The venue for the 2006 rally was the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum, which is believed to house the largest collection of privately owned buses anywhere in the world. The site itself covers some 45 acres of an ex Royal Navy stores depot, and since 1995 has been developed to provide a home for over 160 buses and support vehicles, with workshop facilities, an exhibition hall, and its own railway shed!
May 2006 was cold and very wet, but fortunately the weather became more rally friendly by the end of the month, and the thirty cars which took part in the Saturday "Tour de Fife" section of the Rally were able to do so in generally favourable conditions. Ian Headrick had plotted a superb route across Fife to the coast for a lunch stop at The Belvedere in West Wemyss. The views across the Firth of Forth from above Burntisland were spectacular, taking in the Forth Bridges to the west, past Edinburgh to the south, out to the Bass Rock and May Island to the east.
The Belvedere provided a fine lunch at reasonable prices and the tourists set off on the return run through the central Fife countryside, passing Falkland Palace and Loch Leven to the final stopping point at the celebrated Powmill Milk Bar, where their home made cakes and pastries were sampled with great pleasure.
The traditional Saturday evening social consisted of a buffet held in the clubroom of the Bus Museum, with music, bingo and a quiz provided by Eddie Taylor.
Rally Sunday gave us 4 seasons in one day weatherwise; the rain was spasmodic but the wind was constant. How come that in a venue surrounded by hills on 3 sides the wind blows through the 4th? Still, this did give early arrivals some added entertainment watching various traders trying to erect their awnings and gazebos
This left the Running Board cars and the Land Rover classes very thin on the ground. The Scottish SD1 community could muster only a single entrant, but the arrival onto the Scottish scene of The Rover Owners Club, which caters for owners of the modern Rover and MG cars, helped maintain overall numbers at a respectable level.
Entrants were able to enjoy special guided tours around the Bus Museum during the day, which made a welcome break after the difficult task of selecting candidates for the self judged concours, something which just gets harder every year as standards rise.
Following the raffle draw the presentation of class and Championship awards ended the event for another year, many thanks to all who attended and those who helped make this another successful event.
Any entrant who did not collect their Attendance award may still claim this, by sending a cheque or Postal Order for £2:00 to cover postage and packing.
A limited number of these unique glass bottle coasters are available for purchase by non entrants. These may be purchased by sending a cheque or Postal Order to the value of £3:00 (included P&P) to the Rally Secretary at this address: