The Bristol Classic Car show has been running for many years, and it is my “local” event, I always make an effort to attend. Relocated from the old Bristol Exhibition Centre many years ago, after that venue was scheduled for redevelopment, it is held at the Bath and West Showground, just outside Shepton Mallet, so not exactly in Bristol, but still not that far away from home. Traditionally, the event took place in early February and it tended to mark the start of a new season, but in 2009, bad weather forced the organisers to postpone and when they settled on a new date of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend and found that they got a far larger turnout as a consequence, they accordingly decided that the 2010 event would also be in early May. What happens in 2011 remains to be seen. Be that as it may, there was plenty of interest this year, with a wide variety of stands from Car Clubs of varying sizes, some of whom showed far more imagination than others in creating their display stands, and there were plenty of interesting vehicles parked up outside the exhibition halls, sufficient to divert me for the best part of a day. Here is just some of what I saw:
ADO17 – the Land Crab
Centre-piece of one of the halls was a stand for enthusiasts of BMC’s ADO17 cars, affectionately known as the “Land Crab”. Highlight for me, and doubtless everyone else, was a very recently imported Austin 1800 Ute. I had never seen or even heard of this derivative before, but it would seem that approx 1000 of these were made locally in Australia around 1970, and it is believed that there may be as many as 100 survivors, though few are in anything better than poor condition.
This Austin 1800 is a car I have seen before, and is in fact the pre-production vehicle that was used at the press launch in October 1964.
Other vehicles on the stand included the highly successful London-Sydney rally car, and a special Limousine variant of the Mark 3.
There was a rather tatty Morris 1800 Mark 2 parked up outside. 
ALFA-ROMEOOnly one Alfa at the event, a 1750 GTV.
ALVISFour cars on this stand, but only two photos. A TA and a TE.
AUSTINThe A30/35 Owners had examples of the small saloon, the Countryman and Van on show.
Elsewhere, there was another A35 Van.
Parked up outside was this 3 litre. These large cars completely bombed in the market, and only a few thousand were made. This is a late model car, and was in splendid condition.
The A70 Hampshire also sold in small numbers in austere Post War Britain, and was intended primarily to be generate export revenue pounds.
There were a number of Austin Healeys, including this Sprite.BMWThree immaculate cars on the BMW Owners Club stand: an E30 3 series, a Baur E21 Cabrio and a 2002 tii which had won the show award for best paintwork.
CHEVROLETThere were a couple of Corvette models, representing the first and the third model types of America’s long running and popular sports car
CITROENA much travelled 15CV Traction Avant.
The 2CV Owners Club had a stand with 4 vehicles on it, all of them somewhat unusual. As well as a van and a pickup, there was a rare early example of a Slough built 2CV, and there was one of just 241 Bijou cars that was made in 1961 in an attempt to use up the remaining chassis at the Slough operation. The result, with its glassfibre body was a car that was much heavier and costlier than the standard car and thus flopped in the market. Survival rates are quite high, though, as the grp body did not rust. 
COMMERA lorry of days gone by, once a familiar sight on our roads.
DAIMLERAnother less than successful car, also fashioned out of glassfibre, was the SP250, sometimes known as the Dart. These cars are treasured now, and make for a serene cruiser with a burbling V8 engine.
This Majestic dates from a similar time. Far more imposing than its rivals of the day.
FORDThere were surprisingly few Fords at the show. This is a Prefect from the mid 1950s – the upmarket four door version of the big selling Anglia.
This is an earlier Prefect, from the immediate post War period.
Mark 2 Cortinas featured on a simple stand. Once a common sight, these cars are rare now.
GILBERNThis is an early car, the GT.
HILLMANIt is 40 years since the launch of the Avenger and there were examples of the GLS saloon and the practical Estate.
Three of the Imp-based Husky cars were on show.
The Super Minx was Hillman’s upper medium sized family offering in the early 1960s and this is the estate version of the range.
A 1955 Minx, looking rather plain, something which Hillman addressed when they revealed what they called the “Gay Look” later that year
JOWETTThe Javelin was a very advanced family saloon on offer in the early 1950s.
LAND-ROVERThe Series 1 Land-Rover Club had three cars on their stand.
