The onset of shorter days and longer nights means the end of the outdoor shows – the major ones, at least – and the beginning of the indoor events: Tony went to a British mainstay.
I notice that Denmark has already had a big show at Fredericia; here in the UK, THE major indoor event is the NEC Classic, this year celebrating it’s 40th anniversary, held on a sprawling exhibition area between Birmingham and Coventry, two of the major centres of the UK motor industry when it was at its zenith.
Obviously one of the main advantages of indoor shows is that they are not so affected by the weather, although the attendances might be. Last Friday – the day I attended – the weather was thankfully fairly mild, and the halls were as busy as ever despite an increase in the price of day admission to over £40 (€48), making the NEC Classic an expensive day out, especially compared to Retro Classics or Techno Classica, for example.
There was – as always – plenty to see, with 330 car clubs, 3,000 cars, dozens of dealers, a big autojumble and a major auction hosted by Iconic Auctioneers, which we’ll come back to. Meanwhile let’s go take a look at a selection of what was on show…
To start with I usually make a beeline for the trio of prestige German marques, coincidentally the ones I have owned or own classics from. All three were in the same corner of one of the halls, but I have to say that the Porsche and Mercedes clubs disappointed with lacklustre displays. The BMW club did better, with a lovely 1962 700 Coupé in mint green with white roof, as well as an E28 M5, a smart E9 CSL, an Isetta and a 1935 Frazer-Nash 319/45. Separate to the BMW club there was also possibly the ugliest BMW I’ve ever seen – a 1986 Koenig Special 635CSi; it actually hurt my eyes to look at it.
One of the best displays in the last few years has been on the Alvis stand, and it didn’t disappoint this year – a fine display of these elegant cars included a superb 1939 4 ½ litre drophead and a unique 1933 Vanden Plas-bodied “Crested Eagle” model among others – these are such distinguished cars.
On the XJ40 Register stand were two exceptionally interesting estate versions of the XJ40 saloon, neither of which I’d seen before even though they are occasionally on display at Gaydon, where I’ve been at least half a dozen times in the last few years, yet never seen them. The more integrated design, to my eyes at least, is the unique silver-bodied car built by Jaguar themselves as an exercise to see if they could bring such a model to market. In the end, too many compromises had to be made – especially with fuel tank positioning – to make manufacture a realistic proposition, so this remains the only example. The other, green example is one of three built, and the only one still in the UK. The rear profile reminded me of the Lynx Eventer, and doesn’t work quite as well as the silver car, though readers may disagree. Interestingly, it is used as a regular “working vehicle”, and it had a nice patina to it.
It’s often the story behind a car that makes it interesting, and on the Aston Martin stand was a perfect example of this, in the shape of a lovely red 1935 Mark 2. It was bought by a young army officer in 1937 who had Aston Martin modify it to make look and sound similar to a German staff car, particularly when seen in the dark. They also built in some hidden storage compartments and the officer drove it in and out of Germany in the immediate pre-war years, smuggling information out of Germany on night-time trips and as the car looked so much like a German staff car, it didn’t get stopped. This changed on his last mission – having been tasked to bring over details of the Siegfried Line, the Germans had become suspicious and stopped the car, questioned the officer and stripped the car but never found the compartments with the plans. Now fully restored, what a story!
There’s always a strong selection of Americana at the NEC, and this was also the case this year. Among the many more regular models such as Corvettes and Mustangs were a couple of lesser-spotted US classics. It was impossible to miss the massive 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner with it’s exaggeratedly large rear wing, and I was particularly impressed by the 1960 Buick Invicta land yacht and the ’66 Dodge Coronet 500, but perhaps my favourite of this group was the red 1967 Plymouth Barracuda.
Claus mentioned recently that a number of recreations or tributes were being offered for sale as part of this auction, and there were about a dozen on sale. None of them looked convincing, some fetched strong money, although most were very cheap. I don’t really understand the appeal – they probably fool very few people, and if you can’t afford a 1955 Mercedes 300SL, buy a genuine R107 300SL, surely?
Fast Ford Escorts and Sierra’s as well as numerous low mileage cars featured strongly, including a Citroën 2CV6 1990 with only 557 miles that sold for £22,500 – there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of classics that don’t get driven, and one in particular – bidding for a 1992 Escort RS Cosworth Lux went through the roof, selling for a stratospheric £180,000 before commissions – an Escort!
Other interesting prices included a BMW E9 CSL for £72k – half what they used to fetch – a 1970 Jaguar E-type 4.2 roadster for just £32,000. Also a perfectly decent 1966 230SL Pagoda with only 35,000km under it’s wheels and that needs only detail improvement as far as my inexpert eye could see, sold for the same money. Even projects of these cars used to fetch these sums. Apart from the odd example – that Escort being a complete outlier – the wider market still seems quite flat. Overall though, this looked more successful than recent auctions, with 128 lots sold of 169, a 76% sale rate, pretty good compared to recent auctions I’ve followed, and the sales included a good number of six-figure prices as well.
Japanese classics have a strong following in the UK, and there were plenty on show at the NEC. I particularly liked the Mazda stand with the ’73 RX-4 and ’84 RX-7 – still with it’s original twin-rotor engine – next to one another, and the NEC saw the launch of a new club for Colt owners, showing a trio of coupés from the same owner – a 1977 Galant 2000 GTO, a 1979 Lancer GL automatic and a 1976 Galant 1600DL; I particularly liked the GTO.
