Hagerty’s festival of the unexceptional has given ordinary classic cars, the mundane everyday car that nobody noticed in period, a special place in the classic car world. I once came close to buying a Talbot Solara (yes when did you last see one of them?) but due to a disagreement with the seller it fell through and I bought a MK2 Escort instead. But the Talbot was cheap in comparison and all I needed at the time was a cheap reliable car.
On reflection it probably wouldn’t have met my needs as they proved to be incredibly boring, slow and not that reliable. No wonder you will struggle to find one today, they were just not that interesting to be worth saving.
Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire is a typical classic car event location, with pristine heritage lawns and gardens, beautiful woodland and of course, a wonderful stately home steeped in history. It’s where you might expect to see a display of highly collectible classics, heralded for their beauty, performance or racing provenance, many worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. But Festival of the Unexceptional is about the cars you won’t find in glossy auction catalogues, it’s about the cars we can all relate to, because we owned them, or our parents owned them.
To the untrained eye these are the mass-produced cars of the motor industry that have long been left behind, but thanks to FOTU, the Unexceptional movement is growing, celebrating the ordinary automobiles, commuter cars, repmobiles and family motors of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Like any prestigious classic car show, it even has its own concours, where 50 much-loved models will be judged in front of the castle as part of the Concours de l’Ordinaire.
What makes cars like this the stars of the Festival of the Unexceptional is the fact they have been preserved despite their ordinariness. Their owners’ enthusiasm goes far beyond investment potential, 0-60 mph times or Instagram aura. Consider this – a quick Google search will likely find the part needed for a 60s Italian sportscar, but try the same exercise for a part for a Talbot Solara, now that’s not so easy. These cars are a labour of love, not built for profit or collectibility and keeping them in concours condition is an exceptional feat in itself.
Then there’s the memories. Perhaps your parents had an Austin Maxi (My girlfriends dad had one) you remember well, or you lusted after the new Fiesta Popular (I had one of those with 100 000 miles on the clock). Maybe it was the Skoda Rapide Coupe that caught your eye or the Yugo 45 you saw in one of the motoring magazines of the era.
One such story is that of 2025 Concours de l’Ordinaire runner-up Amy Jaine, who still drives the 1998 Renault Clio that her gran used to ferry her around in, Now she takes her gran out for day trips. A great story helped an immaculately maintained but thoroughly-used Toyota Hilux take top honours the same year. As with many classics, there is always a story behind the car.
FOTU owners also cherish originality. In 2023, Concours runner-up Sion Hudson spent two years correctly de-specifying his 1983 Austin Metro, removing upgrades added by its previous owner so that it returned exactly to the specification it had when it left the Austin-Rover factory in Longbridge. This included removing side-repeater indicators for extremely hard to find blanking plates, a reflection of the devotion to these cars that so many can appreciate.
What car would you like to bring back from your past? My first car was a Renault 5TL with a dashboard change. I have always retained a fondness for that car and would love to have an immaculate version of it. Sadly mine was a rusty heap but it lasted me 50 000 miles and taught me a lot about brakes and gearboxes.
Let us know in the comments what car you would want to bring back.