The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) is located between Birmingham and Coventry in the middle of England, and hosts all manner of events, concerts and exhibitions. These include two of the biggest shows on the UK classic car calendar, with one of them legitimately laying claim to being perhaps the biggest indoor classic car show on the planet – the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, as it is officially known – so big, you can see it from space. Well, okay, maybe not quite that big.
It’s been a must-go for me in recent years and now I live within an hour’s drive of the venue, attending for the one and a half to two days required to get around to seeing most of the exhibits, or at least the ones of interest to me, is easier. After all, with some 3,000 cars from almost 300 clubs and the same number of traders, a huge autojumble, live presentations and a major auction, there’s a huge amount to see and to write about, so as in previous years, I’ll cover it in two articles…this time, by country in alphabetical order, why not? – but with so many delights on display, I can only focus on a limited number of cars and stands, so I’ll still miss out a whole lot of marques and models – apologies if you think I should have picked some others.
Let’s start our journey in Central Europe – OK, a region rather than a country, but let’s not be too picky. There were some intriguing cars on show from the region, including a 1986 Moskvich 2140, a 1965 Wartburg 1000 and a dilapidated Polish Syrena 105L that was more rust than metal but which I was assured would be back at the show as a restored car in a couple of years’ time – I look forward to seeing that resurrection (sic).
The most interesting car in this section was a perfect 1961 Skoda Felicia convertible, a labour of love for Mike Meadows, who had acquired the car in May 2017 as a project. After doing much of the work himself – except for the chrome, trim and engine rebuild – Mike is now the proud owner of a very rare car that presents beautifully in it’s original green, discovered underneath the red paint that the car was wearing when he bought it. I really liked it, he’s done a super job.
Among major European – and for that matter global – car manufacturers, the French would be considered by most to be the most wilfully eccentric, though recent decades have seen their leading manufacturers produce typical modern boxes. However, at the NEC there was plenty of evidence of the times when the likes of Citroën, Renault and Peugeot made interesting cars, as the next set of photos will hopefully show. I’ll pick out Citroën in particular here, not for their own cars this time – even with the fine display of Traction Avants – but for the specials based on that most utilitarian means of transport, the 2CV.
I’ve seen a few “Citroën” Lomax’s for sale recently, although I gather from their club secretary that this has been more about trying to establish a market price rather than actually sell them. There were a couple of three-wheeler Lomax’s – shades of the Morgan Aero 3-wheelers, although these are all fibreglass – and a particularly interesting 4-wheeler called a Manx. This little dark blue sporty 2CV is smartly styled and can be either a coupé, targa-topped convertible or a full roadster, by adding or removing the various roof panels – quite ingenious. Only about 16 are believed to have been made, of which 14 survive.
Rivals Renault focused on the Renault 5, celebrating its 50th birthday this year, and besides a wide range of R5 variants, the most interesting model on show was the Spanish market Renault Siete, or Renault 7, effectively a 4-door R5 saloon in the same way as a VW Jetta was a Golf with a boot. Some 30,790 were built between 1974 and 1982, and despite being a regular visitor to Spain, I can’t remember when I last saw one.
We mustn’t forget Renault Alpine, France’s answer to Porsche, nor Bugatti – the BOC put on another fine display – and lastly from France, Peugeot had a modest presence but I want to pick out the 1994 405 Mi16 Le Mans – a good-looking, high-performance version of the cooking 405, and the bright orange 1977 104 ZS were eye-catchers.
Germany is the motor manufacturing powerhouse of Europe, and there were numerous examples of some of that country’s ability to build superlative cars. In recent years the BMW club stand has been a major disappointment, but not this year, as the 02 Register captain Richard Stern got involved and there was a superb display of historic BMW’s. Star of the stand had to be the ex-John Surtees 1957 503 in two-tone blue with red interior – just sublime – but there was much else to enjoy on their stand, and a welcome return to putting actual classics on show at a classic event; kudos must go to Richard for his efforts.
The Porsche and Mercedes-Benz stands were put in the shade somewhat by their Munich rivals, but a pair of 911 2.7 Carrera RS’s and a lovely pale blue metallic 280SL Pagoda among others would draw anyone’s eye, as they did mine. An air-bagged 280SEL 4.5 however attracted my attention for the wrong reasons – despite the outstanding quality of the restoration work that had been done, but…for me, this was vandalism, but each to their own. And no, I didn’t take a photo.
