The 2009 Classic car show boasts 220 car and motorbike clubs, over 1,400 cars and live showcases, restoration demonstrations and an autojumble. This naturally makes it one of the highest attended classic car shows in Europe. Despite the recession and the windy weather the first day was very busy.
The different scope, styles of classic and retro cars were generally well covered, although the event is still very much slanted towards traditional British classic car stands, which were spread out over three of the four halls. Attendance wise the classic car market is still dominated by the over 50's, so their needs and demands are very evident at the show. What has emerged over the last decade however, is the attendance of modified, racing and modern car clubs which will help the progression of classic car ownership.
There were several well known and highly finished examples of tastefully modified vehicles. Highlights included Steve Berriman’s 5.7 V8 Corvette engined 1960 Rover P4, Bob Hall's 1963 911 Powered VW type 2, Nigel Stanley’s 2.8 Granada powered Morris J which was originally modified in the 70's with a Chevy V8 and gullwing doors!
As expected at the show like this there were plenty of exotic and luxury sports car stands, including the usually well attended Rolls Royce, Bugatti and Ferrari stands. Two of the more diverse were shown by Maserati and BMW. Long standing owners clubs catering for British Classic car dominated the halls, but an increasing amount of effort helped bring some of these stand to life - the Landcrab owners club international included some charming backdrops on their stands the Nationall microcar rally made the most of the cheeky character of their exhibits and the Capri mk register celebrating 40 years since the first one left the production line.
There were also a good selection of clubs whose members are encouraged to use their cars in competition. The Honda S800 club included a Tetsu Ikuzawa replica Honda S800 belonging to a Coventry Honda Mechanic, the HSCC had a lovely Lotus Europa, and there was an excellent selection of the very active Club Lancia sport.
The show wasn't just limited to production cars, several clubs displayed first models, one offs and prototypes. This included a Skoda Favorit cabriolet, one of five RHD models produced (49), an equally prototype Volvo 480 cabriolet, Pininfarina 1800 prototype which was originally rejected by BLMC and therefore became the Citroen CX as well as Vauxhall displaying 2 of their 1970 design a prototype cars on display . There were also mass produced cars of historic importance, the very first Datsun 240Z to be imported into the UK and a recently discovered 1957 Skoda 440, a rotary engined Citroen GS and a display of 4 of the 57 promotional Heinz Crayford Wolseley Hornet convertibles .
Long gone examples of bread and butter cars were a welcome sight, Simca Club UK displayed a neat selection of a Chrysler 180, Talbot Tagora and curiously accident damaged Chrylser Alpine, a very rare example of a Peugeot 304 Estate, a lightly restored original Datsun 180B MKII, Fiat 132 and Lancia Beta Saloon.
The relative high costs of entrance (£26 Friday, £18 at weekends - as well as £8.00 parking) might well put off the casual observer, but the Classic car show allows access to the MPH hall, meaning that once you pay to attend one show, you gain free entrance to the other but you'll have to also pay to watch the live show.
All round a show that was full of interesting cars once you dug past the stuffy exterior. You could also buy a nice hat and a tweed suit there.
You can check out all of the photos on our Flick account.
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