AS has been featured before in the “Courier”, the last Thursday of every month sees various interesting cars and motorcycles, plus their ever enthusiastic owners, converge on The Red Lion in Shobrooke for Classic and Specialist Car and Bike Night.

The car park often hosts a hugely eclectic mixture of vehicles, but occasionally questions still arise about what is eligible. Hopefully the following will set some minds at rest.

Ever since its inception in 2012, Car and Bike Night has been a completely informal event organised with the sole intention of bringing together cars, motorcycles and other vehicular curios of all ages, types and conditions. The only “rule” regarding vehicle eligibility is that owner enthusiasm is essential.

With the cars, this open policy has produced appearances from both the traditional classics and the occasional exotic. Beyond the mainstream, however, lies a vast variety of other vehicles.

These have included American cars both classic and recent, 4x4s, pre-War cars, modern performance cars, as well as more modest machines which, while perhaps not the archetypal collector’s choice, have nonetheless become much loved by their owners. In addition, once in while something really obscure shows up. You may never have encountered a ZAZ Tavria but one has graced the Red Lion’s car park…

On the motorcycle side, perhaps the first thing to stress is that bikes are welcome! This has been the case from the very start but the two wheeled showing has not always been as strong as it might be, something the organisers are keen to rectify.

On a positive note the quality and variety of the machinery has been every bit as good as the cars. Current performance machines have stood alongside classics. Scooters, WW2 era ex-military bikes, café racers and off roaders have all found themselves welcome. Finally, there was the ultimate little and large act when a huge Triumph Rocket III cruiser parked neatly alongside a tiny DiBlasi folding mini bike!

The next meet takes place at the Red Lion on May 31, the fun starting at 7pm.

If you have a car or motorcycle you would like to take along but are worried about whether it is suitable, hopefully this article will have cleared the picture. Ultimately, however, it comes down to one very simple concept: IF YOU LOVE IT, TAKE IT!