1981 Earls Court Motor Show

The Triumph Acclaim was this year’s big news – but most of us wanted to lust over more exotic arrivals instead

My first visit to Earls Court for the motor show was also my last. It was 1999, and plans for a follow-up for anyone surviving Millenium Bug-induced Armageddon were quietly axed.

Treats for anyone else shuffling off the Piccadilly Line included the Mini’s last appearance at the London show, Rover’s final throw of the dice with its 25 and 45 and a Lotus – the scintillating M250 – that promised to take the fight to Porsche’s Boxster, but never made it into production.

But had another invention of that year – the ostensibly rubbish, but surprisingly effective time machine from Blackadder: Back and Forth – been at my disposal, I reckon I’d have made a beeline for 1981, when things at Earls Court were looking rather rosier.

Back after a four-year absence, rechristened MotorFair and determined to steal some of the thunder back from the biennial event at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, the star draw for most seasoned motor industry watchers was Triumph’s new Acclaim, which appeared on a rotating plinth in Cashmere Gold metallic, CD-spec form. Elsewhere in the halls you would have caught a glimpse of the DeLorean DMC12’s sole appearance at a London motor show, provided you could squeeze past the small crowd lining the stand. Ford, meanwhile was raising eyebrows more used to the Cortina 80 with its Probe III concept car – little did showgoers know that, bereft of its wheelarch spats and pinched sideskirts, they were looking at the following year’s Cortina-relacing Sierra.

But we’d understand if anyone who hasn’t made it to Earls Court’s headline acts and has ended up somewhat distracted by some of the stands in this shot, starting with BMW’s typically rather expansive MotorFair stand right at the front.

Take a closer look at the rather imposing furniture and you’d be forgiven for thinking from the poster that it’s keen to plug the E21generation 3 Series in particular, but we can only assume that it’s been cropped out of this shot – its bigger brothers, the E28-generation 5 Series and range topping E23-gen 7 Series are present and correct, as are two E24 6 Series coupés, but Munich’s smallest offering is conspicuous mainly by its apparent absence. All of them seem to pulling in more attention that the three N10generation Cherrys on Datsun’s stand next door, although we’d still spare a moment or two to admire the Coupé’s neat wraparound rear window.

Vauxhall- Opel is having a ball with its joint stand just behind BMW’s, where four just-launched Cavalier MkIIs are doing their best to draw attention away from the Probe III. Further onto the stand, German cousin Opel is showing off its Tech 1 concept car, which achieved a thenrecord drag coefficient of 0.235cd and gave more than a hint of what the next-generation Omega and Carlton would look like. There’s also a Manta 400 slap bang in the middle of the stand.

Peugeot and Talbot have teamed up with a stand, too, dominated by the Sunbeam Lotus, shown here both in rally-liveried and XR3baiting roadgoing form. Other Gallic offerings competing for showgoers’ attention include a V6 Tagora – when was the last time you saw one of those? – a Matra Rancho, a Samba and, at the Peugeot end, two 505s.

Look carefully to the left of the Peugeots and you’ll spot the Series 4 V8 that Aston Martin Lagonda brought along to the show, barely a few months after Victor Gauntlett became joint chairman and revived the Tickford name for its new engineering subsidiary. It’s a pity you can’t see the AM Lagonda’s biggest hitter, the mid-engined Bulldog concept car, in this shot, though.

Further back, you can just make out the Ferrari stand, where London’s younger car nuts will have been lining up to drool over the new Mondial 8, although Porsche would have done a fine job of distracting at least some of them with the 928 and 911 Targa. Right at the very back you can also see attendees perusing the Renault Fuego and Citroën CX, but it’s difficult from this distance to make out which variants they are.

One of the show’s most fascinating debutantes was another car with Aston connections – the Frazer Tickford, essentially an Austin Metro treated to a hefty bodykit, plush interior and a twin-carb 1.3-litre engine good for 80bhp.

Its £11,600 price tag – more than a Rover 3500 or Ford Granada 2.8i Ghia – did count against it, though.

Only 26 were ever built, and barely any are left on Britain’s roads. Did it deserve to be a bigger hit? Answers to the usual address…