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?)