Buckinghamshire, England - When visiting a car festival of any kind, you can be sure of one thing - lawns full of cars deemed ‘special’ in one way or another - whether that's because they’re fast, beautiful or simply charismatic enough to be considered classics by a large number of people.
But the annual Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional in South East England bucks that trend completely. Instead it celebrates the vehicles that many would chose to ignore - the mundane cars of yesteryear.
But why? The organisers, from vehicle insurer Hagerty International, explain that the competition was created to highlight the attrition rate of some of the UK’s most popular and best-loved family vehicles of its recent motoring past.
Not only that, but the sight of an ordinary car from yesteryear in shiny near-showroom condition is a fascinating sight for many - particularly cars with associated childhood memories.
The winner this year was a 1977 Morris Marina 1.3 Deluxe Estate owned by Michael Carpenter, which the judges deemed to be a “true example of base specification, providing an honest interpretation of seventies family motoring." According to the current owner, the vehicle’s previous owner had part-restored the car, losing three fingers in the process, before storing it in a shed for more than a decade.
These were the runners up:
Runner Up: 1978 Chevette E owned by Philip Hunt
People’s Choice: 1982 Peugeot 305 SR Estate owned by Simon Gaisford
Junior Judges Choice: 1989 Citroen BX 19 DTR owned by Dan Goff
Anniversary Class: 1982 Vauxhall Astra GL 1300 owned by David Loasby
Feast of the Unexceptional/Best Picnic: Mike and Judith Burkett and their 1979 Colt Sigma GLX