ)

The fine portrait of Princess Helena Radziwill by that wonderful artist  Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun. This artist fled the French Revolution with her daughter and survived by wandering Europe painting portraits of the nobility in many royal courts and aristocratic residences. Her life is an amazing tale.   (MM)

The superb Library at Nieborow. Of particular note are the unique and superb pair of fine terrestrial and celestial globes by the Venetian Vincenzo Coronello 1683 which originally came from Versailles.  (BZ)

Nieborow was built for Cardinal Michal Radziejowski, 1690-96, by the Dutch architect Tylman van Gameran who  designed so many fine buildings in Poland. The house finally passed to the Radziwill family in the the eighteenth century. That highly artistic woman of sensibility, Princess Helena Radziwill, is responsible for the present appearance of the palace  (BZ)

On the terrace of the garden front at Nieborow  (the guide took this)

At lunch in the Palace. Simple wholesome food in rather grand surroundings  (BZ)

A rare photograph of Blazej Zulawski gesturing on departure towards one of Poland's finest with a suitably patrician expression  (K)

And so after lunch we headed off to the Romantic Park of Arkadia a short distance away. The park was laid out by Princess Helena Radziwill between 1778 and 1821. It has a 'thematic programme' for the happy wanderer among the various structures and classical remains - the River of Oblivion and the Island of Dreams beckon strongly in our increasingly violent world. By this time the sun had come out and the day was really quite pleasant. It had in fact not rained at all for the entire day.

The line up at Arkadia. Not at all sure about that loathsome SEAT which has crept into the proceedings  (BZ)

The remarkable Temple of Diana in Arkadia     (BZ)

Two Polish ladies upholding a modicum of  traditional English style in the Romantic Polish Park of Arkadia


'Et in Arcadia Ego'   (MM)

And so after a slightly muddy but interesting wander around the park (even to the Hermit's Cave) on the very cusp of spring we made our separate ways home after a most enjoyable day. We all 'got on' terribly well together and not only because of our shared interest in cars which is really excellent. And there were no breakdowns or as is said in R-R parlance no 'failures to proceed'.

One thing I would say to members. I know we are a Casual Car Club. This indicates a general psychological demeanor and does not apply to fixed arrangements. If you confirm a place for dinner or on a rally or tour could you either actually come or at least email or telephone your cancellation in good time. It is both embarrassing for the organisers and rather expensive for those who soldier on and actually do appear if some simply do not show. This is especially true if firm arrangements for dinners or bookings have been made with museums, houses or organisations that we visit. Otherwise it is just not cricket. 'Play up! Play up! and play the game!' gentlemen. [Henry Newbolt Vitaï Lampada]

Michael Moran (Chairman)

And so we make our weary way home....   (K)

This is a link to an excellent and quite brilliant site run by a classic car enthusiast friend of mine in the UK Ashley James. He is a fellow member of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiast's Club (http://www.rrec.org.uk/) of which I have been a member for over 30 years.   

Outstanding technical articles for Triumph, Austin Healey, Bristol, RR and Bentley.

http://www.kda132.com/