Pageant revs up Liverpool

Added on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments

The Pageant of Power is a kind of Goodwood Festival of the North, and the organisers put on a spectacular preview of this July’s main event, free of charge, in Liverpool last night. Alastair Walker was there.

The Cholmondeley Pageant of Power is a celebration of aircraft, powerboats, classic cars, motorcycles and the heroes of motorsport. It takes place each July at Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire and this year’s weekend of petrolhead heaven will happen on July 17th and 18th. Last night saw part of the Strand closed off to normal traffic in Liverpool city centre, whilst an 800bhp JCB digger, a 24 litre Napier-Bentley, Lamborghini Gallardos and a Bugatti Veyron all spun their tyres past the Liverpool One shopping venue and Albert Dock.

For bikers, TT heroes like Charlie Williams and Stuart Graham rode classic race machines, whilst John McGuinness was warming up the Padgetts Honda 1000cc race machine that he will be using at the TT races in a week’s time. BSB star Ryuichi Kiyonari was on hand to smoke some rubber and pop a few wheelies on his HM Plant Honda too. An estimated 20,000 crowd watched the free show, which also had the Breitling wing-walkers and Big Cat class powerboats on the Mersey.

Amongst the rare machines there, a Moto Guzzi single cylinder race machine attracted interest with its leading-link forks and authentic tool-roll, which used to be essential on long distance races back in the 50s. Pioneer bikes like a 1910 Singer which featured no brakes, or raucous 70s two-strokes like a Maxton Yamaha TZ385, ridden by TT winner 11 times over, Charlie Williams brought a smile to the faces of road racing fans.

The main Pageant in July will have a wide range of two-wheeler machines in action, including the Cagiva 500 GP racer from the 80s, the 1940s AJS Porcupine and rare models from well known collectors like Sammy Miller and Chris Wilson. Local dealers like Bill Smith Triumph and Knutsford Honda will be part of the trade area at Cholmondeley in July as well.

The organisers of the Pageant of Power hope that the Liverpool showcase will become an annual event and you can find out more at; www.cpop.co.uk

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