Visitors flock to NEC Restoration Show

More than 25,000 classic car fans made their way to Birmingham at the weekend for the fourth NEC Restoration Show, which this year was held across three days.

There were 132 classic motoring clubs displaying a mixture of show queens and project cars – 1000 in total – across six halls or 42,000-square metres.

Lee Masters, acting show director, said, ‘This show goes from strength to strength. In four years, it has grown to half the size [in terms of square feet] of its ‘big sister’, the NEC Classic Motor Show, and has earned tremendous support from the classic community.’

As always, a highlight of the event was the UK’s biggest barn find display. Here, a 1972 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow stole the limelight from the other 24 discoveries. Found by Chris Pearson from Bolton, the Rolls was covered in moss on the outside and housed a colony of spiders under the bonnet.

Pride of ownership winner Keith Edmund’s with his 1972 Triumph Spitfire.

But it wasn’t all rust and restoration. The Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership saw 20 finalists battle it out for visitor votes. In the end, it was Keith Edmund’s 1972 Triumph Spitfire that proved to be the crowd favourite, with Ian Mill’s 1969 Ford Cortina 1600E coming second and Michael Hawkins’ 1972 Ford Escort RS2000 taking third place.

Classic Car Auctions (CCA) held its biggest ever sale at the show, with more than 200 cars going under the hammer. In total, 75 per cent of cars went to new homes with a sales figure of £2.4 million.

Over at the ‘live stage’, the new Wheeler Dealers line-up of Mike Brewer and Ant Anstead made their debut. After talking frankly about Edd China’s departure from the show, Mike and Ant then got their hands dirty helping Mike Coman and the Leeds City College team. This was the workshop area that demoed all kids of restoration skills from panel beating to lead loading.

The new Wheeler Dealers team made their debut at the show.

The Sporting Bears’ Dream Rides raised more than £12,000 by offering ten-mile passenger rides in cars from the Dream Rides Garage. Since it was formed, the Sporting Bears Motoring Club has raised £1.8 million for children’s charities around the UK.

The next NEC Restoration Show will be held from 23-25 March, 2018. For more information, visit www.necrestorationshow.com.