In truth, the penny only really dropped when we found ourselves standing amongst the Group C and IMSA cars, a Nissan GT-P and a Pontiac-Spice Engineering collaboration, respectively.
Here was a handful of monstrously powerful, impossibly iconic racing cars, each synonymous with what many regard as sports car racing’s greatest era, looking as though they’d been transported directly from Laguna Seca to this quiet, wholly unassuming corner of the English countryside. ‘Incongruous’ scarcely began to describe the sensation their presence engendered.
It was only then, as Callum, Nathanial and I stood gawping at the sheer absurdity of it all—these fire-breathing racing machines sitting amongst softly spoken, impeccably dressed couples quietly quaffing champagne—that we finally allowed ourselves to take it all in. For the first time all day, we stopped rushing from one task to the next and simply appreciated what had been created at Hodstock Priory.
The occasion, of course, was the inaugural Retropower Reyt Posh Doo: a collaboration with our friends at The Drivers’ Collection, conceived as a deliberately curated celebration of the very best of Britain’s modified car scene. Rather than attempting to become the biggest event on the calendar, the ambition was to create one of the finest—a gathering where every car had earned its place, every owner had a story to tell, and where the salubrious surroundings complemented the calibre of machinery on display.
Needless to say, the standards were stratospherically high.
To understand how we arrived there, though, we need to wind the clock back a few weeks, to when Retropower and The Drivers’ Collection first began formulating plans for a joint event. As the name suggests, our ambition from the outset was always to make this a show apart, something a long way removed from your average midweek light industrial estate car park meet-up. Hence the choice of Hodstock Priory.
From the outset it was agreed that this would be a resolutely quality-over-quantity affair, with a carefully selected assortment of cars invited to display. Naturally, that meant being a little more mercurial when deciding who did (and didn’t) receive an invitation, but we hope you’ll agree the standard of machinery more than vindicated that decision.
As for the cars themselves, variety was very much the watchword. The aforementioned IMSA collective inevitably drew the eye first, but in truth they were competing for attention with an astonishingly diverse collection of machinery, much of which shared little beyond an extraordinary standard of engineering and presentation.
Those who made the pilgrimage to the Priory were treated to such wonderfully improbable bedfellows as MST’s Mk1 Escort Evo—surely one of the most eagerly anticipated British-built cars of recent years—David Rowe’s astonishing Audi RS001, the closest the world is ever likely to come to the mythical Group S Audi; a pitch-perfect Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing tribute; and a Ford GT.
We challenge you to find a broader (or better) selection of historic performance cars anywhere outside the Le Mans Classic or Silverstone Festival. Go on. We’ll wait.
Retropower projects were naturally well represented, with Project Kaiser II (our Mercedes W111 Coupé) and Project Stravaig (the LS-powered Chevrolet Camaro) both in attendance. The latter, having only recently been returned to its owner, already bore the scars of a disagreement with a milk lorry on a narrow Scottish backstreet. Battle damage notwithstanding, it remained one of the day’s biggest attractions, rarely seen without a sizeable crowd gathered around it.
Even setting aside these curated additions to the roster, the event was packed with the sort of cars that, were you to encounter them on the public road, would present a genuine hazard to anyone attempting to sneak a photograph while driving.
A collection of Japanese performance icons occupied one corner of the Priory grounds, an R33 Skyline leading the charge, while a Honda City Turbo II (complete with its accompanying Motocompo, naturally) vied for attention nearby. Elsewhere, a Lancia Delta Integrale rubbed shoulders (rather than arches) with an air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle and a Rover SD1, while an air-ride-equipped Ferrari 348 lurked with barely concealed menace, positively dripping with understated charisma.
The venue itself only heightened the atmosphere. Hodstock Priory’s immaculate, grassy gardens and elegant surroundings provided an unlikely backdrop for machinery that, in many cases, had been built to be noisy, uncompromising and unapologetically fast. Yet somehow the contrast worked perfectly. The setting lent the occasion an undeniable sense of occasion without ever feeling stuffy, while the cars injected just enough irreverence to prevent proceedings becoming overly formal.
Most gratifying of all was seeing so many familiar faces enjoying themselves. Customers, friends, suppliers and enthusiasts mingled throughout the day, united by a shared appreciation for beautifully engineered cars and the people who build, restore and cherish them. As we’d always hoped, the Reyt Posh Doo never felt like a conventional car show; instead, it felt like a gathering of like-minded people who just happened to have brought some of the finest cars in Britain with them.
For a first attempt, we couldn’t have hoped for much more. The weather smiled upon us, the cars exceeded even our lofty expectations, and the overwhelmingly positive feedback from those who attended left us quietly confident that the Reyt Posh Doo has all the ingredients to become something genuinely special in the years ahead. Thank you to all who took the time to attend.
An excellent show on all levels!