At approximately 10am on a cool and overcast day, some 12 cars with 18 members and guests assembled at the carpark outside the Burnside Shopping centre. One guest, Tom, drove his recently acquired Superlegerra DBS V12 that was outstanding in its Hyper Red livery – both will be very welcome on future runs (assuming Tom wants to join our Club). Another guest, Mark was somewhat surprised as he was not aware he was joining us on the run until the very last minute. Mark’s son Liam had contacted Area Rep Terry Jones more than 12months earlier about the possibility of driving in an Aston Martin on the occasion of his father’s 60th birthday but those plans were shelved due to the emerging COVID 19 pandemic. A year down the track, Terry contacted Liam and arranged for both of them to join us for our monthly run & lunch that was a secret until the moment Mark saw the assembled group. As it happened, it turned out well because Mark’s birthday was the April 11th, the date of the run. Because Aston Martins rarely seat more than 2 in comfort, Mark first drove with Terry Jones in his 1974 AMV8 and then with former Area Rep, Chris in his V8 Vantage for the return leg and son Liam did the reverse.
The route called for us to exit the carpark and drive up Portrush Road to the start of the Freeway but roadworks on the Freeway caused considerable comgestion and delay on Portrush Road and the lower part of the Freeway that we either had to endure or take the alternative route up Greenhill Rd. Most decided to take the planned route and we endured very slow progress for the first 15minutes or so but once we got past the Heysen tunnels, progress was much better. We exited at Stirling and travelled down Milan Tce to Mylor then through Echunga to Flaxeley and on to Meadows. From there we took Brookman Rd, Range Road and Wickham Hill Road that took us over the ranges to the floor of the valley and onto to Woodstock Winery. Wickham Hill Rd is a lovely way to descend from the hills due to its many sharp turns that are reminiscent of the Alpine roads (in miniature) where the closing scenes of Italian Job were filmed. Terry suggested singing ‘The Self Preservation Society’ on this part of the drive in memory of the classic Mini movie that also featured a DB4 Aston Martin.
Arriving at Woodstock (one of our official sponsors), we again parked on the lovely grassed area under the old gum trees and chatted amongst ourselves, some taking photographs, most enjoying a complimentary glass of bubbles (or Moscato for those who preferred this tipple). There had been brief spells of sunshine during the drive but overall it was quite overcast though we were fortunate not having any rain.
We moved inside to enjoy a feast of platters with all manner of meats, cheeses and pickles and Woodstock also catered for the vegetarians among us (thanks guys). A few more wines were consumed including a very nice Montepulciano that Terry thought vastly better than the Italian version of this wine he had tried a few years earlier. One of the major foods we were treated to was a German pizza style food called Flammkuchen that was served with a variety of toppings including dessert topping – all seemed to enjoy the food and several members advised Terry they thought the meeting was a great success.
At Woodstock we were also met by members Richard Dyson Harvey, Jennifer Garton and Amanda & Darryl who moved to Darwin a few years back but who were back in Adelaide for a brief spell – it was very good to catch up with them again. Accompanying Richard were two Victorian members, Richard and Bronwyn who were made very welcome. We were also lucky to have two new members join us, David and Sandra in their recently acquired V12 Vantage S – another beautiful car in our lineup (see photos). Our group of now 30 odd filled 3 large tables in the restaurant that is just recovering from more than 12 months of depressed trading because of the pandemic and it was great to see a return to more normal operation. The staff were excellent and the Flammkuchens kept coming until we could eat no more. We gradually departed to wend our way home after a lovely long lunch.
