THE FESTIVAL THAT GLORIES IN THE ORDINARY
WHO needs exceptional cars when you can celebrate unexceptional classics?
A beloved 1994 Vauxhall Astra Merit 1.4, owned by 31-year-old Edinburgh driving instructor Samuel Allan, was crowned winner of the Concours de l’Ordinaire at the eighth annual Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional held at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire last Saturday.
The car has non-metallic red paint, three doors and no optional extras, with a 1.4 litre engine producing 59 bhp for a top speed of 105mph. Some 287,000 Astra Merits were made, but it is believed only four survive in the UK.
Allan bought the car from a neighbour in 2019 after eyeing it up for nearly a decade. ‘I’m chuffed to bits,’ he said. I tried to keep it as original as possible, and only use it on dry days now.
‘It has survived the Scottish weather remarkably well — that is a tribute to the old guy that kept it so well. I’ll never sell it.’
A runners-up award was given to Matthew Bareham for his ‘exceptionally unexceptional’ 1986 Skoda Estelle 120L bought as a wreck for £600 and rebuilt over two years during lockdown.
A special Repmobile award was won by Chris James for his 1991 Nissan Primera, which he bought last year. ‘I used to make Primera car seats in the factory in Sunderland and it’s a keeper, as I’ll never find another in that condition,’ he said.
Entrant Mateusz Strzyzewski drove his 1991 Hyundai Pony from Slovakia, leaving just after the winners were announced as he was due back at work in his home country the very next day.