The world’s most prominent historic motor racing festival, The Classic, shines like no other when it comes to celebrating motoring nostalgia with an unimaginable number of road and track automotive legends that feature as part of the event.
Silverstone will be filled with the rarest and most exquisite retro race cars restless to rekindle old rivalries for one exciting weekend in summer (30 July – 1 August). For those wanting a more subdued, relaxing time, the infield car displays will feature thousands upon thousands of valuable classic cars from yesteryears. Many models and marque will be commemorating notable milestones, with record-breaking parades on the famous track.
To mark The Classic’s 30th birthday party edition, a display of the 50 rarest and seldom-seen cars in the UK will be placed in the spotlight.
Instead of showcasing one-off prototypes or limited edition hypercars worth multi-million pounds, the interesting new collection will feature more mainstream machines from times past that are seldom ever seen on the roads today. Astonishingly, when compared to most Ferraris and Aston Martins, these ‘ordinary’ cars that will be showcased are rarer.
Some of the cars were “Limited Edition” models while others were popular in the period. Still, like the Austin Mini Metro ‘Standard,’ the Fiat 128, and the Renault 4, have become extremely rare today simply because it was so common at the time.
The diverse group at Silverstone will also include previously familiar brands like Colt, Bedford, Hillman, Datsun, Riley, Morris, Talbot, and Simca. The list of models originates from a popular and long-running series of editorial features in The Telegraph’s broad motoring coverage.
The editorial series titled ‘The UK’s Rarest Cars’ started in 2018 when Paul Hudson, the motoring editor of The Telegraph, commented to Andrew Roberts, his contributor, on the low survival rate of numerous Japanese cars from the 1970s and 1980s. This comment resulted in them featuring the Mazda 929 Estate.
The feature became an immediate hit that almost 70 other rarities have now been featured, adding to their ever-expanding list. Many of these cars, and future prospects will be part of The Classic showcase this summer.
“The response has been truly amazing. Setting out on the Mazda, we had absolutely no idea just how popular this regular series of articles would become. Now we are even more thrilled to be bringing so many of these curiosities together for what’s going to be a wonderfully thought-provoking trip down memory lane for so many at The Classic,”
Paul Hudson, Motoring Editor, The Telegraph
Given Roberts is a self-described ‘film academic with a Wolseley obsession,’ all the cars featuring in ‘The UK’s Rarest Cars presented by The Telegraph’ will have their stories told using individual display boards. Visitors who have their own personal memories of the model will be able to share them with the current owners of these often neglected and ignored machines.
[Source: The Classic]
