The quintessentially English parkland setting of Tatton Park near Knutsford hosts The The Classic & Retro Car Revival sponsored by Hagerty, featuring a cornucopia of more than 1,000 cars – including a carefully curated selection of models featured in our popular series of the UK’s rarest cars.
These join displays from a host of car clubs for an event that is renowned for not only the amount of classics on display but their breadth and depth, from chrome-laden US monsters of the 1950s to slick “modern classics” wearing BMW, Mercedes and Porsche badges. Above all, the event reflects the sheer joy of so many interesting cars of all ages gathered in the same splendid setting over a weekend in August.
The first port of call for many visitors will be the autojumble which, by ancient tradition, is a place of temptation. Before the show, you may have been unaware that your life was incomplete without a handbook for a 1981 Austin Metro or a starting handle for a Humber Hawk Series III. Then it will be time to visit the club stands. Tatton Park has a long tradition of hosting an incredible variety of cars; every display, regardless of the marque or model, will result from volunteer enthusiasts devoting hours (and often days) to organising their stands.
So many vehicles at the The Classic & Retro Car Revival sponsored by classic car insurance specialist Hagerty, over the weekend of August 17-18 will have been saved due to the efforts of individual enthusiasts and specialist car clubs in particular.
Of course, certain critics – often those who regard Alan Partridge as a role model – like to decry those who restore a mass-produced family saloon in preference to something sportier and/or more exclusive. Such self-appointed gatekeepers to the classic car world ignore that any car is vital to motoring and social history. Yesterday’s mundanity is so often today’s object of fascination, from the aroma of baked vinyl upholstery to the blank spaces on the dashboard where a clock or radio would be installed on more upmarket versions.
Corrosion neglect and scrappage schemes have decimated the numbers of many once familiar cars, and one of the most fascinating aspects of writing the UK’s rarest series is how remote the comparatively recent past now seems. Our line-up for Tatton Park includes a Y-reg Austin Ambassador, a British Leyland car now as distant from us as a Second World War Hillman Minx would have been to Austin buyers in 1983 when the Ambassador was produced.
Similarly, a very early – and very beige – Ford Sierra 1.6L instantly evokes an era when commercial travellers regarded the replacement for the long-running Cortina with grave suspicion and mutterings about “jellymoulds” due to the Sierra’s honed shape when compared with its squared-off predecessor. In the realm of the managing director’s car park space, we have the Peugeot 604 and the Toyota Crown; transport for local business owners or demonstrators used by the dealer-principal of a large city showroom.
For an insight into late 1970s and early 1980s executive aspirations, gaze in wonder at the 604’s upholstery or the refrigerator located in the Crown’s parcel shelf. Sadly, the survival rate of such vehicles is usually terrible; they were expensive when new and not exactly cheap to maintain. Within a few years, they were often listed as a “bargain” in the Exchange & Mart classified adverts.
This is where the 604, the Crown and the Sapporo were most vulnerable, which applies to our C1-series Audi 100 GL. In the 1970s, they were often the first “foreign car” acquired by a disillusioned Rover or Triumph owner. But only 10 years later, the Audi was frequently a “Car of the Week” at an Arthur Daley-style emporium. In the 2000s, many enthusiasts sacrificed the 100 saloon to restore the Coupé S version. Consequently, the four-door Audi is now far rarer than its more exotic stablemate.
The next group are those cars built or imported in limited numbers by major manufacturers. What go-ahead chartered surveyor could resist the Colt Sapporo’s “distinctive overhead aircraft-style console” incorporating a “tastefully styled digital clock?” Similarly, the 127 mph Colt Galant 2000 Turbo would add lustre to any showroom.
An Austin Allegro Special LE is an equally exclusive machine and a vivid reminder that in 1978, many drivers regarded Sundym tinted glass, a passenger door mirror and a lockable fuel cap as decadent luxuries.
Thirdly, the Wolseley “Wedge” belongs under the heading “Unfamiliar Versions of Familiar Models.” Leyland only offered the Wolseley for seven months in 1975 before introducing the Princess badge. A mere seven of the last-ever Wolseley are believed to remain on the road.
A fourth category is “Cars Appealing to a Niche Market When New”, and a seven-seater 1963 Saab 95 with a three-cylinder two-stroke engine, practically defines the word “individualistic”.
Finally, the largest group from our UK’s rarest cars series is saloons, coupés and estates from the 1970s to the 1990s that can now turn more heads than your average Ferrari Testarossa. A Toyota Tercel 4WD has the power to make some visitors feel old when they realise it debuted 42 years ago. The Fiat 127 was one of the most familiar imported cars of the 1970s, but it is now less frequently encountered than a Bugatti, while our Citroën BX represents the car that was too weird for most yet which marque aficionados thought far too conventional.
Some of the Telegraph display’s cars also reflect past motorists’ limited expectations. In 1973, a new top-of-the-range Ford Granada GXL was an exclusive machine. At the same time, the norm was our green 2.0-litre Consul base model, a once familiar sight as a company car, with an interior finished in the finest black plastic available to humanity. At the opposite end of the Ford spectrum, an Escort Mk3 Ghia Automatic with Savoy fabric seats and “wood-effect inserts” allowed its proud driver to look down on GL owners. And a Capri Laser Mk3 seems far removed from the recently launched EV of the same name.
To many younger visitors to Tatton Park, a 1986 Capri Laser hails from a lost world of four-channel television, when people drove cars with a strange device known as a cassette player. Classic cars are an ever-developing pastime, and a Rover 623 is now as much an object of fascination to a driver born in 1999 as a 2000 P6 to one born in 1969.
Plus, many of the owners on the Telegraph stand expect to hear the following words approximately one million times throughout the weekend: “My dad/mum/neighbour had one of those...”
The Classic & Retro Car Revival sponsored by Hagerty Discounted adult tickets cost £11 (£13 on the gate), under 16s admitted free
The organisers are also running a competition in conjunction with Scalextric to win an Arc Pro digital slot-racing set including four GT racers and 9 metres of track. The winner will also receive an annual family pass to the Wonder Works in Margate, the home of Hornby, Scalextric, Airfix, Corgi and Pocher. Combined, the prize is worth £729. The competition closes the day after the show ends, on August 19
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