Away up in the back roads near Letterkenny the venue was set for <em>Rumble in the Quarry</em>, in a business park formed oddly enough from a quarry. For those of you who missed the show or didn’t see the flyer the event revolved around modified cars and a live stunt arena.
After hooking up with Gaz in the BMW 850CSi we headed to Letterkenny and due to some well placed signposts arrived at the Old Quarry Business Park. We were relatively early and got straight to work setting up the RMS stand. GT Maxer in his silver R5 was already present along with Zetec125 in his Fiesta at a prime position to rope off and set up base as the BMW and corolla joined. The trade stands were housed in two of the units and an area had been cordoned off in the centre of the carpark to act as a stunt arena.
By 3 o’clock (the official opening time) the place was busy including the familiar faces of several site members and the stalwarts of the drifting world including Mark Luney and Davy Hollinger. After the first run of twincams, carltons and BMW M3s the crowd seemed uninspired. Graham and I attempted to up the atmosphere – he ran into the middle of the arena and I jumped in along side Mark (sidewaysbuff) in the carlton. Still, after hanging out of the window of the spinning carlton like a crazed monkey there was little response. At least I was getting the enjoyment out of a few rings!
Unfortunately, the never predictable climate of Ireland struck throughout the day with spats of rain spoiling the stunt arena making the area useless to the stunt-biker brought to the show. The cars had similar traction problems and at one point heard that it was so bad they may have as well been on ice! However this did not deter the drivers. Buff had problems burning off the back tyres on the carlton with numerous 30 second brake stands, bellows of smoke but no bang!
Between donuts and showers of rain I managed to get round the show cars. There were a few notable cars of concours level including williams3131’s Clio Williams polished to perfection, the stunning white kitted Ascona and (maybe with some personal bias) the BMW 850CSi which just had the ‘waow’ factor. The snot was about in his hard-to-miss green mk2 Astra, ChrisNoMates eventually arrived with Bronk in the MR2, Matt Jenkins made an appearance in his white GT4 celica and there were some fine examples of civics which seem a lot more popular to modify across the border.
It didn’t seem long till the day was over and everyone was leaving. I met up briefly with John Semple to judge the best modified/cleanest cars but unfortunately by then some of the likely candidates had left. Overall the show although being quite well attended seemed lacking in atmosphere especially when there was live action. However this is only a minor issue when you consider the proceeds went to charity.
