Having covered the first half of the alphabetical geographical motoring globe last week, we return to the NEC to take a look at some of the classics on show from the rest of the world, as well as the auction held by Silverstone Auctions.
Of course, with the show taking place in the centre of what used to be the UK’s motor industry, it’s unsurprising that home-grown classics, particularly from the cities of Coventry and Birmingham itself, had a significant – you could say dominant – presence across all the halls.
However, we’ll start in Hall 8 which was almost entirely given over to Ford of Britain – with manufacturing bases in Dagenham in Essex and Halewood near Liverpool – with a few US and German Ford – the latter covered last week – models thrown in. Club stands displaying Fords through the ages including the familiar Zephyrs, Cortina’s of all variants, Escorts, Capri’s and more were arrayed around the hall.
Seeing a couple of Ford Probe’s on show made me take a closer look – it’s another saloon based coupé, the successor to the Capri – but despite selling well initially and being garlanded by the motoring press, especially in the States, sales fell off against the likes of the Corrado or Calibra at the time, and in the US, Mustang fans took against the car’s rather bland styling and the fact that it was the result of a collaboration with Mazda. Within a short time of the launch of the second-generation Probe, UK sales were only a quarter of the numbers projected. Nevertheless, almost 700,000 were produced in total, but fewer than 300 are on UK roads today.
Coming back to the Midlands, there were of course many stands featuring cars built by the various divisions of the British Motor Corporation, later British Leyland. Rovers through the ages, including the under-rated 800 series, were on show, and of course many of the cars I used to sell back in the first half of the 1980’s such as the Metro, SD1 and Montego, among others. There was a fine 1985 Montego Estate on show – when we launched the car to fleet buyers at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, it received a round of applause as it descended (yes) on to the stage. Each time I see these cars I’m reminded of how good they could have been. I ran a Rover 820i – bought with my own money – while living in Germany in 1987/88 and had endless issues with it involving the power cutting out at any time, including while travelling at speed on the Autobahn, which was quite stress-inducing, that the dealer in Frankfurt was unable to rectify, yet when it was good, it was very good.
The other major manufacturer in the Midlands was the Rootes Group, with factories in Coventry, and there several stands showing off some of that company’s products. Humber made cars for the middle-ranking executive, mostly fitting in just below Jaguar, competing directly with Rover. There were splendid examples of models such as the Hawk, Snipe, Super Snipe and Imperial – I particularly liked the silver 1966 Imperial, and a couple next to me made lots of admiring comments about the green 1950 Super Snipe convertible, complete with potentially life-threatening radiator mascot.
The Hillman Avenger Tiger has many fans here at ViaRETRO, but with just 20 still on UK roads according to howmanyleft.com, they’re not often seen in the wild, so to see a trio of these yellow beasts lined up was a rare treat – they looked just great.
The UK’s fourth big car maker, Vauxhall was very well represented, particularly from the ‘60s and ‘70s, but I was particularly taken with what is already a modern classic of the same ilk as the VW Corrado and Ford Probe, and the Ford Capri and VW Scirocco before them – a bright yellow 1988 Calibra. Yes, the mechanicals are as mundane as the saloons on which they are based (as with many such coupés) but the styling is the point of these cars and I think the Calibra still looks good, especially in yellow. I also liked the metallic blue with black vinyl roof 1968 Vauxhall Viscount – basically a posh Cresta – which like it’s predecessors wears its American influences on it’s metaphorical sleeves.
Over the decades the UK has also seen literally dozens of specialist manufacturers come and in most cases, go, and many of them could be found around the show – let’s check out a few…
Bristol cars are as British as they come – except for the powerplants of course, but these sober, dignified sporting (not sports) GT’s have genuine presence. Zagato versions of any car are anything but sober, however, and given one of two short-chassis Bristol 406’s to work with – this one intended as an 18th birthday gift for the daughter of the owner of Bristol Cars, Senor Zagato employed several of his usual visual tricks, such as the double bubble roof, the bonnet scoop and faired in headlamps. There is a clear connection between this unique 1959 406 Zagato on show at the NEC and the more famous – and much more expensive – Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, which I feel is a more successful design, but still – what a present! It shared the Bristol Owner Drivers Club stand with a stunning 1950 400 Farina 2-litre convertible, just lovely.
