Show Preview: 2008 Classic Motor Show
THE 2008 Classic Motor Show is lining up to be, once again, a great way to bid farewell to the retro classic season – and there’s no danger of getting wet or stuck in mud!
Held at Birmingham’s NEC between the 14-16th November, already there is plenty of features, exhibits, personalities and cars to really look forward to – with over 1000 classic, vintage, veteran and retro cars on display, countless trade stands and around 170 club displays.
Things to look out for? To mark 50 years of Skoda rally competition, the Skoda Owners’ Club will be displaying a 1000MB, a cracking Works-replica 110 Coupé and an original 130L rally car. Another rallying rarity will be the Hillman Hunter which won the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon. A car which will surely get you thinking about Rootes’ unappreciated and increasingly-rare saloon.
Allegro Club International will be there, marking the 35th anniversary of BLMC’s notorious barrel-chested small car by displaying the police car from the BBC’s Life On Mars and a Vanden Plas variant from Britain’s Worst Celebrity Driver.
Then for fans of old Japanese curios, an amble over to the Nissan 300C Owners’ Club is a must to get a glimpse of an exceedingly rare Datsun 200 DeLuxe Six – a reminder of the days when Datsun built reliable yet deadly dull cars…
Moving to something a bit more recent and the Just Opel Vauxhall Car Club has a display focused on the 25-year-old Nova and celebrations are also being held for the E30 BMW 3-series and the misunderstood Austin Maestro.
The Association of Rootes Car Clubs will be marking the diamond anniversary of Rootes Competition Department with a range of famous ex-Works cars and personalities on their stand. Meanwhile, the Seventies rally icon, the Ford Escort, will have its 40th marked by both the AVO Owners’ Club and the Ford RS Owners’ Club. However these are only some of the many, many anniversaries being marked (see panel).
Fans of more leftfield classics will also get the chance to see the Ford 100E Owners Club, which is showing a Squire drag-racer for the first time and Mazdarotaryclub.com is planning to give visitors an opportunity to see an incredibly rare Mazda 110S Cosmo – the world’s first twin-rotor rotary-engined car.
In addition to the clubs, there will also be a flood of other great activities to experience as well as the vast array of cars, services, parts and products.
The Restoration Theatre is a live seminar held by a team of restoration experts from the Leeds College of Technology. The team isn’t just there to demonstrate a wide range of techniques – but they can actually physically show you what’s involved and how best to tackle a project.
Dream Rides will be an opportunity for visitors to go for a 10-mile ride in a classic exotic – so if you’re really lucky perhaps your dream car might be on hand to give you a rare taste of the real thing. All you have to do is make a donation to charity.
Meanwhile Mike Brewer’s Wheeler Dealer Live, the Restoration Theatre and the Live Stage will all provide visitors with professional hands-on demonstrations, advice, famous faces and plenty of entertainment.
And if you still want more, well, this year’s show also has an exciting first – an area solely dedicated to classic machinery of the two-wheeled variety.
Containing around 200 classic motorcycles of all ages, colours, creeds and configurations, the Pavilion – which adjoins the NEC’s halls – will be turned into a 5000 square metre temple to those who habitually worship the motorcycle. This represents a massive increase in the numbers of classic two-wheelers shown at the event, compared with previous years.
Phil Bull from the BSA Owners’ Club (Birmingham) says: “We first put on a display of bikes at the 2005 Classic Motor Show, along with a small contingent of Triumphs, and the classic bike section has grown enough to warrant its own dedicated hall this year – which is excellent.
“Every year, we have been quite overwhelmed by visitors (who have come to see classic cars) and I wouldn’t expect this year to be any different. It should be another healthy promotion for the BSAOC so in that regard, the decision to feature classic bikes will hopefully raise awareness of the historic bike movement among the car-owning public.”
This decision by Show organisers has already been eagerly snapped up by nearly 15 clubs – and the number is growing daily. So where do you start…?
Despite a truly hectic schedule Yamaha Classic Racing Team has invited along some of their classic riders – Chas Mortimer and Rod Gould are confirmed – as well as some of their great racing motorcycles.
