Over the past few years the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show has become the undeniable king of the British show season. It's been the biggest indoor classic car show in the country for a while, but it seems like only recently that it's picked up real traction with the international classic car scene. You just had to glance at Twitter during the weekend to see the vast amount of content being posted to know it was a real success at home and abroad.
Perhaps the biggest tell, though, is the calibre and quality of classics on show. Classic & Sports Car lent its weight behind the event like never before, too, showing a genuine Daytona-winning Porsche 917. Better than that, it was also driven by Steve McQueen in the movie Le Mans.
Also causing a stir was Nick Mason's Maserati 250F – the very car driven by Fangio in practice for the 1957 Monaco GP. Jaguar also got in on the act with its Lightweight E-type, while Porsche made its debut at the event with a new display of cars saved from an uncertain fate and restored by its dealer network.
Despite the leap forward in quality, the 917 wasn't my favourite car. Nor was it the 250F. No, my favourite car of the show was a bog-standard 1988 Peugeot 205 GTI (not even a 1.9-litre version). The reasons were manifold. For a start, its owner Adrian was one of the most enthusiastic people I met during the entire weekend. After seeing me photograph his car, he bounded up to eagerly tell me everything about it.
It turns out it had a few stories to tell. Originally purchased by a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force, the car had travelled across the border between East and West Germany several times, and the travel orders and documents were still present in the history file. Fitting, given the recent 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. A letter from the original owner was also there, as was a note left on the windscreen just hours before; he had made the journey to the NEC to see his old car.
