The sight of 100 pre-war cars making the difficult journey over Honister was like a scene from an old movie.

Vintage car enthusiasts braved torrential conditions at the weekend to take part in the annual Lakeland Trial.

As well as the 100 entrants, both visitors and locals grabbed their waterproofs and umbrellas and headed out to witness the spectacle.

Organised by the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC), the Lake District event is one of seven trials held in the UK each year.

And it remains as popular as ever with Saturday’s event boasting a full 100 entries with several others in reserve.

Gemma Price, assistant competition secretary at the VSCC, said: “We are focused on pre-war vehicles so the Lakeland Trial had everything from Austin 7s and Bugattis to Ford Model As.

“The Lakeland Trial has been going for over 50 years and Honister is one of the main spectator points. It’s really great to watch.”

Starting and finishing every year at the Wheatsheaf Inn, Low Lorton, the trial takes in forest roads around Keswick and Cockermouth.

It brings with it hundreds of people, filling up local hotels and guest houses and giving a boost to tourism.

Mark Cockbain and Jackie Williams have been landlord and landlady of the Wheatsheaf Inn for 16 years and love being part of the event.

“It’s unbelievable. We have 300 to 400 people in from Thursday onwards.

“We do a full evening meal on the Thursday and Friday nights, then bacon sandwiches for them on the Saturday morning before they start, then have a full house again at night,” said Mark.

He added that sales of Jennings beer go through the roof over the weekend: “The first year we did it we were warned it would be busy and they weren’t wrong – we sold 288 pints in 55 minutes!”

The pub has a caravan site, which is full for the whole weekend, and the pub’s holiday cottage has already been snapped up for next year.

“It’s not just us that benefits. Every hotel and guest house in Cockermouth, Lorton and Keswick gets booked up.

“If you think there are over 100 cars and every one has a driver, co-driver and other friends or family with them, plus there are all the judges and marshals – it’s just fantastic. We’ve been doing it so long we now know a lot of them by name,” added Mark.

Coming at the end of the tourist season, the Lakeland Trial gives a welcome boost to businesses, helping them get through until Christmas.

And the VSCC said it has no plans to stop the Lake District event, which goes from strength to strength.

Gemma added: “It’s a brilliant event and seems to appeal to everyone.

“You get your hardcore enthusiasts who travel from all over the country – we even had people come over from Ireland this year.

“But there are also a lot of locals who come out to watch the competition.

“It’s fascinating to watch when you see these amazing pre-war cars driving up Honister. It’s amazing engineering when you think that a lot of them are over 70 years-old. It’s quite spectacular,” said Gemma.

“Our members really love it. They come back every year and a lot of them make it into a week’s holiday.”

With a trend for vintage and retro goods in vogue generally, Gemma said that the interest in pre-war sports cars has never been higher.

Nationally the organisation, which has been going for 81 years, has about 7,500 members and rising.

“The vintage car world is definitely growing. We had a full entry of 100 with seven cars in reserve so that shows how popular it is,” she added.