MX-5 OC Forum

 This is advance notice of the 2010 Spring Rally to be hosted by the Northern Ireland MX-5 Owners club over the Bank Holiday weekend 29-31 May 2010.
 
The Venue that has been chosen for the Rally is the Ulster Folk and Transport museum at Cultra - just outside Belfast. see link : http://www.uftm.org.uk/

The actual Rally will be held on Saturday 29th May with organised runs and possibly other supporting events held on Sunday 30th.

A Gala Dinner is being planned for the Saturday evening and is being held in Parliament Buildings (Stormont). This will be a prestigious  venue and will provide a spectacular backdrop for what promises to be an exciting event.

Response so far has been excellent with a number of Clubs arranging to come over and spend a week or a few days in Ireland before or after the event.
 
We are still in the early stages of planning the event with accommodation to be shortly sorted out.
 
Offers with Ferry companies are under discussion and hopefully a further discount can be agreed on top of the discount that is already given by many of the Ferry operators to MX-5 owners. Please remember that you can use your Tesco Club card points to pay, or part pay for the cost of many of the ferry crossings.
 
Keep a check on this forum for all the uptodate news.

The following are a couple of useful links that you may want to check out for accommodation that you could use before or after the rally. www.manorhousehotels.com
or www.irishcountryhotels.com

 On the subject of TESCO club card points, you will only be able to book your ferry trip at the beginning of next year, but also don't leave to the last minute before you book as it takes a week or two to get it sorted out, or it used to.

This is well worth saving your points for as it isn't cheap to go across on the ferry.

Not sure if I will make this (depends if I have a MX5 then!), but

Accomodation; can heartily recommend Ballinderry Country House:

http://www.ballinderrycountryhouse.co.uk/

The owner works for BMW and is a Triumph enthusiast. A few of us stayed there in 2005, after travelling over for the Dundrod TT, so they know MX5s there. Country location, but close to Belfast. Loads of parking, nice facilities, great Ulster fry. Stormont and the Ulster Transport Museum are both accessible without actually going into Belfast itself. About 15 minutes drive from either of the main Belfast ferry points.

Ferry; 6 years in the province, and I ended up preferring the overnight Liverpool-Belfast ferry (Norfolk Line).

And an answer to a silly question I once had; no, you do not need special insurance to visit Northern Ireland.

 You may be interested to know that our new website www.mx5ni.com went live this week (21 September). This will be the information point for all the Spring Rally details as well as the new Public face of the N Ireland Mx-5 Owners Club.

It is still being populated but the Accommodation details are already there. The Gala Dinner tickets wil go on sale via a downloadable form which will be available on the website from 15 October onwards. 

Steven

 Is the gala dinner black tie, or what..?

Hi, the Gala Dinner has been billed as smart casual. Due to the restrictions in the luggage capacity of an Mx-5, and as a number of people are coming for a few days or more we do not expect them to bring their best clothes. I would expect some of the locals to probably dress up and you are welcome to do so if you so wish.

Steven