LOTUSThere were quite a lot of Lotus cars on this stand, not all of them familiar. Rarest was this rebodied Europa, of which just 10 were made.
Better known were these cars, including a standard Europa, an Elan, an Elite, a Seven
MARCOSThere were two separate stands with Marcos cars on them. These are early examples of the car which started out with an 1800cc engine and later gained a 3 litre V6 engine.
By the 1990s, the cars, although recognisably related to the early cars had become rather wilder
The TSO was a promising car that could have done well had the company not become insolvent.
MERCURYThis Monarch Ghia was one of three cars from the local Atwell Wilson Motor Museum
MGNumerically, there must be more MGs in classic car ownership than just about anything else, so you are always likely to see representatives of this much loved marque at an event like this. Here is an MGA
MICRO-CARS
This was a stand that was about as minimalist as the cars. A couple of posters on the wall was all you got, but there were three examples of the micro cars that enjoyed a certain success in the late 1950s and 1960s. A Messerschmit, a Mink (later manufactured for use in Bermuda) and an Isetta are the three cars shown here.
MINISome immaculately restored examples of the Issigonis Mini to enjoy, including a rare Pick-up and a couple of Cooper models.
MORGANThree cars on the Morgan stand, showing how the marque had evolved from the early three wheeled cars, through an early 1930s Four/Four to a more recent Plus Eight car.
MORRISResembling the Minor, this is actually an Oxford MO model from the late 1940s.
Of course, there were some Minors, as well.
The Eight Series E, from the 1930s.
As a reminder of a by-gone era, a Marina in police livery.
RELIANTAlthough there were the well known Scimitars at the show, it was the earlier Sabre 6 which my camera captured.
RILEYThree cars on the Riley Owners Club stand, one of which, this 1.5 litre, had been awarded “Best in Show”. Alongside it was an RM model.
The RM Owners Club had their own stand with three cars on it, including the rare convertible model
ROCHDALEThere were two examples of the little Olympic coupe on the stand: one in need of restoration and one which had received the treatment.,
ROVERThere was a lone example of the P4 model, the 75.
A lone P6, too. A 2200 from later in the models long production life.
Hard to believe it, but the R8 was launched over 20 years ago, and following scrappage, these cars are disappearing fast from our roads now. There three models on this stand, representing the 420 saloon, the 216 Cabrio and the popular “Tomcat” Coupe.
SINGERFour cars on the Singer stand, showing different versions of the popular Singer Nine from the 1930s.
By the mid 1950s, Singer had become little more than a luxury brand within the Rootes Group and the cars were all badge engineered versions of lesser Hillmans. This is a Vogue Estate car from the early 1960s.
STANDARDThe 10 was a popular small car in the 1950s.
SUNBEAMTwo examples of the popular Alpine sports car were at one side of the stand.
The other side had two of the Rapier models from the late 1950s.
In the middle was an “Arrow” based Rapier, a car that never quite captured the success or popularity of its main rival, the Capri
A separate stand for the Sunbeam Talbot cars had examples of the 90 sports saloon and a rather nice red Alpine sports car.
TOYOTAThere were examples of all three generations of the MR2 on this stand.
TRIUMPHHighlight of the TR stand was this, the very rare Dove GT. A small number of TR4s were duly converted like this to be a sort of pre-cursor to the MGB GT. There are few survivors.
There were also examples of the TR4 and TR5 on show.
A lone Dolomite Sprint represented the club for those who love these 1970s sports saloons.
The 2000/2500 “Innsbruck” cars were popular from launch in 1963 and remain so today. 
VAUXHALLThis was one of two E Series Cresta models from the mid 1950s. Very period and very lovely.
VOLVOA rare convertible version of the long running PV544.
WOLSELEYRepresenting the Farina Owners Club was this Wolseley 16/60, a car which makes regular appearances at this event, and is clearly well cared for even though it is now nearly 50 years old.
This 1500 was rather less immaculate than its Riley twin which had won “best in show”.
Representing a rather different sort of Wolseley was this 1932 Hornet Sport.
Whilst perhaps lacking the prestige of a national event, this show was still a good day out, and well worth considering for your diaries in 2011.2010-05-04 06:32:42
