After a three-year hiatus caused by you-know-what, the other big classic car event that’s held at the NEC (normally) each year, the Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show, or PCCCRS for short opened its doors to welcome classic car enthusiasts again. As I mentioned in my report from this show last time out, I am most definitely not a hands-on owner – unlike most of my ViaRETRO colleagues and no doubt many of our readers. The main difference between this event and the other big indoor shows such as the NEC Classic or the London Classic Car Show, is that this show is focused on the DIY enthusiast, as is the magazine that sponsors it, Practical Classics, more than the Concours of Elegance type events – no Bugatti’s or Lamborghini’s here.
Instead, there are many displays dedicated to the practicalities of classic car restoration, with demonstrations of works in progress throughout the event, often on the stands themselves, before-and-after displays, stories of cars rescued after years, sometimes decades of neglect in barns, garages and storage units, as well as an auction held by CCA auctions, which included two of our recent Prime Finds – more on that later.
.So you could say this is a grittier, less glamorous show than the likes of the NEC Classic or London Classic Car Show, but that’s kind of the point – it’s much more targeted at the lower budget end of our hobby. It’s also a smaller show – where the NEC Classic takes up eight halls, the PCCCRS uses a mere three, but just like that event, there are car clubs – over 150 this year – as well as a few dealers and the usual stands selling parts and general classic ephemera.
Friday morning – the show’s opening day of three – dawned very foggy but by the time I got to the car park at Birmingham International Station – more convenient than the NEC’s own car parks – the sun had burned it off and I made my way to the Press Office to collect my pass and took advantage of the one hour early entry for press to start my day wandering around the halls. As always with these bigger shows, it’s not possible to offer a fully comprehensive view of everything, so what follows will be my selected highlights.
My first few stops were at stands representing many of the area’s local manufacturers, sadly mostly now gone the way of the dinosaurs – readers may recall my musings on Birmingham and Coventry’s history as the Detroit of the UK – and there were interesting displays from the various British Leyland and Rootes companies’ clubs. There was a particularly strong presence from the Triumph clubs. I particularly liked the pair of Triumph Gloria’s, one a striking yellow and black 1938 saloon, the other a 1937 14/60 Southern Cross Special in red, one of only a handful made; they made a handsome duo.
The line up of Austin and MG Metro’s was one of the best I’ve seen at a show, with models from across the range, and moving further upmarket, Rover and Jaguar Daimler models were also well represented. It’s good to see the area’s motoring heritage being kept alive, even if my personal contribution is, well, non-existent.
A wide variety of Vauxhall’s were on show – among them a surprising number of Cavalier Sportshatches. Having seen one at the Sixways event the previous weekend, there were no fewer than four on show at the NEC, if you include the silver Opel Manta version.
It was also interesting to see examples of the company’s big ’70’s saloons in the shapes of the Victor and Ventora. There was a particularly interesting trio of Calibra’s – now officially classics if you go by the 30-year guide – that had been breathed on by Irmscher. I remember really liking the car’s dramatic styling back in the day and it still looks good now. This and VW’s Corrado are two early ‘90’s coupés that are destined to be genuine future classics, if they aren’t already.
Heading across the channel to France, I came across my favourite stand of the day – even though the Citroën 2CV is far from one of my favourite cars, the 2CV GB Club had put on a lovely display of yellow and blue 2CV’s in tribute to the Ukraine; even the tape they used to mark the edges of their stand was yellow and blue. It was subtly and beautifully done.
Heading into Central Europe via the Practical Classics’ own staff cars was one of my cars of the day, a 1938 Tatra T97. Run and restored by the magazine’s contributor Ian Tisdale and his wife, this dramatic saloon has strong echoes of the VW Beetle at the front, but the back half of the car is an aerodynamic fastback with central fin and the rear wheels are concealed by wheel spats, making this a very futuristic-looking car. Just over 500 were made (unlike the Beetle!) and this is one of two run by the Tisdale’s. Something I hadn’t previously known was that before WW2, the Czechoslovakians drove on the left, only converting to driving on the right after the German occupation, so this car was originally RHD, but was subsequently converted to LHD.
Another highlight for me was the 1974 Audi 100LS saloon in a gorgeous shade of blue on the Club Audi stand. The last time I saw one of these it was being restored at Templar Classics. This one looked near perfect, and I was surprised to hear that it had been sold by Audi UK for a mere £4500, the low price – trust me, this car was immaculate inside and out – apparently because it needed considerable attention to the engine and gearbox. I would have snapped it up at that price. One the same stand was one of it’s successors, a 1981 100 saloon, as well as a couple of very smart coupés.
