This year, Hagerty celebrated it’s ten years of Festival of the Unexceptional, once again returning to Grimsthorpe Castle to hold one of the UK’s most loved concours events. This year’s event was the largest yet, with over 4000 people and 2000 cars. A stunning, unrestored, 1982 Toyota Hilux took first place in the concours.
The original Festival of the Unexceptional was held in 2014, intended to pay tribute to the long-forgotten everyday family cars from 1968-1989 in the style of a top-level concours. As each year has passed, the event has grown in both scale and to include newer vehicles with the concours now including vehicles from the 1990s.
This year’s winner however was Mitch Lewis and his immaculate 1982 Toyota Hilux. Like many of its ilk, the Hilux has been a working vehicle most of its life, serving Mitch well on a fruit farm. Unlike many Hiluxes, it remains completely original and absolutely immaculate throughout.
Running a close second was Amy Jaine and her well-storied 1998 Renault Clio, bought new by her grandmother and saved by Amy from the scrapyard. The Retro Repmobile Award was given to 21 year old Luca Alpert and his Nissan Primera, who had made the journey from Hanover to be at the show.
The judges also highly commended Lewis Dickson for the 4000-mile Citroen Visa that he managed to rescue, while Christopher Lloyd was also commended for his Daewoo Lanos, one of just five examples left on UK roads. When asked if such a rare car attracts attention, he replied, after some thought, that it did not. The final highly commended nod went to Damian Brannigan and his wonderfully standard 1993 Fiat Panda. The Chairmans Award was presented to Colin Corke and his Applejack Metro.
A host of special guest cars appeared at the event, including the very last Austin Montego to be produced, kindly supplied by the British Motor Museum, and event sponsor Sustain Fuels were on hand to answer any questions people had about using synthetic fuel in their modern classics.
