I attended the 2024 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show at the Birmingham NEC on Friday, 8 November.  I have to say that over the many decades that I have been attending the Classic Motor Show I don’t think it’s ever been busier on a Friday when I have attended, it was packed.  What was the reason for this? Beats me. I would say most people in attendance would have been 40 years of age or older with probably an average age for about 55 to 60.  It will be interesting to see over the coming decades, as to whether more younger people attend such shows.

Classic Motor Show celebrated its 40th anniversary

The Classic Motor Show celebrated its 40th anniversary in style with more clubs, cars and attendees over the three show days. According to the event organisers there were 71,520 enthusiasts in attendance over the three show days (71,290 in 2023).  A world record number of clubs exhibited with 338 different club stands. FBHVC’s David Whale, Jowett Car Club, Jaguar E-Type and Wheeler Dealer Mike Brewer were all inducted into the inaugural Hall of Fame.  There was a New Podcast Lounge and DadCars Family Zone which apparently proved a great success. I did not make time for this. 

There were six halls full of exhibitors. It really is sometimes quite hard to take it all in within one day. I certainly didn’t have time to stop, watch and listen to any demonstrations or speakers as I was too busy checking out the cars for sale and tempted on a couple of occasions to maybe buy, and also I purchased quite a lot of items from the exhibitors for my garage (man cave).

Meguiar’s Club Showcase

The best of the best from the club scene were invited to battle it out on the Meguiar’s Club Showcase with 14 immaculate cars under the expert judges’ scrutiny. It was Andy Nash’s 1958 Fiat Nuova 500N that took home the crystal trophy.  I do love a Fiat 500.

Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership

Talking of trophies, the Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership competition was fiercer than ever. With the public voting for their favourite out of the 20 cars on the hallowed carpet, it was Richard Stacey’s 1967 Ford Mustang (above) that won the visitors’ hearts and minds.

Second place went to Paul Clappison’s 2002 Porsche Boxster S (above) and Tahmid Haque’s 1986 Koenig Specials BMW 635 came third (below). For me I liked the BMW the best, unique, and I like the rare cars. 

The Sporting Bears Motor Club raised £42,580 from its popular Dream Rides. The ‘Bears’ gave ten-mile passenger rides to visitors in exchange for a charitable donation. The charities benefiting from this year’s show include Young Minds, Me and Dee, Thrive and Sibling Support. 

Other show highlights included the new Podcast Lounge where various motoring podcasts recorded in front of a live audience. Also new for 2024 was the DadCars Family Zone with plenty to entertain children and families. There was also the popular Meet the Experts Theatre, hosted by Mike Brewer and YouTuber Auto Alex Kersten, with lively panel discussions and interviews with the likes of car design legend Frank Stephenson.

Favourite for me is browsing the cars for sale. I love looking at the cars for sale, dreaming of car ownership, adding a car to my car collection There are two locations where cars are for mainly sale namely:

Car for sale in Iconic Auctioneers sale

Lots of temptations here. I took a really close interest in this very respectable looking 1956 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL (below) (Lot Number: 139), which had a £60k estimate (plus the 15% uplift for the auctioneers cut and VAT). I came to the conclusion to make it mint condition you’d probably need to put in another £30-40k so on that basis I was out. You can get more information about this car here.

Bargain of the auction sales (in my opinion) was this very cool and iconic 2004 Ferrari 575M Maranello F1 (below). It sold for £49,500 +15% premium, so total price of £56,925. That is a lot of great car for the money.

You can see our 10 Iconic Cars for sale by Iconic Auctioneers at the Classic Motor Show 2024 here. Lots of great cars and I was tempted, just the 15% auctioneer premium on top of the car cost is hard to stomach for me. Here are a few pictures from my walk around the exhibition of cars for sale. A lot of temptation…

Other cars for sale that I loved

Aston Martin DBR1, ASM recreation (above). New this would cost £140k apparently, this one was for sale at £120k.

1991 Alfa Romeo SZ. I love the look of this car. But £80k for me is too much, so again a walk away this time.

That’s all from me. That’s me done for the year in terms of car shows, and what a year it has been. We now look forward to Race Retro in February to make sure that you have entered our competition to be with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to Race Retro, and that you are following us on social media (mycarheaven) and have signed up to our newsletter to be updated of our competitions that we will be doing more and more of in 2025 and beyond.

The 2025 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show will be held 7-9 November 2025. Looking forward to it already.

Did you attend the Classic Motor Show 2024? What were your thoughts/ highlights?

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