Staying in Japan, among all the cars on sale in the Dealer Hall, the one that caught my eye as perhaps one of the best deals on offer was a mint condition 1984 Honda Prelude Mk2 1.8EX in gold. Imported from South Africa, with 68,000km on the clock, it looked terrific, and the price? Just £9,995 (€12,000), and it will need nothing doing to it other than routine maintenance for years, which seemed excellent value for money to me.
The UK specialist car manufacturers of the 1950s and ‘60s made a wide variety of cars using mainstream manufacturers’ mechanicals, and many of them were quirky in the extreme, if not actually ugly. One that caught my eye that I thought worked well visually was a 1962 metallic purple Tornado Talisman, alongside a Rochdale Olympic of the same vintage – the latter is quite well known to ViaRETRO readers thanks to the enthusiasm Anders Bilidt has for the marque, but the Talisman – based on a combination of Triumph and Ford parts with a bespoke body – is one I haven’t seen before. 189 were built between 1961-63, and of the other Tornado models I’ve seen, the Talisman is by some way the best looking, and it was a genuine 100mph car. A neat little thing.
Among the better-known but no longer extant specialists there were solid displays from the likes of Gilbern, Reliant, Bristol – the UK motor industry used to be so diverse.
There were fine displays of Austin Montego’s, Rover SD1’s and several other classics from when this area was the UK’s Detroit. I was particularly pleased to see a couple of Montego Estates – always the most stylish model of the range and much under-estimated – I remember it getting a significant round of applause at its fleet launch, and it’s still a handsome car.
The other big UK manufacturers were also well represented, with Ford clubs having an entire hall to themselves, a reflection perhaps of how dominant they have been in the UK market, and the microcar clubs always put on a good show. Here’s just a few of the cars from their stands.
You can see more from these clubs and others in the gallery below. Unfortunately, some stands were so tightly packed with cars, banners, signs and other paraphernalia that it made it impossible to take decent photos of the cars.
This is the first time in a few years that I didn’t feel the need to go a second day. I guess going to the same shows year after year means you start to see a lot of the same cars, but rest assured that the NEC Classic is still a fine day out – as the below gallery might underline as well.
The Prelude! Ohh, yes – and the colour is perfect too. Or the Monza on crossspokes. And the Droop Snoot. Yes please.
That the Montego was anything special in Estate form has absolutely escaped me so far – and looking at your photo it sort of still does. But then I always liked the “ordinary” Montego and in MG form, even without the Turbo, it had very decent go too. Now a Turbo Estate might be something…
I thought that Prelude was terrific value for money, I’ll be surprised if it didn’t sell at the show.
The Jaguar XJ40’s were on the XJ40 Register stand (my stand)…’not the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club stand!
The XJ40’s were not on the JEC stand….they were on the XJ40 register stand. Do your job properly!
Sorry, my mistake re the Jaguar Estates, I misremembered the stand – there are a lot of Jaguar clubs. I’ll ask for it to be corrected. No need to be rude, though, Michelle.
Wonderful pictures!
I’ll have the Silver Supra and the Yellow Skoda S110
Would you be able to amend from Jaguar Enthusiats Club to XJ40 Register please Tony. This was only our second time here and it’s a project more than a club so would help raise the awareness, as well as celebrate the owners of the cars who allowed them to be showed. Just for your notes, the Silver Estate is owned by the museum and lives there normally. The Green Estate is in private ownership and never in the museum, however it does attend the Jaguar Breakfast Club meetings which happens there so can often be seen at that and other events along with display cars. Its owner is David Marks and he uses the car often, and was last year driven up to Norway by him and myself. It’s a lovely but well used car. The third car is a lovely standard saloon, 89 XJ6 owned by Henry Smith and showed what these two Estates were derived from. If you need any other info, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Paul – XJ40 Register stand owner
Hi Paul, I have asked for it to be corrected by the editor, it may take a few hours as this website is run and written for and by classic car enthusiasts like yourself, done in our free time – we’re not professional reporters and I made an honest error, apologies again. This is a huge show to cover and I forgot to double check the stand name – not a mistake I’ll make again! And thank you for the extra info – the estates stood out among the 3,000-plus cars on show, which was why I singled them out.
Hi Tony, don’t worry, mistakes happen, we all make them. I’m delighted that they stood out for you, we had a lot of amazing feedback about them so hopefully your readers will see XJ40 in a new light as they are get more and more popular, which is great to see. They have many dedicated and enthusiastic owners, which we could always use more of. Thanks, Paul
Flot begivenhed og utrolige køretøjer. Der er en til hver drømmegarage. Den Jaguar Estate er super, anede ikke Jaguar byggede nogle af dem også i deres produktionslinje.
Wow, @michelle must surely be the bookkeeper of the XJ40 Register – or maybe the bouncer? I was glad to read that the cars on the stand were better than her attitude though and that Tony visited to document this – I am not sure I would dare if Michelle was around :-).
The mistake is indeed corrected now. Next up I need to find some thorn branches to whip myself with. Or buy an XJ40. Whichever comes first.
Less of the sarcasm please Claus, the matter was resolved, and no one needs you take matters up a level and to start trying to provoke Michelle by being offensive to her. She is a passionate owner, a friend, and has been a very long time supporter of my painstaking research. Thank you for editing, but leave your sarcasm at the door please and let the matter rest. If this is unsuitable, then please feel free to remove all photos and content regarding the stand.
No worries, it is all used up now, @paul – running on empty. I am glad you notice the difference between sarcasm and offensive. Now we can get back to the cars, surely.
The show appears to have a rather impressive diversity in displayed car. From other sources I could see this beauty also was at the show
The empire…