クラシックカーショー "Festival of the Unexceptional"

I was away at the weekend, I went to a classic car show. This one is quite unusual, because it's a show for ordinary cars. You can attend in any type of car, but the main type is old family cars and non-sports models. It's a long way from me, about 210km to the south. I wanted to take my BF Familia-323 1.5, but almost the entire journey is on 70mph (112km/h) roads and it's a long way to drive with a 3-speed automatic. Maybe next time!



The entrance sign was on an Austin Allegro 3, a very ordinary old British family car. People used to make jokes about these being a terrible car. I liked them, though...



When I walked into the show, I was amazed that the first car I saw was a GC Capella-626! I have one of these, but a later model. I went up to the owner and said "I have one of these" and he was surprised, haha.



It's a GLX model like mine, but an earlier type. There's only a few small differences between the early and later type though.



His car has headlamp washers! I don't know why my car doesn't have them.



These are the original hubcaps for the early type. I think they're one of the best 1980s hubcap designs. I've got a set of these too, but really my car should have plastic hubcaps. I have both types.



The main difference is the interior. The early type has the switches coming out of the side, but the later type is a more simple design.



Nearby there was a UK-built Bluebird. We didn't receive the U12 Bluebird, instead we refer to the T12/T72 Auster as Bluebird.



I took a picture of this because it's similar to a car my father owned for many years. He had a Rover 214 SLi in white, using a Rover DOHC 1.4L 16-Valve.



This one is a Rover 216 GSi, which uses a Honda SOHC 1.6L 16-Valve engine.



Nearby, there was a UK-built Honda Concerto, the Honda version of the Rover 200-series. These are different to the Concerto made in Japan, with a different suspension design. The UK version has MacPherson strut type suspension, Japanese version uses double wishbone type.



It's a 1.6i-16, so it has the same engine as the Honda 216 GSi above.



Here's a very rare Honda, the N600. This was the export version of the N360, using a 598cc engine for a higher top speed.



The badge was updated too.



It's quite hard to see the engine. The battery looks really big in the photo, but it was quite a small one!



Like my Quintet, it's a Hondamatic.



This car belongs to a friend of mine, it's a Datsun Laurel 240L C231. I have driven it before, the engine is so smooth. It uses the famous L24 6-cylinder, same as the export type S30Z 240Z.



Even though it was an event for ordinary cars, a few sports cars visited such as this Mitsubishi Starion Turbo. This one is the later type known as "wide body". I'd really like one of these, although I prefer the early "narrow body" type.



Later on, this FA 323-Familia appeared! For me, this was the best car at the show. I knew the driver, though it's the first time I've seen this car. I have one of these, but it's a later type wagon. My wagon has a lot of rust problems so it may be a long time before I can drive it, though.



This is the early type known as "bug eye". I think it's one of the best-looking 1970s family cars.



The seat design looks great! I really like vinyl seats with patterned fabric designs.



It's got a sporty steering wheel and a lot of wood trim. You can also see it's an automatic gearbox, this is the 1400 Auto model. I think it's a 3AT like my car.



The back end is good on this car too, I like the tail lights.



My friend Ratdat was there in his WP312 Bluebird. Since he's a friend and I've seen his car a few times, I forgot to take any photos of it. Luckily I found this photo. His car is the only one of his type in Europe. You can read about it here.



The same photographer took a picture of my Prelude next to it, haha!



And my friend with the Piazza JR130 was here too, but I also forgot to take his photo. I see his car all the time anyway...



Later on, a few of us went for a meal at a local pub and talked about cars for a long time. I had to travel back a long way, so I didn't get home until about 3:00, haha. I used a full tank of fuel and got 400 miles (644km).



Since I was driving late at night in warm weather, there's also a lot of bugs on my car. They go towards the headlights, I think.

Anyway, that's it!