I've never been to any landy shows but I've just been looking at the show venues for next year on google and I've noticed you've got to buy tickets early. I'm wondering if they're all about booking a slot to do a mud track convoy, or whether there any that have stalls and exhibitions and other attractions like the agricultural shows we have in Lancashire, with beer tents and fairground rides and bands playing, etc.
I tend to book ealy because it's cheaper.. Off road slots do sell out( they say), yet it's funny how they all sell you extra goes at a reduced price...
The first Kelmarsh show in 2017 was good. Well attended. My only gripe was their off road course.This is what was promised:
"Vince Cobley of Protrax has developed an off road course on the Kelmarsh grounds which is set in 30 acres of natural terrain. The course will feature two areas, a woodland safari drive with camel humps, some axle twisters and side slopes that will culminate with the adventure section which will incorporate bigger drops, tougher climbs, technical sections and much more, allowing you to test your off-road metal!"
What we actually got was an already established course at Avalanch Adventure about six miles up the road.. This year they only used half of the course, which was naff!
Great Billing (show part) last year was naff, very few traders turned up. Probably because it was the following weekend after Kelmarsh. I was chatting to Beartown tyres. He reckoned he pretty much sold out at Kelmarsh and by midday had only sold one set at Billing. This year was much better with a month separating them.
Billing has two courses. They have been running the Riverside course on the friday and the Lakeside course on the saturday and sunday.
The Riverside course, in my opinion, is a bit tame. That said, i did hear the marshals joking about people still getting stuck on it!
I've only got a 2" lift at the back of my Disco 1 with some 235 mud terrains, but my mates think i'm a bit mental, so maybe that's why i found it tame. A BMW X5 did the Riverside course. The marshals said he lifted the suspension to maximum, then seemed to be able to lift it some more. I didn't believe it, but then saw it parked up afterwards. It was certainly muddy!
The Lakeside course is a whole different kettle of cats!
Lot's more ups and downs with a good left and right leaning section plus the logs obstacle, the water ravine/gulley, end of lake wet bit, drive along the edge of lake VERY LONG wet bit and of course, the infamous muddy bit. Depending on weather, this can be the EXTREMELY VERY MUDDY BIT!!!
What's nice about this course is that if you decide you don't fancy it, there's always a bypass. Or 'wuss' pass
You can see a lot of the courses on youtube.
There's also Stoneleigh, with their Great British Land Rover Show. They've got an off road course too.
If you decide to the Stoneleigh off road course, i'd suggest going earlier rather than later. Most people go to the show first then do the course. We went this year and were third car in, last year we did the same then went back again around lunch time and the queue was almost back to Birmingham!
This year's Stoneleigh course was the best so far! A different lay out and of course it rained the week before. We've never had mud before!
The show was a bit quiet though.
You can see my run on youtube by typing Great British Land Rover Show 2018. I'm Koito Rob. I was quite pleased. It was the first original sound i could use. It's normally too full of bad language from the passengers
Malvern show is usually good. Not many traders there this year though.
It's always entertaining to watch what's going on in the arena. Mainly it's those nutters from Challenge South West showing off and trying to break their vehicles..
The biggest seems to be Peterborough. We've only been once. This year. It certainly is...BIG!
Challenge South West added, spraying the crowd with mud to their usual antics of showing off and trying to break their vehicles.
NOT IMPRESSED LADS! AND LASS!
I'll be camping this after buying a roof tent for the Disco. This could be the start of something fun, or yet another thing to to find storage for that cost me over £900