There were some fine Opel GT’s on display, and in the dealer section, a very tidy Manta A 1.9SR, in white with a black vinyl roof – not my choice of colour, but for the £14,995 asking price I could have been tempted. Staying in Ingolstadt, it was good to see examples of the second-generation Opel Kadett – a coupé and a saloon, as well as the most famous Kadett A in the UK, possibly the World. This was the 1963 car christened Oliver by Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame when he used it in one of the programme’s specials, driving from one side of Botswana to the other. He was so taken with the little Opel that he kept it and restored it to as new condition.
Classics from Ford of Germany shared space in Hall 8 with their UK counterparts, among them a very smart 1971 Ford Taunus 20M Coupé in red with black flash – well, technically this was a South African car, and therefore RHD, but its origins are obviously German. I was told this was one of just two outside South Africa – I love the big pillarless German coupés – and it shared stand space with a very cute little 1964 Taunus 12M in white with a blue roof – both were a welcome sight at a UK show.
The Auto Union stand told the story of the evolution of DKW and Auto Union to Audi, very simply and effectively, particularly the transition of the 1961 102FM into the Audi 60, the first Audi. Besides a smart 1000S and the “mini-Thunderbird” 1000SP convertible owned by long-time 2-stroke enthusiast Fredrik Folkestad, the star of the stand – and one of the stars of the show for me – was the beautifully restored red 1965 F102. This gorgeous rebuild was all the work of one man, Paul Collins, who did everything himself over a period of 30 months – metalwork, trim, engine, the lot. Next to it was an Audi 60, in contrast to the F102, this was unrestored, but the interesting thing about this car was how little it differed from the Auto Union except in details such as the headlights, indicators and grille.
Last but certainly not least, Borgward had a pair of very elegant Isabella coupés on show, one in very period-appropriate pastel green with white roof, the other in silver.
Continuing with our alphabetical geographical journey, we come to Italy, and who doesn’t love Italian classics? The Lancia Owners’ Club took the prize for showstopper of the weekend, having got their hands on the ultra-dramatic copper-coloured 1970 design exercise by Nuccio Bertone and Marcello Gandini that was the Lancia Stratos Zero concept car. Built on a Fulvia platform, this is one of the most extreme, outrageous wedges you can imagine and unsurprisingly generated a lot of foot-traffic to the club stand – a smart move.
Besides this most extravagant of cars, the Lancia Club also had a superb silver 1954 Aurelia B20 Coupé on the stand alongside a shapely 1963 Flavia 1500 Coupé in red, as well as four versions of the Beta including this dark blue 1982 Berlina and chocolate brown 1976 Coupé. I would take every single one of them, especially the Aurelia.
Other Italian marques had their usual classics on show, although the FIAT stand had a rarely seen (in this country, anyway) 132 2000 and a 128 besides the models you would normally expect, as well as what is believed to be the oldest surviving FIAT, a 3.5 hp from 1899! Alfa Romeo had a couple of ‘Suds among others, and De Tomaso had an intimidating line-up of Pantera’s and a 1972 Mangusta, which went some way to making up for the disappointing Maserati stand – the gorgeous white Sebring you’ll see in the end photo gallery was a dealer car.
To the Far East next, and it was good to see a fine example of the only Japanese car I ever ran, a 1988 third generation Honda Prelude 2.0 16v EXi 4WS in Frost White (mine was silver). These were very sharp-suited coupés back in the day and are now old enough to qualify as classics – this one was equipped with 4-wheel-steering, the first car to be made available commercially with this feature. Other rising sun classics included a number of Toyota Celica’s, a 2nd-generation Supra, and an immaculate 1970 Corona Mark II 1900 in silver, one of only two remaining on UK roads. I’m finding myself increasingly attracted to some Japanese classics, including this one. From Honda, there were a couple of the high-revving S800 mini-sportscars, and from Nissan, a trio of big 300C saloons – or Cedric’s (one of the worst names of any car), and this brings me to a minor rant.
Obviously the clubs pay good money to rent whatever space they need for their stands, and want to make the most of them; as a result, some have tried to put too many cars and too much supporting material on display, making it difficult to see the cars properly or to photograph them (already challenging at the NEC due to the lighting) and it’s not just people like me who want to take photos. The Nissan 300C display was one of the worst offenders; sometimes less is more, such as at the Auto Union stand. Rant over.
Finally for this first piece, below are some more photos of various other classics from this first group of countries – more to come from the rest of the world, plus the auction, in Part Two next week!
