NEC Classic Motor Show

Martyn Knowles and Rob Hawkins at the Birmingham year-ender.

The Classic Motor Show at the NEC is an annual end-of-season round-up that shouldn’t be missed, whether you’re a fan of classic cars or just cars in general. For the

CM staff, it’s a good pre-winter excuse to meet up and talk cars. Contributor Steven Ward turned 40 a few days before the event, so we celebrated in style in the centre of Birmingham with a curry. Editor Martyn Knowles joined in at the weekend, along with his brother Garry, providing the opportunity to drool over cars of the past and speculate on whether paying £199,000 for a Jaguar E-type would be a sound investment!

We also had the chance to catch up with many CM advertisers, including Sealey, Rally Design, CJ Autos and Frost, that we don’t often get the opportunity to speak to. And we bumped into a few familiar faces, including former Car

Mechanics editor Peter Simpson. Our challenge for this show wasn’t to simply see as much as possible, which requires at least a couple of days, but to choose our dream car. That was easy for Martyn – all we had to do was point out a Capri. The hardest part was narrowing the choice down to one Capri. There was a stunning Mk1 3000E on Meguiars’ stand, but an equally mouthwatering Mk2 outside the entrance to one of the halls.

For me, it was a little easier. Any supercar from the 1970s fitted the bill, but this time I opted for the underdog: De Tomaso’s Pantera. While Ferrari or Lamborghini are the obvious choice for a 1970s supercar (especially an iconic Countach), the cheaper Ford V8-powered Pantera is an unsung hero and just as irresistible. There were three to choose from on the De Tomaso OC stand – a hard-to-miss GT5-S in bright orange and with a spotless engine bay looked particularly stunning.

We spent a large proportion of the show kicking ourselves, thanks to the price tags on many of the cars. If only we’d rented a large barn and packed away a few Jaguars, Fords and Minis at the start of the 21st Century, we could now afford to retire!

However, I don’t know whether the 1993 Jaguar XJS convertible with 6000 miles and one previous owner sold for the suggested £39,995...

Crated new Ford Zetec engines are a bargain from Great British Sports Cars.

Rally Design sold huge quantities of stock. Despite its name, the company has a fantastic range of engine timing locking kits and other tools for non-racers.

Editor Knowles checks out the hydraulically-operated ramps from CJ Autos.

Colin from CJ Autos and Martyn Knowles show how easy it is to turn a Morris Minor into a seesaw – a hydraulic tilter does all the hard work.