The Classic Motor Show & Top Gear Live, Birmingham NEC 2011

It’s that time of year again, when the shopping centres already have the Christmas lights up, the clocks have changed, the nights are drawing in, the weather’s getting colder and a lot of Classic Cars are getting greased up and put onto blocks ready to hibernate for the Winter.  But, classic car fans, just wait a minute – before Santa starts feeding up his Reindeer for Christmas there is still something to look forward to.  All you need are tickets for the Classic Motor Show at the Birmingham NEC which remains the biggest and most popular classic car exhibition in the UK.  With nearly 1500 beautiful classic cars from all era’s, marques, and countries you cannot fail to see something that you instantly wish you could take home with you – even if it’s just one of the Performance Direct Promo Girls.

Simply put, The Classic Motor Show is paradise for any classic car fan, so whether you are a classic car owner, a collector, an enthusiast, or just love cars, then there is something for you to see at the show. Running alongside is also the Classic Motorbike Show for those of us who prefer life on two wheels, even if it is just during the summer.  On the live stage Mike Brewer and Edd China, aka TV’s ‘Wheeler Dealers’ will be presenting a range of classic motoring based features and bike fans will get a chance to meet Carl Fogarty and Pierfrancesco ‘Frankie’ Chili over the weekend.  Even if you managed to get around the whole show and somehow not see something that you absolutely loved you could always nip next door into the Top Gear Live Exhibition to peruse the display of the latest supercars and all that you’d expect from the Top Gear boys.  Your Classic Motor Show ticket will allow you free entry to the exhibition part, although you’d need to purchase separate tickets for the Top Gear Live Theatre Show and the Top Gear Live Track.

The Classic Motor Show always includes the most stunning motoring displays and is a celebration of cars of all ages so whether you’re hoping to spot a forgotten veteran, a craved-for vintage, your favourite classic, or perhaps you have your eyes open for a future-classic, you will almost certainly find it amongst the fine display of vehicles at the show.  Ford are celebrating 100 years of the Marque in Britain and the Ford Clubs have promised to pull out all the stops to help Ford celebrate at the show with some special star cars already promised, including a very special Lotus Cortina which will take pride of place.

The Volvo P1800, first introduced in 1961, rose to fame when Roger Moore drove the car as Simon Templar in the legendary TV series ‘The Saint’, will also be celebrating it’s 50th birthday at the event.  There will be some rather special models on display including the 1961 prototype P1800 with an original 2.5 litre DOHC four-cylinder Aston Martin engine which was a project that was sadly never realised.  This will line up alongside the P958-X1 prototype but for me the star car will of course be the white ST1 that once belonged to the afore mentioned ‘Saint’.

This year has seen many a celebration for the 50th birthday of the E-Type Jaguar and the Classic Motor Show will be no exception with many exhibitors fondly showing love for one of Britain’s greatest engineering achievements.  As always you can expect the Performance Direct show stand to be adorned by beautiful promo girls and beautiful cars which are worth a visit all on their own, but as well as trying to save classic car drivers money on their car insurance, Performance Direct are still celebrating the E-Type’s 50th birthday by running a free competition to win a weekend with a stunning E-Type Jaguar, Series 1, 3.8 Straight Six Coupe.  Simply visit us on our stand (Hall 4 – T52) or simply enter your details on the Win a Weekend with a Stunning E-type Jaguar competition page online.

Alongside the Jaguar E-Type and the Volvo P1800 the original Mini Cooper and Cooper S were also first released in 1961 and you can expect show-goers to be celebrating the glorious days of the original Mini Cooper before BMW got it’s grubby hands on them.  What a fantastic year 1961 must have been for motoring.  I can only imagine how fantastic it must have been to see for the first time those now iconic classics belting along Britain’s roads.  I wonder which of the cars on the road today will endure the test of time as well and become an iconic future classic?  I guess we’ll only find out for sure in 2061.

Tickets are available via the website or by telephoning the box office on:  0871 230 1088.

Show dates/times are:

Friday November 11th – from 10am – 7pm
Saturday November 12th – from 9am – 7pm
Sunday November 13th – from 9am – 5.30pm