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-   -   The Classic & Sports Car Show, London (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/beyond-borders/181391-classic-sports-car-show-london.html)

If you have followed some of my posts on the forum you will know that I’m a big classic car enthusiast. One of my favourite classic car magazine is “Classic Sports & Car”.

Last year they also organised a proper classic car show in London. I was still in Delhi at the time and could not attend. The show got great reviews. This year it was the second time around and I managed to pop over to London from our home country the Netherlands to attend.

See http://www.classicandsportscarshow.c...ger-and-better

Flying to London from the Netherlands is very easy and if you book in advance, relatively cheap. I managed to get an Easyjet return Amsterdam Gatwick for Euro 111,--. The Gatwick Express, running from Gatwick to London Victoria was relatively speaking a lot more expensive, UKP 27. From London Victoria another 25 minutes on the tubes.

The organisors had proper old school London double decker Route Masters running between the tube station and Alexandra Palace, the venue.

As Classics Car show go in Europe this is certainly not the largest one. But what it lacks in numbers it makes up in quality of the cars and the overall ambiance. The venue, Alexandra Palace is a very appropriate setting for this event.

I arrived about 15 minutes early. Big entrance hall, with a few classic cars, cafe and some life performance. Very nice!





If you are a fan of Classic Aston Martins, this is the show to go and see, more Aston's than you can shake a stick at. All immaculate!



It wasn’t only traditional classic cars. There were plenty of modern classics too



Oh, and as you will see lots, and I mean lots of Ferrari’s. Point a camera anywhere and there will be a Ferrari or a bit of a Ferrari caught in the frame!



Even so, lots of different cars. Look at this, from a Vespa to a VW Beetle and a very nice red Triumph TR6 in the background. The VW Beetle, by the way was fully electric! Lots of emission rules in western Europe and it is beginning to impact the classic car scene. So companies are beginning to retrofitting proper classic cars with modern high tech electrical traction systems



Here a shot of the engine bay of the Triumph TR6. Gives some idea on how some of these cars have been restored.



One of the regular contributors to this magazine is Alain de Cabinet. A well know Classic Car buff, collector, concours judge etc. He owns a beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 and it was displayed here at the show.

See also: http://www.classicandsportscar.com/m...decadenet.html





Part of the attraction of these shows is also all the merchandise on display and for sale. So for instance, if you are looking for a proper ex WW2 leather fighter pilot coat to wear in your MGB, this is where you can find it.



One of my favourites, a Bentley Blower.The one car where it is very obvious that there is a blower installed. Hence, no silly letters/numbers added on its rear end.



Any Classic Car show would not be complete without a few Lambo’s. There were quite a few at this show!



Also, at any show these days, you have to show a Bugatti Veyron. So here it is. It’s probably the worst picture I took. Taking pictures of these highly polished cars with just a handheld camera and one polariser filter under a billion lights and spots is difficult at the best of times. The Bugatti was near impossible to shoot. It’s whole surface was so shiny and reflective that I gave up and moved on after several different compositions.



At least the Bugatti’s petrol gap was easy to shoot!



Some more details of some of these (super) cars:







Another true Super Car, the McLaren F1. Only marginally less shiny then the Bugatti!



The Italian name for open sports car is Spider or Spyder. I own an Alfa Romeo Spider. Very happy with it. But when I see a Spider like this, I start to salivate!



No Classic car show would be complete without several Jaguar E-types and this show did not disappoint. Some very nice early types. A well restored Serie 1 will easily do well over UKP 200.000 these days!





I mentioned/showed the gorgeous and very impressive Bentley Blower earlier. During that era several other cars, some with, some without blower were battling it out with the Bentley Blowers. All of these cars have a few things in common. They are hugely impressive to look at it. They are proper mechanical cars, you can see every detail, massive steering wheels, they are all very loud and very uncomfortable to drive so I’m told.









