Classic Car Buyer Magazine No.236 Check Your Agreed Value Back Issue

Now that all the mouthwatering
motoring exotics that wowed
the crowds at the recent
Goodwood Festival of Speed are
safely tucked up back in their air conditioned
storage cocoons, it’s
time to give a thought to those
mass-produced base models from
the late ’Seventies, ’Eighties and
early ’Nineties that seem to have
virtually fallen off the future classic
radar. Cars like the Austin Montego,
Morris Ital, Chrysler Horizon, Škoda
Estelle and even the once numerous
Ford Orion might not represent the
pinnacle of motoring perfection,
but nonetheless cars from this time
span deserve to be recognised as
classics in waiting and should be
appreciated as such.
It’s a fact that’s been well documented
in these pages that
the government’s ill-conceived
scrappage scheme totally decimated
the stock of roadworthy vehicles
from these decades. Many cars that
would otherwise continue to give
good service and get through the
annual MoT for a good number of
years went prematurely to the big
scrapyard in the sky with official
blessing, leaving a mere handful
of examples available for future
generations to enjoy. So with this
in mind, it’s classic hats off to the
organisers and sponsors of a brand
new event that will take place later
this month to celebrate the merits
of the largely forgotten automotive
mundane.
This thought-provoking event
has been given the evocative title
of the Festival of the Unexceptional
and takes place at Whittlesbury
Park Golf Club in Towcester, close
to the world famous Silverstone
Circuit on Saturday, July 26. As
a jibe to the over-restored cars
that usually appear in the show
ring, this event will be holding the
UK’s first concours d’ordinaire to
showcase some of the most bogstandard
modern classics ever built.