Ettington Chase is a country hotel and spa set in 11 acres of landscaped grounds and takes its name from the village of Ettington, which itself is just outside one of the most famous of all English towns - Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is also within easy reach of Junction 11 or 15 of the M40 motorway.

This hotel has now become the recognised home of the Griff Growl, and in 2008 it played host to the 5th edition of the event, which took place on 9th and 10th August. As usual the staff were on hand to make sure that every guest had the most comfortable weekend possible during their stay

It has to be said that this year’s Griff Growl was not blessed with the best of weather. In fact, it is fair to say that weather-wise it was something of a washout, if not a blow away, but then isn’t that just how our Great British summer has been this year? There is nothing like fine weather to make an outdoor country gathering go well, and that is what was missing from this one.

127 Griffith’s attended, compared to 153 last year, and were backed up with 42 other TVR models. But there are some TVR owners, it appears, that are made of stern stuff you know, and those who did come along were not going to be deterred that easily from enjoying themselves. There were in fact some owners from overseas, some driving their Griffs from France, Holland and one from Norway. There was a regular annual attendee from Australia, and this year there was even one who came from New Zealand as well!

The Friday night kicked off with some 40 members bussing it to Stratford on Avon for the usual pre-Growl curry night, and not having to worry about driving back, much merriment was had by all. This is a good TVR owner’s bonding session and is a great way to start off the club event.

Saturday morning brought dull, heavy and dismal skies, which later developed into torrential rain with quite a strong wind. From the point of view of trying to display ones wares from a lightweight gazebo in such conditions is a nightmare, as these things are not meant for blustery days and can take off with a mind of their own very easily. Despite the weather some traders reported good sales, obviously to the hardier attendees who were not afraid to break cover from places of shelter. One trader reported sales in excess of those experienced for the whole of the 60th Anniversary celebration event weekend at Rockingham. this being gheld earlier in the year.

The Crazy Horses racing rolling road was operating over both days, and our own Bob Young's Griffith 500 was recorded as being the most powerful for a car in original form, producing 276.9 BHP at the flywheel. However, the most powerful Griff overall was the Norwegian car, recording 404 BHP, but the engine has been changed for a Chrysler LS1 block.

A locally based Fireman, who owns a restored tender from the 1940s, had kindly brought this along on the Saturday to display, which added further interest. On Sunday morning a fire crew from Stratford came over in their slightly newer appliance - well a lot newer actually.

This year, Ride Drive had planned something rather different and as a change from the more usual manning a stand and then trying to engage car owners in conversation about ways in which they could be driving them more effectively in a public road environment. We first had the idea of doing free sample drive outs at ROAR 08, the TVR Chimaera festival that took place on the Cheshire/Manchester boarders in June this year and it proved to go down a treat. At the event we offered, totally free of charge, any TVR owner a drive out in their car whilst we provided some constructive coaching from the passenger seat over a pre-planned route. The runs lasted about 25-minutes and were extremely popular.

Following on from ROAR, and with the Griff Growl looming, we decide to repeat the process, but this time with a bit of a twist. This time, some drivers were going to be able to do their drives, again over a specially chosen pre-planned route, but have it filmed from a special video equipped motorcycle, ridden by one of the Ride Drive team. The bike was decked out with video and sound recording equipment, with the voice of the Ride Drive coach being trasmitted onto the footage. Pre-event several website forums were fairly buzzing with excitement over what we were proposing to do and requests were coming in well in advance of the event from those who wanted to have their turn. However, when it came to it, the weather was so miserable and damp that the video equipment kept steaming up as if making a solid attempt to put the mockers on the whole thing. Disappointingly enough, we got only three runs recorded over the whole weekend that were anything like watchable, which was a shame. Anyway, we learned a lot from it and when we do the circuit of events next year, we will be on-song, and weather permitting, have a lot more success.

Saturday night was set up for the usual barbeque at the White Horse pub next door to the hotel, with excellent quality entertainment being provided by a 3 piece live band. However, any notion anyone might have had of enjoying a balmy summer evening in the pub garden was squarely out of the questions, not unless you were wearing thermals and a good set of weatherproof coveralls.

As is customary at this stage of the proceedings, during that evening the charity auction was held, with various prizes having been kindly donated by the traders and other vendors. The chosen beneficiaries of the auction proceeds this year were the dependants of the four fire fighters who lost their lives nearby to the venue whilst fighting a warehouse fire on enight last November, and although not all the money had been collected at the time of publishing, it looked certain the total would clear £1,000. The two half-day Ride gift vouchers we donated were enthusiastically bid for and went for £200, which was a good result.

Saturday night turned to Sunday morning, and as everyone began to surface it was apparent that the weather was again not going to be kind. In fact it wasn’t long before people were packing their things and preparing to return to their homes. Certainly by lunch time the whole event was winding down and it was all over for another year.

On behalf of my team I would like to thank the TVR Car Club for providing us with the opportunity to attend this event and that we hope to see everyone there again next year, perhaps this time under clearer skies.

Julian Smith

(Ride Drive Limited)