On Sunday the 24th of April, Cirencester Car Club hosted their 17th annual Corinium Run Classic Tour of the Cotswolds. Entries were available for pre 2000 vehicles, or newer cars of interest. The tour took 37 cars on over 100 miles of lanes in the picturesque Cotswolds, with some absolutely stunning roads and villages. The newest car being a 2000 Rover Mini Cooper and the oldest a 1931 Riley Nine. I have been living around the area most of my life and there were some lanes and villages I had never come across before. Classic tours are non-competitive, touring assembly events mostly run by MSUK car clubs. They generally have a start and an end point with a number of venues to stop at on route for coffee, cake and lunch. There is no rush to get to certain checkpoints on time and you sign in and out of each venue as and when you please.
It has been about 12 years since I last did an event with CCC and they provided my first competitive events as a 16 year old, where they used to host autosolos at Kemble airfield where my step-dad and I used to share cars on many events, So it was nice that Martin Saunders, the clerk of the event and other CCC members recognised us and had a good chat during stops which made us feel right at home.
Our V2 Impreza STi RA is a suitable car being produced in 1995 and being a 1 owner low mileage car it’s the perfect sort of event to enjoy it on. With final instructions and maps 151 and 163 in hand we head out to The Highwayman just outside Cirencester for the ceremonial start. It was not necessary to purchase the OS maps for the event but we felt if we got lost it would be far easier to navigate our way back on route. My other half Peggy was navigating for the first time ever. With this event using tulips and marked maps it’s a super way to start if you want to get into navigation. Peggy decided to mark our OS maps up from the guide maps in the road book to make her life easier. Peggy and I were by far the youngest couple on the tour, but I must urge you all to have a go at one of these with your partner, son/daughter, Dad or Mum when you get the chance and if you have a suitable machine. Although many of us crave competitive events, the chance to tour stunning scenery in your car on a planned route with likeminded petrolheads is an absolute treat.
The route zig-zagged along yellows and whites near Cirencester and Cheltenham, often crossing the likes of the A429 for a brief moment, only to jump on to another twisting Cotswold back lane. A goody bag was handed out at the start with a road book which navigators must follow using tulip style diagrams. Helpful references such as speed limit signs and other points of interest were marked up to help with directions. We used a trip meter app so we could zero it after every tulip so we had an idea of where we were at on route, The Impreza still being in KMH we could not use the dash trip without some calculations we didn’t have time for.
The reasonable £90 entry fee included a breakfast roll and coffee during sign on, two stops for coffee, cake and biscuits as well as a free meal for two at the Highwayman upon your return to the finish. A road book, T-shirt, Monte Carlo style rally plates, pen and branded bag were also given out. When you couple these costs with venue hire and the time taken for volunteers to organise such a route, we think it’s an absolute bargain. Anthony fowler from 569 Motorsports Media was even on hand to take photos at various points on route.
Stop offs included a very nice campsite with big tent for shelter where they provided coffee, cake and biscuits for one stop AM and one stop PM. The lunch stop was at the Fosse-way Garden Centre just outside Bourton-on-Water where Peggy had a tasty jacket potato and I had a Brie Panini.
The lanes were mostly smooth (for the Cotswolds) however there were notes in the road book for any sections with particularly nasty pot holes. Despite it being a Sunday in this area of natural beauty, the roads were quite quiet and there were many locals in the villages enjoying the cars passing through as they tended their gardens in beautiful sunny weather. All the crews were super friendly and it was really nice to chat with so many during the breaks. There was some stunning machinery on the tour too. Mostly British built cars with a smattering of European and Japanese vehicles.
Our Subaru performed as it should without issue throughout the day. The homologation special is specifically designed for these types of roads and even with the slightly harder coilover suspension it took the route in its stride. The STi RA roof flap giving us plenty of breeze in the cabin when required and the Michelin PS4 tyres were perfect for the conditions.
We followed a pair of chaps in an MX5 for sometime as they were on a similar pace to us which was very pleasant. We also got a little lost in one section where we met with a rather nice, orange, Mk2 Escort and the couple manning it were regular classic tour goers, they were super nice and helped get us back on track.
All in all, a very chilled out day in fantastic countryside, put on by a great car club. We will be urging our customers to register and take part in 2023’s Corinium Run so you can share the enjoyment of this event with us. A big thanks to the team at CCC and we hope to see them again soon. A shout out to Anthony Fowler too for his awesome on route images.
Well this as defiantly made me want to attend one in the future. As a complete novice I was a little concerned, but having read this it as settled me into thinking it would be a fun and challenging day out with like minded car people ? great write up ??