Sunday 11 November 2007

2007 Classic Car Show at the NEC

An absorbing few hours at this year's show. It's been ages since I attended any event at the NEC. I think the last thing I went to there was the last of the Birmingham motor shows before the shift back to London. Then, the NEC was very old and tired but now it seems to have had some sort of makeover - I have to say, I was quite impressed.

Hundreds of cars and a similar number of photos - hope to come back to some of those later. I'll just mention two highlights for now: the first was seeing the expensive sister model of the 1977 Capri II I've had on test lately, the 3.0 Ghia. As well as having a lot of extra kit and a motor that actually fills the engine bay, it had the one thing the 1.6L lacks that I couldn't really do without - head restraints, in this case built into the seat backs.

The other was an intriguing story about the return to production of a car that has always interested me and which I narrowly missed the chance to drive when it was still a current model. A possible for the Verdict, or maybe a feature, I think. As always with such shows, the entrance fee was worth it for the work ideas and leads generated - quite apart from pleasure of seeing the old cars of course.

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