The Classic Car Show at the NEC Birmingham
Written by Blades Media, check by Rebecca Dismore
Our resident photographer, Damian, recently visited this event and kindly shared his thoughts and photos with us.
To be honest, up until this year I had never heard of The Classic Car Show until someone mentioned it in passing. Understanding it was at the NEC, I could appreciate this was going to be a big event and something worth looking at. Due to the travel time and cost we were unsure about going and waited until the day to plan and go. From Bournemouth it is a super easy journey, nearly all motorway and great for sitting back and relaxing. Once at the NEC there are clear signs to navigate you. Luckily there was more than enough cars to guide the way.
Once parked it wasn’t so clear where to go, but we followed the crowd. Safety in numbers! The walk was freezing at 10am, I would highly recommend a good jacket and a bag. Once in the NEC the stewards pointed you to the entrances. Since we chose to buy our tickets on the door we followed the crowds of the unorganised to a box office with a fairly heavy queue. One very loud steward pointed out there was another box office at the entrance to the event which was empty. We trundled on down and it was empty, saving us about 30mins of queuing.
Once in, you are instantly overwhelmed by the sheer size of the place. In total it takes up 6 halls. Hall 1 was your club and brand stands. Hall 2 was food, 3-4 were traders, 8 motor-sports clubs and run-offs and Hall 5 was bikes, interviews, dream rides and more traders. There was a lack of Italian cars, namely Lamborghini and Ferrari but there was still some iconic cars to view.
The traders were your standard run of the mill tools, detailing, tat and toys with 90% of them being carbon replicas. There were a few diamonds in the rough, but they could easily be skipped as time was better spent looking at cars!
Celebrity wise I did see a few including Tim Shaw who smiled at my girlfriend (back off) and Fuzz Townshend who nearly flattened me running to the toilet. We also saw Mike Brewer but I am Ed China all the way. There were all happily walking around and easy to get access to.
I didn’t take my “proper camera” as there wasn’t enough space or considerate people to get a decent shot. It was hard enough trying to do it on a phone let alone using a DSLR. Highlight for me was the Metro 6R4. It is one of my all-time favourite Group B cars and seeing a fair amount of them was something quite special. Also special shout-out goes to the replica Veyron which had me fooled for a moment.
We entered about 10.30am and left at 3.00pm. Tickets on the door cost £31 each and parking was £16 plus fuel and food. The day came to £150!!! Would I do it again, yes. Next time I will bring additional food and drink as a lot of walking makes for an empty stomach. I would also bring much better shoes as the flat running shoes I had on were too harsh for the flat concrete. I would also buy my tickets online and save.
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