Regular readers will be familiar with the Classic Motor Hub, or CMH for short, located on a former WW2 RAF FIghter Command base near Bibury, at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Middle England. We’ve written about the CMH before, so to save me repeating myself, you can check out a couple of features here and here.
Sunday saw the last of their Coffee and Classics gatherings for this year, which are held on the first Sunday of the month through the summer. These events always attract a fine and eclectic collection of classics as well as a motley selection of more modern cars, and as well as being able to wander around the 250 or so that made their way on a fine early Autumn morning to Bibury, the CMH also opens it’s showrooms, café and shop to visitors, and since they sell some exceptional classics, we’ll take a look at some of those as well as the cars that were driven there on the day.
I drove there with my better half in die Zitrone, since my C123 is having a new head gasket and my 911 dropped all it’s oil, mostly on my garage floor, earlier this week; the perils of classic car ownership – I’m not looking forward to the bills…
After a very nice drive through the picturesque Cotswolds countryside we got there at 9.50, among the earlier arrivals, giving us a chance to get in the coffee queue early and watch as more classics rolled into the parking areas.
The surprisingly good weather – the forecast less than 48 hours earlier was far less favourable – seemed to encourage a very healthy turnout; let’s take a look at some of the morning’s delights, some familiar from previous events, some not.
As we drove in through the main entrance, it was a pleasant surprise to see another ’02 already parked up in the front part of the yard – a very tidy 1975 1602 in Agave Green, and later on, staying with BMW, in the rear car park, a red 1982 Alpina B9 3.5 looked, well, fast…I’m not convinced about the Alpina side decals, though. Parked just a few cars along from me stood a beige icon of Indian roads, a Hindustan Ambassador, complete with elephant mascot on the bonnet. This Morris Oxford-based car could have been built anytime between 1957 and – would you believe – 2014, and it turns out that this particular one was a 2005 car; who’d have thought it?
We made our way over to the coffee area, which gave a good view of cars arriving and there was plenty to enjoy. A metallic green 1981 Ford Capri 2.8i and one of its Italian rivals, a 1982 Alfetta GTV arrived one behind the other – I’d take the Alfa, but the Capri did look good.
Speaking of Alfa’s, 1990’s examples of the marque suffered from what for me was some dubious styling, especially when compared with the pretty Bertone-designed models of the 1960’s and early ‘70’s. The origami-influenced 155 was a case in point, but I have to admit that the all-black 1997 example that rolled into the CMH looked pretty cool – possibly because the colour disguised some of the awkward styling.
Regular readers will know that yellow is one of my favourite colours on many cars, but I don’t think I’ve seen a yellow Volvo 244 before – the 1980 example that drove in on Sunday certainly stood out. Still ugly, though…
The low rumble of big V8’s was followed by the understated entrance of a superb black 1958 C1 5.3-litre Corvette and a 7.5-litre 1973 Pontiac Trans-Am arriving together (there was also a black ’65 Corvette C2 elsewhere in the yard); the sound of a big V8 is one of the best in motoring.
Going back in time a bit further, a gorgeous black 1934 Invicta S Type made quite a sight, as did the pair of early 1920’s Rolls Royce’s, both in grey, which I think were 40/50’s – I didn’t get a chance to check with the owners, perhaps a more knowledgeable reader could confirm?
In another part of the yard, a row of four – later joined by a fifth – early 1970’s Datsun 240Z’s made a fine sight in the morning sun. For me, the original Datsun Z-cars were by far the best looking of the series, sleek and purposeful – they got big and ungainly from the 280ZX onwards.
It was also nice to see the big Mark 1 Granada coupé in metallic green – we don’t see many here, and this one looked to be in exceptional condition. They’re very imposing cars, competing directly back in the day with the equally large Opel Rekord and Commodore coupés. I like them.
Another lesser-spotted British classic was the very smart 1971 white with black vinyl roof Austin 1300GT. This was in exceptional condition, as was the beautiful white 1964 Porsche 356C – this very late 356 was almost my car of the day (though I would have had to change the wheels) until the arrival of an utterly gorgeous silver Pagoda 280SL that arrived later in the morning – I have to own one before I can’t drive any more…
As usual at one of the CMH’s events, they had opened their showrooms for visitors to indulge in their dreams or in some cases, perhaps be tempted to deplete their bank accounts. I loved the gorgeous dark green 1970 911S (unsurprisingly), but the £150k price tag is the main reason I have a 911T. Wedgwood Blue is my favourite colour on an Aston Martin DB4, and £425,000 would secure the stunning 1960 example that’s been on sale for a while…might be a deal to be done (though sadly not by me). An additional £50,000 would be needed to buy the 1956 OSCA MT4, but it’s not all super-expensive classics at the CMH; alongside a very desirable 1960 red 356B 1600 Roadster at £185,000 was a very sweet little yellow 1924 Citroën 5HP Type C, yours for just £16,000.
Which car would I have taken with me? The silver Pagoda 280SL, I think – just too lovely. My other half said she would take the dark blue 1975 Alfa Romeo 2000 Spider – you’ll see it in the gallery below; the two would certainly enhance any garage.
This was a fine way to end the season at the Classic Motor Hub – it’s always a pleasure to go there, we’ll be back again next year!
