NOVEMBER 1984
BRIGHTON CLASSIC CAR SHOW, EAST SUSSEX
The first NEC Classic Motor Show was held in 1984. But not in November – this was going on instead
With the annual shindig at Birmingham’s NEC almost upon us, it seems timely to look back on a past classic motor show, albeit one further south. This is the 1984 Brighton Classic Car Show, sponsored by Thoroughbred
and Classic Cars (now Classic Cars) and squeezed into the Metropole hotel. The first Classic Motor Show at Birmingham’s NEC took place in May the same year; a banner for the 1985 event is annoyingly obscuring a BMC Farina on the balcony in this shot.
The Brighton gathering, which was first held in 1981, was intended to catch the crowds in town for the Veteran Car Run from London. 80 clubs turned out, with major awards going to the Metropolitan Owners’ Club, Volvo Owners’ Club and Triumph Sports Six Club. Car of the Show was a 1955 Jaguar XK140.
What strikes us here is the age of some of the vehicles, award-winning 1950s Jaguars aside. To the right of the TACC stand is the MG Owners’ Club. Nearest the camera are an MGB GT V8 dating from 1974 – so a decade old – while alongside is SGV 573W, an MGB Roadster registered in May 1981; just three and a half years old here. Nevertheless, it’s far from factory spec, with a Rover V8 engine and a chrome bumper conversion. Did certain fussy traditionalists walk right past the MGOC display, harrumphing about modern cars at a classic show, and make straight for the Triumph 1800/2000 Roadster and its sister Renown saloon over in the bottom left instead? Incidentally, both MGBs and Triumph are still around today; if you own either of them, do let us know.
The only other registration visible (if you zoom into the original photo) looks like YFL 714H, on the shapely rear end poking out from behind the
TACC façade. But identifying it has defeated us. What is it? A special? A kit car? Its companion is a Sunbeam Alpine, which had graced the front cover of the magazine earlier in the year. Were both of these machines also in the 1985 calendar being touted on the stand which, with its wedgeshaped construction, could almost be a Harris Mann or Giorgetto Giugiaro effort?
Speaking of Giugiaro, two cars definitely designed by him are parked next door – a 1971 Maserati Ghibli Spyder and a Bora which, as it was in production until 1978 (while the Merak based on it continued until 1983), might also be classed as comparatively modern. But it got a free pass because it’s a 170mph supercar.
The rest of the bottom floor – at least what’s visible – is taken up by the Elva Owners’ Club occupying the right foreground, with a pair of Couriers, one in al fresco Sports form, the other a coupé. Squaring up to the MGOC is the Austin-Healey Club, with a post-Frogeye Sprite and a big ’Healey as weapons. The latter appears to have the more triangular early front grille, so is probably a 100. To its right is a hint of Triumph TR6 while the Alfa Romeo Owners’ Club has a rare Giulia 1600 TI Super.
Moving upstairs, there’s the rump of a Ginetta G21, while the two-yearold Capri 70 Owners’ Club looks to have three examples of Ford’s popular coupé. One is a MkI – do the black vinyl roof and side trim denote a 3000 GXL? The Capri was still being built in 1984, but only for another two years, after which the club rechristened itself Capri Club International, the title by which it’s still known. Finally, there’s our banner-obscured BMC Farina, in Morris or Oxford form.
We’re not sure how many years the Metropole Show managed to survive, but it’s certainly no longer around, its November slot now occupied by the Birmingham NEC event.
Looking at this scene, we suspect that space and access may just have had something to do with its ultimate demise.