I’ve been a bit quiet reporting on the event front recently, due in large part to a dose of Covid – my second one – causing me to miss a couple of good events, particularly Classic Nostalgia at Shelsley Walsh – and also because recent local events I’ve been to have been, well, a little too small to post about here individually. Having said that, I thought I’d combine some of these smaller shows in the I hope can give you a feel for the regular local classic car scene around this part of Middle England.
Two of those were run by a group calling themselves Wheels On Wednesday, and I did write about one of their meetings in these august virtual pages last year. They hold regular Wednesday evening meetings in the grounds of Spetchley Park as well as weekend breakfast meetings there and in Worcester. Classics are a significant element of their events and generally make up the front two rows of the array of cars in attendance, but they are open to anyone with an interest in cars and indeed motorbikes of any kind. As a result, there are usually more non-classics than classics present, and once you’ve been to a couple of WoW meetings, it becomes clear that a good number of the cars show up regularly – as you might expect from an event that draws its attendees from a radius of probably no more than 15 miles.
Nevertheless, there’s always a few that stand out, besides the usual MGB’s, VW Beetles, TR’s etc, and I’ve picked out a few for this piece, and the best of the rest are in the gallery at the end.
There’s usually a few American classics at any WOW event, and two that recently caught my eye were a lovely two-tone blue and white Chevrolet Bel-Air from 1960 and a white 1967 Mercury Cougar. The Bel-Air was in superb condition and I’ve always liked the extravagant tail treatment – shared with the contemporary Chevrolet Impala and Biscayne – with the fins flattened out almost horizontally like wings instead of vertically. It’s huge – of course – and imposing, and very cool. I haven’t seen a Cougar for quite some time – coming out of Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury division, it was released after the success of the Mustang made it clear that there was a huge demand for “pony” cars. To avoid direct competition, it was placed just above the Mustang (though the relationship is clear just by looking at it) and even the name was that of the development Mustang.
The Cougar was a success in the US but compared to the Mustang, is a much rarer beast in the UK. I really like the front grille treatment (repeated at the back) and the concealed headlights, and while the Cougar is more or less a Mustang under the skin, it’s different enough to stand apart.
Still in the realms of pony cars, an example of Chrysler’s answer to the Mustang (and Cougar), a metallic blue ’68 Plymouth Barracuda looked very smart – this was a second-generation two-door hard-top coupé ‘Cuda, with a 5.6-litre V8 under the bonnet. Nice clean lines, subtle tail treatment and a purposeful-looking grille made this a pretty cool car.
More prosaically, a blue 1975 Austin 1800 “Landcrab” took me back to the days when my father owned the Morris version, and although I wasn’t keen on the body-coloured wheels on this one, it was otherwise a very smart example of an unexceptional classic.
Staying with that theme, how about a 1984 VW Polo GL Estate, or a 1993 Vauxhall Nova GSi – well OK, exceptional by Vauxhall Nova standards, but still a Nova, and fewer than 30 left on UK roads. Two generations of Ford Fiesta, a deep blue 1987 Popular Plus and a red ’78 1-litre made an exceptionally unexceptional pair.
Peerless only made a total of 325 of their 2+2 GT coupés between 1957 and 1960 at their base in Slough – not a traditional car manufacturing area. Based largely on Triumph TR3 mechanicals with a bespoke fibreglass shell, a Peerless GT famously won its class in the 1958 running of Le Mans. The one at Spetchley looked smart in white with blue front-to-back stripe was originally built in 1959 and rebuilt over a seven-year period by its current owner. Only about 50 are believed to survive. A more exotic Brit on view was a 1976 Lotus Esprit S1 that stood out by virtue of its bright red paint finish but also its number plate – 137MPH being the top speed of the Esprit, more or less.
Finally in terms of eye-catching cars on show, I can’t ignore a BMW 3.0CSL, especially one in as superb condition as this 1973 built car was, finished in Fjord Blue – just gorgeous!
For the rest of the more interesting classics on show at Spetchley, check out the gallery below.
