Brit & Euro Classic Car Show 2023 Highlights - 19/03/23

So about 2 weeks ago, I attended the annual Brit & Euro Classic Car Show, which included, yep you guessed it! British and European cars! This annual show was the first one since 2021, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, so I expected people to bring the best! I was not disappointed in the majority of marques, but some, like Lamborghini, failed to deliver…

I tend to arrive at these events relatively early to get shots of the cars without crowds getting in the way, and some of the cars I was able to capture before the spectators arrived were properly cool! This was situated in the middle area of the paddock and the cars included were the MG Metro 6R4 (a Group B rally car), the Buckler 90 (a British space frame constructed/New Zealand designed open top car) and the Lancia Stratos HF (an iconic Italian WRC car).

Speaking of rally cars though, Lancia had an amazing showing, with old cars like the Aprilia, Fulvia Rallye and the B20, but what most impressive was the 037 Stradale (207 of these were made to homologate for Group B), the Delta S4 (200 were planned for its homologation to Group B, but only 28 were made) and the elusive Delta Hyena HF (only 24 of these were made up of the 75 planned units. They were built by Zagato on a Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione chassis.)

Continuing with the Italians, Alfa showed off the new Tonale in its TI trim level and there was a massive showing of Rosso Alfa-Alfa Romeo’s, Fiat had a nifty little 1986 Uno Turbo.i.e., and Ferrari had a F430 Scuderia in Nero Daytona with gold wheels!

The Germans were, dare I say, a better showing than the Italians, with Audi showing off an ultra obscure 1960 Auto Union 1000S (only 4 of these are registered in New Zealand, 1 being the standard 1000, 1 being the 1000SP, the sport variant, and the remaining 2 being the 1000S.) BMW had plenty of E30/36/46 as per usual, but the one that stood out to me was a 1968 BMW “New Class” 2000 TI (only 3 of these are in NZ.) Mercedes-Benz had plenty of solid choices, but the 2 that stood out were the 1958 MB 220S W180 II Convertible and the 1953 MB 170 DS W191. VW didn’t have anything particularly spectacular, so I didn’t take any.

But Porsche… wow, Porsche had outdone themselves. I took so many pictures here, I couldn’t possibly cover every car I saw, but there were a few standouts in year order:

1964 356C in Guards Red, 1973 911 Carrera RS in Grand Prix White with Lime Green, 1982 930 Turbo in Light Blue, 1985 924 Martini Championship Edition, 1988 928 S4 in Nougat, 1989 951 Turbo;

1992 968 in Black Pearl, 1992 964 Carrera 2 Cabriolet in Oak Green, 1993 964 BUG in Slate Grey with Bronze, 1997 993 Carrera S in Violet Blue, 2012 997 Turbo S in Carrara White, 2021 982 GT4 in Miami Blue.

The next best section had to go to the 3 French marques, with Citroen holding the best lineup with cars as old as the 1951 Traction Avant to the avantgarde C6, and everything in between like 2CV Dolly’s, Dyane’s, CX’s, GS’s, SM’s, XM’s and even an HY.

Renault and Peugeot, though not as much still had some rare cars that stood out. Renault showed off the old and new A110’s, but also 2 Caravelle’s, a Megane I Convertible and a 21 Turbo Quadra.

Peugeot had a few surprising cars too, like the 306 GTi and Convertible!

Lastly, the British cars filled up the other half. Most of the marques contained the same cars from previous years, like Lotus, Aston Martin, Ford UK and Morgan; but some like TVR and Bentley/Rolls-Royce had some outstanding cars.

TVR had a myriad of Chimaera’s, Tuscan’s and Cerbera’s, while Bentley/RR had a number of pre-war cars.

But most impressive was the Jaguar/Daimler marque! It had to be said that they took up at least one-third of the show.

There were every form of criminal cars here, it looked like an impound lot.

Jokes aside, it was seriously impressive to see almost every Jaguar here: from Mark 2’s, Mark 4’s and Mark 10’s, to XJ’s, XJR’s and XJS’s, to E-Type's, X-Type’s and F-Type’s!

I took almost 300 pictures this time and it took me roughly 2 weeks to finish them, explaining the timing of this article, but as always, enjoy the pictures and stay tuned for more! Also, link to the full album is here. If you want to just save them, just right click, but if you want to support me, buying the picture will be greatly appreciated!