American cars also featured strongly with almost a third of the second hall devoted to ”Detroit Iron”, including a fine
display of Chevrolet Corvettes, and another of the original ”Pony Car” the Ford Mustang, whilst late fifties fins and
chrome were also very much in evidence. The BMW Car Club of GB had a nice selection of the craft of Bavaria on
show, including an M1 coupe. The MG Owners’ Club, reportedly the largest one-make car club in the world, with
48,000 members, had a broad spectrum of models including a stunning electric blue example of the new 175mph
ZT saloon. A short distance away Unipart International (Jaguar Classic) had a superb display of Jaguars, that
included the Quaker State ”E” Type raced successfully in the USA, together with ”F” Type and XK 180 concept cars.
The Aston Martin Owners’ Club had a fine display that included a race modified DB 7, a rare example of the sixties
four door Lagonda Rapide, and a delightful 1500cc 4 cylinder 1935 Special Sport saloon, beautifully finished in two
tone blue.
Small is Beautiful!
Conversely, you didn’t just find the best or most unusual cars on the biggest stands, for example the Panhard Club
had a Panhard engined 1959 Deutsch-Bonnet on display, one of only three known examples in the UK. Another
better known French air cooled twin cylinder visitor, was the venerable Citroen 2 CV, displayed in a number of
guises. There was also a strong Mini presence on various stands, one of them being in the Guinness Book of
records as the world’s lowest car. This amazing creation based on a 1976 Mini is only 600mm high, and is powered
by a Rover V8 engine producing 300bhp, that can propel it to 180mph!
Recreation or Re-creation?
There were a number of ”kit car” makers displaying their wares, so that you could spend your recreation hours
re-creating your own ”Porsche Speedster” or ”Cobra”. One project on display took re-creation a little further, this was
the 1955 Lancia D50 project undertaken by Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd, for which they received the Historic Restorer
of the Year Award 2000. They have constructed a series of six of these cars, which faithfully replicate the original
vehicle, and you would be hard pushed to tell them from the original, apart from the fact that they are in finer
condition! On a slightly different theme was a Maserati sports racing car shown by Ivan Dutton, which at a glance had
a touch of A6 GCS about the front, but with later model traces towards the rear. A look through the wheels revealed
front disc brakes, and cast aluminium finned drums at the rear! The dashboard chassis plate revealed that it was a
3500 GT, chassis number 101 208, that had become a donor car for the fifties look-alike, that doesn’t purport to be
something it isn’t, how refreshing!
Ferrari?
The Ferrari Owners’ Club were not represented this year, so Ferraristi had no focal point to concentrate on, but
instead had to seek them out in the various places that they were displayed. Fortunately they were quite prominent,
in places like the Autoglym Concours, or on the stands of leading classic magazines ”Classic Cars” and ”Classic &
Sports Car”, both of which had a Ferrari to advertise their wares. It must be said that the former had the nicer
example, an early 246 GT, whilst the latter’s 308 GTS QV looked great in yellow, but was hindered in the desirability
stakes by its chocolate coloured leather upholstery.
A very enjoyable and interesting way to pass a cold November weekend. If you were going to cover everything in
depth then you would need the whole weekend, with deep pockets for the sojourn in the trade and autojumble
areas, although there were plenty of bargains on offer, particularly with scale models.
Ferrari Models On Display
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