Two more of my personal favourites on the day could be found over at the FIAT and Simca club stands. Back in August of last year we featured a 1974 FIAT 128 Coupé as a Prime Find when it was sold by Anglia Car Auctions, where it fetched just over £14,500 including commissions – well, that very car was on show here, and it looked superb in it’s Positano Yellow coat. Disappointingly, the fact that we featured it on ViaRETRO was not mentioned on the accompanying info board, nor was the fact that the current owner acquired it at auction last year. Never mind, it looked great, and probably worth every penny.
Over at the Simca stand, besides a project car and a track special, were a trio of fine models from the French manufacturer, including a 1968 Bertone 1200S Coupé, one of just six RHD examples that made it to the UK, a 1973 1000 Rallye 1 and a superb restored Aronde. It’s not unfair to say that the Coupé’s blue paintwork was showing signs of age and will need reapplying soon, but what a lovely looking car! The Aronde was not a standard car, but was one of the (relatively) high-performance 70bhp Montlhery Speciale’s, named after the race track in northern France where the French Grand Prix was run several times in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
There were projects aplenty scattered all around the show, in various states of (dis)repair, with a special section dedicated to so-called “barn finds”. Some of those featured looked – to my inexpert eye – to be beyond restoration, or at least beyond any financially viable restoration, with interiors missing or destroyed, exteriors not just rusted but extensively damaged to boot. One that looked to be realistically salvageable was a white 1964 BMW 1800 saloon that had been stored in an Essex garage since sometime in the 1970’s and looked pretty complete. The 1959 Dodge Sierra Station Wagon and the 1966 Wolseley 6/110 hearse – both in the possession of the same owner – look well beyond saving to me.
Back to the club stands, and I just want to mention a couple more while I still have your attention. There are a lot of SAAB fans among both our team and our readers; one of the rarest (in the UK, at least) is the SAAB 99, and on show here was a fabulous unrestored 1976 99GLE, one of only two 99GLE’s in the country, acquired a couple of years ago by a father and son. Finished in a dark brown, this was a completely original example – I was shown a period brochure that had pictures of the identical interior to this car – and had covered just 80,000 documented miles, nothing for a SAAB. At a show dedicated to restoration, this was a stunning original car. Also on the SAAB stand, later 900 and 9000 models as well as a very rare Sonnet II. The club had put on a good show, as had their fellow Swedes from Gothenburg, whose display was centred around The Saint and the Volvo P1800, but was not just about that.
A few years ago we ran a piece about British microcar manufacturer Frisky, and they were at the NEC again but this time with probably the brightest star in the Frisky firmament, a recently found and restored Frisky Sprint, the only one of it’s kind ever built. It was found as recently as June 2021 and was not quite complete, but now, it’s almost ready to drive again – a big moment for the Frisky Register.
Classic Car Auctions (CCA) hosted a large sale over the weekend of the show, with over 200 lots on offer, including two of our recent Prime Finds, a 1991 Lancia Integrale and a 1990 Renault 5 GT Turbo. I have to say that neither car disappointed – they both looked every bit as good as their photos, and fetched £18,225 and £20,250 respectively, strong money for the R5, but still a bargain price for the Integrale, in my view.
A beautiful Polaris Silver 1980 BMW 323i Baur found a new home for just £17,100 – these are surely destined to go up in value – as is the W108 series of Mercedes-Benz saloons (the coupés and particularly the convertibles already fetch serious money). There were two excellent examples of these big saloons, a silver 1972 280SEL 4.5 with just 38,000 miles under its wheels and from Greece, a genuine time-warp 1967 250S in Tunis Beige with only 17,400 miles on the clock. Surprisingly, neither found a buyer. Perhaps one downside to the 250S was that it had been converted to LPG, but in this condition and mileage, worth converting back, I think. Nevertheless, I was surprised that neither sold.
Other interesting (to me) lots included a 1957 Oldsmobile 98 Starfire that sold for £14,625 (one of several American cars on offer) and from the previous year, a mint-green, superbly restored first generation Ford Thunderbird that reached £36,000. A big ’64 Chevy Impala SS looked good, and went for an ostensibly bargain price of £16,650. For the brave, a yellow 1972 De Tomaso Pantera that needed a repaint as a minimum (and who knew what lay underneath) achieved £46,687. There was also a gaggle of MGB’s and C’s on offer, several Jaguar’s in various states of decay and much more – pretty much something for every bank account. All prices quoted include commissions.
There’s a great deal more I could write about this show, but suffice to say that while significantly smaller than it’s big brother NEC Classic, its focus on what are sometimes called unexceptional classics actually works in its favour. There was much to savour for both the enthusiastic hands-on amateur and the mechanically incompetent such as your writer, as I hope the photos above and below will show. And you can comfortably cover the event in a day. It was good to see it back, and I’ll be back next year, too.