Ginetta and Gilbern are just two of the UK’s many niche manufacturers – the former still going as a builder of sports and track cars in West Yorkshire, the latter sadly now defunct, having been the only proper car manufacturer in Wales. Ginetta’s have come a long way from the days of the early kit cars, but my two favourites of the marque are the Hillman Imp-based G15 and its bigger brother, the G21, and there was one of each on the club stand, though the G15 had been heavily modified as a hill-climb car.
Gilbern only made cars from 1959 to 1973, making c.1100 vehicles in all, and there were examples of each model on show, including an early GT entered in the Pride of Ownership contest as well as one of the best-named cars ever, the Invader.
Heading across the Atlantic there was a decent array of Americana scattered around the show, much of it gathered on the stand sponsored by Classic American magazine, but also by the likes of the Corvette and Mustang car clubs. In amongst the usual cars from those clubs were a couple of my favourites, two genuine muscle cars – a deep red 1967 Dodge Coronet 440 and the deep green metallic 1970 Oldsmobile 442, the former boasting a 7,210cc V8 pushing out 375bhp, the latter an even bigger 7,580cc. but boasting a mere 365bhp. Nearby was a dark blue 1969 Plymouth Sport Satellite, with the same powerplant as the Dodge – these horsepower figures are nothing special nowadays, but back then, they were formidable, and you’d move over pretty sharpish if any one of these mighty muscle cars appeared in your rear-view mirror.
However, my American Classic Car of the Show was a participant in the Meguair’s Pride of Ownership competition, a yellow 1936 Cord Westchester Sedan. The last time I saw a Cord was at the Maine Auto Museum three years ago – very advanced for their time, and very cool. I was also impressed by the trio of Ford Edsel’s, as over-styled as a car can be, I think, but impressive in its over-styled-ness nonetheless.
Separately from our geographical wanderings I had look around the lots on offer at the Silverstone Auctions sale held on the Saturday, one of which we featured as a Prime Find a couple of weeks ago, a very tasty SD1 Rover Vitesse Twin Plenum – offered without reserve, it fetched just £17,437 – I think the new owner picked up a bargain.
One of the things that always surprises me – yet by now it shouldn’t – is the number of exceptionally low mileage classics that come up at auctions, cars that have apparently been bought with the sole purpose of storing them away, using them as little as possible and there were several here, including a bunch of fast Ford Focuses (Foci?), some with only delivery mileage, one with not even a mile on the clock – just 0.3 miles.
In all, some £7.3million worth of classics went under the hammer, including half a dozen new world record prices, one of which was surely the £131,625 paid for a 1989 Jaguar XJS V12 convertible with just 100 miles on the clock. This price was greeted with gasps among onlookers, and seemed even more ridiculous when a few yards away, a 19,000 mile example of the same car could be bought for £24,995. There was more insanity when a 1972 Ford Transit Mk1 with 7,071 miles under it’s wheels sold for £61,875…the mind (well, mine anyway) boggles. Of the 169 lots on offer one of my favourites was the beautiful 1965 TVR Trident in red, one of only three built and the only one with RHD, which fetched £76,500.
I was also very taken with the pair of 1950’s Mercedes – a lovely silver 1952 Mercedes 220 Cabriolet A, which fetched £121,500 alongside a green 1954 300 “Adenauer” that went for a much more modest £28,125, while the most expensive German car of the sale was the exquisite black 1955 Porsche 356 Pre-A Speedster whose new owner had to hand over £270,000 before they could take it home.
As always at the NEC, there was more eye-candy than even the virtual pages of ViaRETRO can cover, so you’ll find more photographs of some of the exhibits and auction lots below.
Besides the club and dealer displays and the auction there was a big autojumble (though I felt this was smaller than in previous years), various live presentations with the likes of Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame and Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealers, trade stands selling non-motoring related products, a chance to drive a classic around the grounds of the NEC with the Sporting Bears Charity – who raised £35,000 over the weekend – and much else besides. The NEC Classic is unquestionably a major event in the classic car calendar, with over 69,000 visitors attending this year, and I’ll be one of the many that will return next year.
