2026 Taffia Fish and Chip Run

[mccasksl]

(Attn admin: I'm not sure where this should be posted, it's an international event not National, so feel free to relocate, Thanks!)

Just returned from the incredible 22nd Taffia Fish and Chip Run in Wales. I’ve been trying for several years (entries are capped at 300 cars, it was fully booked in 2 hours) and finally made the cut this year.  The Caterham and Lotus Seven Club and the Taffia F&C Run organizers did an incredible job in hosting what has to be the premier Seven motoring event of the year. Starting with a BBQ on Friday evening (camping alongside your Seven for the hardiest of souls), Saturday morning breakfast (BAP), and run (some 263 cars made the start) from the Hanley Farm Shop (Chepstow) 140 miles north to Aberdyfi and Walkers Fish and Chips on the Irish Sea coast. The Sunday return to Chepstow on your own allowed for alternative routings to take in Mt. Snowdon, the Mach Loop, and the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. It was UK touring at its finest, the beautiful countryside and greenery with never ending winding roads, lakes, rivers and seacoast, the essence of British sports car motoring, and in a proper British car, the Seven. I think several USA7s members have made previous Taffia F&C Runs, and I highly recommend it for any Seven owners must do list.  I see Vovchandr has just posted a link to a Youtube video of this years run and Caterham Cars will be coming out with a 2026 Taffia Fish and Chip Run video likely similar to their excellent 2025 Youtube video.

Thanks to Hannah at Williams Automobiles in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol (highly recommended), we were able to hire a 2015 360SV for the three days. The well broken in (42,000+ miles) Seven ran like a top never missing a beat. Thanks to Caterham Cars who sponsored in part this year’s run as well brought along a CSR Twenty edition and a 310 Encore edition. Finally, many thanks go to Jon Symons and the rest of the 2026 organizing committee and Derek Holliday for doing everything they could to assist us and personally making our F&C Run a success.

A few take aways: The supplied mapping / routing and suggested MyRoute-app worked (short term free trial) extremely well with the proper level of map display and text, for the secondary roads of Wales; Google maps less so; and Beeline worked but is really more suited for motorcycles. But there is nothing like a hard copy “Road Book” and a suitable copilot / navigator.  The organizing committee put together an incredible Road Book w/ the proper level of detail and notation to help with the many nuances of the roads / routings in Wales, something I haven’t seen in many years. A Club WhatsApp Community was set up for drivers / participants which provided a mechanism for rapid communications for everything from road conditions, detours, construction, weather, assistance needed, status, picture posting etc. which worked very well. Headsets w/ intercom are nice for pilot / co-pilot communications, but not necessary (we used a half hood and side doors / windows, and the rain / wind noise was not bad at all).  Finally proper layering and wet weather gear are essential. We left 90 degs and sunny in Austin to arrive in London / Wales with 40’s-50’s maybe low 60’s and rain nearly everyday. This is one time we appreciated the endless heat emanating from the footwells in a Seven. Be on the lookout for notices about next year’s event about Mid-January 2027. 

Cheers!

Steve and Akiko

Edited 52 minutes ago by mccasksl