They may be a little old but I love to admire their curves and sleek bodywork, but enough about the mature ladies on the beach, lets look at the Autoepoca Classic Car Show in Santa Cruz. I headed up from Los Cristianos on the early 110 Titsa with Ian from the Armada Sur and his good lady, Janette. Isn’t fate cruel, I ended up sat at the back of the bus next to a Scottish family with a ginger sprog wearing a Real Madrid Ronaldo shirt – what self control I have.

Arriving in under an hour at Santa Cruz, us chaps headed off to the Recinto Ferial, buying our 3 euro tickets we waited outside for the dignitaries to complete the opening presentations. Looking around the concourse it was clear that there wasn’t going to be a mass scrum to get in, most people would no doubt visit after work or over the weekend. I’m no car fanatic but I appreciate the design and beauty of these great machines, the 200 cars and 50 motorbikes looked fantastic as they spread across the hall. It would have been nice if some brief descriptions of the motors and their history was displayed with them, mind you I was also hoping for a few dolly birds draped over the bonnets of the cars, maybe that’s just me.

Great names like Porsche, Ford, Ducatti, Kawasaki and Rolls Royce rang out from the highly polished chrome of the bikes and cars. There were a few more unusual models, early kit cars, camper vans, U.S Army jeeps, and police motor bikes. I also expected a few more trade stands, there were a few specialist dealers selling model cars and some technical gadetry for cleaning and preserving collectors wares, maybe more will turn up for the weekend.

Those are just small criticisms, at 3 euros the fair is great value and will evoke many memories of first cars and back seat fumbles. There is a large cafe bar upstairs if you want to take a break, good views over the hall as well. Autoepoca closes on Sunday March 7 and opens daily from 11am to 9pm. Walking down into the main shopping area of Santa Cruz, I showed Ian the CD Tenerife shop, they still have a sale on and a few new items to go with the kits, scarves etc. After meeting Janette for a quick meal as we beat off the pigeons, we hopped on the tram from Guimera back to the bus station for our speedy 110 direct bus home.   For more details on the motors and more photos go to www.tenerifemagazine.com