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2018 Classic Motor Show Review

Posted on November 19th, 2018


So, the Classic Motor Show is over for another year!

More than 71,000 visitors spent time in the eight halls, viewing 300 club stands and some 3000 vehicles. Despite being such a small Register, our display got a mention in Classic and Sports Car’s digital review, along with a photo of our stand. “A wonderful assembly of J-Type vans…” praise indeed!

With the show falling on the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, the organisers had sent round, a few months ago, a note asking clubs to consider ways of marking this. Difficult when our vans only came along much later and even Morris~Commercial would not come into existence until some six years after WW1 ended, so we couldn’t even make  a big thing out of the war effort (which we undoubtedly could do with WW2).

As a small club we have never really bothered with themes for the show, we’ve always been happy just to get a display there, but we got to thinking along the lines of seeing if we could accompany some/all of the four vans with a big (maybe life-size) print of an uncle/great uncle/2nd cousin twice removed whatever, for each of the owners. With a comment relating each photograph to a van owner, it would put a perspective of sorts on how the hundred years have gone by.
 
We ended up with two photos from the Pitcher family archives and one from Mike Bell, owner of the Austin. 
There were some great displays and some fabulous vehicles, as can be seen in the gallery below. Also very pleasing was that so many Register members, fellow owners and enthusiasts took the trouble to find us and to stay and chat about the wonderful world of J-type vans.

Next year the Organisers are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the show, with the date already set for 8/9/10 November. Let’s hope we are offered a stand again.

One of the gallery photos shows what we achieved with the full-size relatives. They were much photographed and commented on, including by someone who introduced herself to us to explain that she was a cousin, or something, of Mike’s wife as she too had the very same photo at home. That must have been an amazing feeling, to be walking round the show and be confronted in such a way!