Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show
Report from the NEC.
With more than 3000 vehicles on display in six halls over an area the size of 18 football pitches, this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, at the NEC in Birmingham probably needed a couple of days to fully appreciate. Unfortunately, had you turned up on spec, the £16 car parking fee and £26 entry cost for adults might have put you off. Pre-booked tickets kept the costs down to £12 for parking (although the train station nearby offers all-day parking at weekends for £9) and £15 per person for a family ticket consisting of two adults and three children.
Fortunately, the classic car market is still booming, so the high cost didn’t appear to be dissuading people. Nor were the prices of some of the cars for sale: £100,000 could once buy you a very nice house, but times have moved on and that was the asking price for a stunning Jaguar E-type 2+2 or the recent electric-powered MGB. A lowmileage 12-year-old Jaguar S-TYPE at £6995 seemed like a bargain.
CM volunteers
CM didn’t have a stand at the show, although sister mag Practical Classics was bagging-up copies of CM as a promotional freebie. Consequently, the CM editorial team were free to volunteer on the club stands. Editor Martyn Knowles offered his services on the BMW MINI Y Register stand, and contributor Rob Marshall exhibited his 1976 Triumph Toledo at the show.
Several readers met up with the editorial team to offer feedback on the magazine and suggest ideas. It’s always reassuring to hear people’s comments on your work and to discuss the logistics of project cars. The recent Vauxhall Insignia was the butt of many jokes – and that was before we revealed it had been written off in an accident!
New tools
One of the reasons for attending the show is to look at the latest equipment from companies such as Draper, Sealey, Machine Mart, CJ Autos and Rally Design. CJ Autos always seem to have a new product at the show, and this year revealed a three-tonne car tilter. A smaller version has already been selling well, but the new one is capable of lifting larger vehicles, such as 4x4s. They also had a slightly alternative version of a car dolly. These are ideal for moving a vehicle around a workshop if positioned underneath each road wheel. However, CJ has launched a new design, which provides a greater amount of ground clearance, making it suitable for working on the underside or the sills. The only obstacle is raising the vehicle high enough to fit it, so a large trolley jack, two-post ramp or similar is required.
Rally Design’s new products for 2019 include a circuit tester, a coil spring compressor, a helicoil kit and a brake flaring tool. One of its flagship products is the Blackline LSD range, which now extends to more than 30 applications, including Ford, Honda, Mazda, Land Rover, MG, Peugeot, Triumph, Vauxhall/opel and VW, with
BMW also available. Proprietor Dave Elderfield enlightened us with some of the logistics of sourcing these tools and organising the manufacture of everything up to the final packaging. He’s been in business for almost half-a-century and never seems to stop adding to his range.