Classic Car Show Report- Birmingham NEC November 2019

What follows includes much of what I wrote for the introduction to the 2018 show report. I make no apologies for that because I found myself making the same observations this year as I did last. So, on Friday 8th November I made my annual trip to the Lancaster Insurance sponsored Classic Car Show held at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), Birmingham, U.K. It’s no hardship for me because after a mile walk to the station it takes less than fifteen minutes, by train, to get to the NEC. The show opened at 10.00 am and I was amazed at the size of the crowd already queuing (‘standing in line’ for our American readers) before the doors opened. I obtained my Press Pass from the Press Office which is administered by the brilliantly efficient staff of Poppyseed Media Ltd.; then it was wham bam into the melee of committed classic car enthusiasts. The whole idea of me getting there early was to be able to take photos without being compromised by people standing in front of the camera looking at the cars, which they are perfectly entitled to do of course.

Right from the off I was having to seek opportunities of photographing cars without people masking their key features. Motor Shows are not the best environment for taking pristine photos. However, the presence of car enthusiasts does create ‘atmosphere’ and that is a good attribute when telling a story in pictures. Friday is supposed to be the least busy day so I can’t imagine what a crush Saturday and Sunday were. One thing is for sure, visitors interested in all kinds of classic cars, ancient and modern, were unlikely to have been disappointed. The proof is in the pudding as we Brits say, attendances increase year on year and many different foreign accents can be heard amongst the visitors.

Another observation that I seem to make every year is that there always appear to be cars on show that I have never seen before; sometimes cars that I didn’t even know existed. That is what makes this show so exciting and rewarding. Here are some photos from the 2019 show – even more of them than last year!

In an attempt to make studying and enjoying the photos a little more structured, I have put them under appropriate headings.

Alpine A110