Epic Nec Keeps It In The Family

More than 70,000 people swarmed into the NEC for the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, from 10-12 November.

The busy celebration of the hobby featured everything from Edwardian trikes to rat rods and the new Griffith LE, which took pride of place with the TVR Car Club.

A spectacular Molsheim display – thanks to the Bugatti Owners’ Club and the Bugatti Trust – landed the prize for Best Large Stand in the C&SC Club Awards. The set, spanning Types 35 to 59, with an ex-Richard Shuttleworth supercharged twin-cam T51, included a quartet of ‘Baby’ Bugattis on a grid.

A chequered startline also featured with the De Dion-Bouton Club, with six trikes lined up as a preview for its 120th-anniversary commemoration of Britain’s first motor races in November. The evocative display also yielded the Car of the Show: Bernard Holmes’ 1913 Type EF Open Tourer.

The ‘Family Ties’ main theme gave clubs plenty of scope for interpretation, such as the Historic Lotus Register on its NEC debut. “The group marks several 60th anniversaries,” explained Philip Jewell, “including the Elite and 12, Chapman’s first single-seater. On the back of us securing that from Classic Team Lotus, registrar Mike Bennett flew over from Adelaide. There’s an Eleven – 60 years since the Index of Performance victory – and one Seven, launched in 1957, from each of the first three series.”