“We’ll be bringing along the YZ23C which Chas rode in the 1972 TT,” says YRCT’s Ferry Brauwer. “As well as some UK firsts – as far as I can remember Chas did not ride RD56F/ OW45 the 352cc YZ634A in the UK.
“Chas won the 1972 500 Spanish GP on his YZ634A and on its inaugural run at the 500 Yugoslavian GP that year, Chas finished second behind Alberto Pagani. Both Chas and Rodney have ridden the YZ634A and in fact, they were the only two riders to be given such a bike by Yamaha. The RD56F – a replica chassis of the 1964/’65 two-stroke RD56 fitted with a FZR250R four-stroke four-cylinder engine – will also be coming.”
On the Vincent HRD Owners’ Club, the theme of the display is launches and the club is focusing on 1948, because this is the Club’s 60th anniversary – one which it shares with the hugely desirable and most famous of all Vincents, the Black Shadow.
“In 1948 Rollie Free also established an American national speed record of 150mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats, by lying prone and wearing only bathing trunks and cap,” says George Spence.
“All these events will be featured on our stand, together with a representative range of eight or 10 machines covering much of the company’s history – including the very first Black Lightning produced by the factory for the 1948 Earls Court Show.”
Moving closer to the present day and the UK Honda Turbo Association will be displaying both UK and US versions of the CX 500 Turbo and the CX 650 Turbo amongst a display of up to seven of these bikes.
Paul Cripps, the Association’s show secretary says: “Our chairman, Tim Boutle, drag-races a much modified CX 650 Turbo, which runs on nitrous oxide. This bike makes a great talking point, because it’s a real head-turner and a couple of years ago, he broke the World Record for Production Turbos on it by reaching 188mph! Not bad for a pushrod 650cc twin.”
Meanwhile over at the Triumph Owners’ Motor Cycle Club stand, the Club will be in a celebrating mood – marking the 50th anniversary of the legendary Bonneville and the 40th of the classic Trident. “We will be having a nice, varied display of Triumph Owners’ Motor Cycle Club member’s classic bikes… We’ve been given good space, the stand can be viewed from all four sides and we will have 24 Triumph bikes on show. We are hoping that a 1948 Grand Prix Triumph will be amongst them,” says David Measure.
On top of all that, there will be a replica of the iconic bikers’ haunt, the Ace Café, displays from famous bygone bike racing teams, a stage featuring interviews with riding greats from yesteryear and a host of traders in the Bikejumble to keep visitors more than occupied.
Who’d have figured…? The 2008 Classic Motor Show is all about numbers
You might know that the Land Rover, the Jaguar XK120 and the Morris Minor were born 60 years ago – but did you know that Team Lotus was founded 50 years ago, that the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle is 60 years old and that the Austin Allegro has turned 35…? Well, you do now.
The little Austin-Healey Sprite hits the big five-o, the rotary engine turns 40, and the last of the properly engineered Rovers, the P6B, turns 40. Along with its predecessor, the P5, celebrating its 50th and the P3 turning 60. And did we mention the 40-year-old Ford Escort was also in a birthday mood…?
Talking of 40, it’s also 40 years since BMC stopped building its super-sized A125/A135/Princess/VP Princess limousines. Meanwhile you might be shocked to discover that the second BMW 3-series, the E30, is 30, that the VW Corrado is now officially 20 and can Honda really be 60…?
The Ford Model A turns 80, the Morgan Plus 8 and Opel GT are 40, the MkII MX-5 is 10, Porsche is 60 – along with the Morris J van – Skoda celebrates 50 years of rallying, meanwhile Vanden Plas enthusiasts will mark the 50th of the A105 VP and the 45th of the 1100VP.
There are even anniversaries hidden within anniversaries – it’s 40 years since Rootes Competition Department was founded and it’s 40 years since a Hillman Hunter won the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon.
Oh and it’s 25 years since the Austin Maestro was launched, 20 since the MG Maestro Turbo first torque-steered away from a set of traffic lights and 10 since the Rover 200BRM first started assaulting people’s sensibilities with its bright orange-lipped front air-intake.
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