London Classic Car Show 2018 (Part 1)

This post will be the first of three posts to cover all sorts of cars at the London Classic Car Show which took place between 15th to 18th of February 2018. The first post being the general cars section, the second post will be all about different motor sports cars through the years, the third post will be all about me being able to tick a very big something off my bucket list. There may even be a photo of me in the post somewhere that the wife had taken for me.

I was treated to the tickets for the Sunday 18th as a surprise for Valentines Day prezzie by the wife. I only found out the day before we were due to go. We set off early in the morning and soon realised that the car park near the Excel centre was for pre booked spaces and a limited number of public spaces. We decided that with the size of the queue to get in we wouldn’t bother even trying. So we had a drive around and looked for a space, that was more wishful thinking than practical. We drove around and found a tiny Pay & Display which was having work done on the grounds. We drove in and found a spot that a builders van had just pulled out of, we were very lucky to say the least. the short walk to the exhibition centre was a little quicker than we anticipated as we both needed to find a rest room. A couple of minutes later and relieved we picked up the tickets and walked our way in.

This particular show is geared towards selling the services for restoration of cars and completed cars up for sale. All of the cars were gleaming and beautifully presented. The large hall was divided by a make shift road down the middle where some of the cars would run from one end of the arena and back again. I will show more of that in the next post.

Some rare cars such as this Jaguar XJ220. Originally this car was supposed to have a v12 but was swapped out for a v6 turbo charged unit. Only 275 of these cars were sold at the time in 1992 with a price tag of £470,000.

The American GT’s were out in force with a Genuine GT350 and GT40

A True British icon throughout the decades; Aston Martins

Super and Hyper Cars

There was an amazing section at the show called “Getaway Cars” many of the cars were iconic in the 60’s and 70’s such as the Lotus Cortina, Transit van, Jaguar and the classic movies of The Italian Job with their the mini’s and Transporter with the Audi. These weren’t the originals but a great tribute none the less.

Unusual hand-made wooden Mercedes.

The UK’s answer to the USA GTs, the UK “Fast Fords” of the modern times mostly tuned by Cosworth.

Perhaps one of the most important cars there in my opinion was the Ford Model T, this car really broke the manufacturing mold and set the benchmarks for todays manufacturing.

This company had taken seven months to restore this beautiful E-Type Jaguar. They seem to be the Jaguar equivalent of Mustang Maniac with their meticulous attention to detail. The sad part was this car has only done 300 miles and will probably never be driven on the road and just be left to sit in a collectors garage. That is such a shame. A truly spectacular car.

A famous car that was used in the UK’s Victory parade was following Sir Winston Churchill’s car with the picture to prove it.

We finish up with the Mustangs as you would expect. The orange KR was Adam’s and on loan to the great guys at the Mustang Owners Club of GB.

My next post will be around the Motor Sports cars at the show.