And now for something completely different; an original BMW 5 series! It had only some 11.000 original kilometers on the clock! About Euro 12.000 was the asking price, which I thought was an absolute steal.



Several years ago I wrote about my visit to “the Gallery” in Brummen, the Netherlands. See http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/beyond...car-mecca.html

Sure enough, Aaldering was present with quite an impressive collection of cars. All for sale obviously. Had a little catch up chat with Niek Aaldering Jr. He sold me my Mercedes W123 years ago.

The Renault Alpine at the front was a particular nice one. Asking price Euro 115.000. That’s a lot of money for a fiber glass, not so well made, 1600cc car. But these cars have an immense rally pedigree and are very much sought after these days.



Another very nice car on the Aaldering stand, Asking price euro 795.000!



More merchandise: Hats, in just about every shape and size and car paintings (what else?)

Another very interesting car on the Aaldering stand, Ferrari Dino. Asking price around Euro 300.000. These cars have gone up in value so much it’s just unheard of. I remember seeing similar cars about 15 years ago, going for about 10% of what they are going for today!

To think that for some this is still not a proper Ferrari! I think it is gorgeous. One caveat, if you are like me, 1.96 tall, don’t even bother. You won’t fit. Same with the Renault Alpine A110.







I have been looking in earnest at Mercedes Pagoda’s. Always liked them, they are sort of affordable and they are very comfortable to drive and I fit in them very well. And, very important to me, the engine bay looks great. Note one of the very first (mechanical) injection system!



If I ever decide to splash out on one of these, my wife might insist on the matching set of suitcases! I have owned classic cars that costed less then this set of suitcases!



Plenty of other Jaguars around as well. Various XK incarnations.





Also, several times a day various life talks and interviews took place. Some were very enlightening. Guys like John Surtees and Norman Dewis took to the stage!



Part of this show was to exhibit the results of the search for the Greatest Super car of all time. Readers could submit their favourites during the last few months leading up to the show. Various cars made it to the top ten and I’ve shown several of these already, the Bugatti and the McLaren F1 amongst other. The F1 was chosen as the number one. I have my own number one, Mercedes 300SL



Another interesting feature of this show is they display some ongoing restoration work and technique. I could have watched for hours, but unfortunately I was pressed for time.



This year Coys was also present and auctioned of several cars. I must admit, I wasn’t that impressed by the cars on offer via Coys. Although they had managed to bring some interesting cars, I did not think the quality of cars was as good as expected. Even so, always interesting to see what goes on at an auction.









Some innovative car parts merchandising; All these things were made from parts of real racing car gear boxes! Take your pick!



On every car show these days, there will be somebody selling watches. Be it vintage watches or otherwise. These watches had their faces modelled on the speedometer of various cars/.



These guys show up at just about every car show I have visited anywhere in Europe. They are easily the best place to look for a particular car related book.



Last photograph, an immaculate engine bay.



Enjoy,

Jeroen

Hi Jeroen,

Thank you for the wonderful images and write-up. Being a die-hard 1950s Mercedes fan, I have to point out respectfully that the engine bay shot that you have described as Mercedes 'Pagoda' is actually the engine bay of a Mercedes 190SL which was produced alongside the Pontons. Also, that is not a fuel injection system - it is the aluminum intake manifold for feeding the twin Solex carbs.

Thanks for spotting that, I must have uploaded the wrong file. Let me see if I can find the Pagoda engine bay.
Jeroen

Fantastic, thank you!

(The last time I was in that building was to hear the Dali Lama speak!)

Thanks for sharing.

I'm not very much into classic cars but I couldn't help noticing the BMW for sale seems to be a 3 Series (E21 and 320 from the front grill).

Correct, but then again I’m no BMW fan at all. 3 series, 5 series they are all the same, attracting the same sort of punters. Although some of the more classic models are very nice.

What makes this BMW interesting is it’s unique history, overall appearances and it’s mileage. It is just about new! And I guess its price, which I thought was pretty low

Jeroen