Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show 2023 - NEC - 10th to12th November 2023

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, which is held at the NEC every November, is regarded by many as being one of the best Classic Car Shows in the World.

Many Club members attend this event every year, but the NEC is a fair distance from Aberdeen and the dilemma we face is how many days to go for and how do we get there!  This year, a friend of mine wanted to go but could only spare 1 day, so he and I flew to and from Birmingham with Loganair for just a day at the show - to be honest, a day is nowhere near enough to take it all in. 

Shortly after we had booked everything, I received an e-mail from Larry Cluness of the Shetland Classic Car Club to say that they had arranged an all inclusive trip to the show including luxury coach travel, accommodation and a 2 day pass, and would any of our members like to join them?  Unfortunately, this was too late for me but 2 of our members - David Ross and Alastair Chisholm - decided it was too good to miss and signed up for the trip. 

David Ross very kindly did a write up of his experience on the trip as follows:

With an attendance of very nearly 72,000 and 319 car clubs, the NEC Classic Car Show was a highly successful event.

I fancied going but with so many miles to drive, the alternative being flights but that would have incurred all the palaver of getting out to Aberdeen Airport and navigating my way through to the aircraft. I used to do that around three times a month but at my age…….. Driving there and back would have presented its own difficulties. Could I get sufficient friends together, could I arrange decent accommodation when there and what about going out for dinners? In the past, that has involved getting to a place of choice but getting lost on the way back. Then, thanks to an e-mail from Martyn, up came a very promising proposition.

I had, one year ago, savoured the delights of not just the Shetland Classic show but also the delights of an island I had not been to for around sixty years. So, when Martyn mentioned that a number of the Shetland club were arranging a coach tour to the show with an all-inclusive package of transport - by luxury coach - pre-booked hotel accommodation and show entry, it appeared a very attractive proposition. Not cheap but it looked like excellent value.

So, up at the bewitching hour of 5:30am (I’m not even good at getting up nearer to 9am) I was out looking for a local bus to the NorthLink Ferry Terminal where I thought the coach was due off the ferry from Lerwick at circa 6am. Wrong on two counts. The ferry, with the club members, was not due in till nearly 7am and the coach was already in Aberdeen. I was the second to get on-board and once the full complement of Shetlanders were on-board too, there was plenty of space in a very impressive vehicle.

At the wheel was classic car enthusiast, Morris Morrison, a director of Andrews Adventures, owners of the Volvo coach. Morris, it turned out is the regular driver and it showed. We all enjoyed an impressively smooth run, with pre-planned stops at excellent motorway services and Morris’s ability to avoid any motorway holdups was matched by his astonishing ability to end our run at an excellent hotel in deepest Birmingham where the rooms were extremely pleasant and the dinner impressive too - all in the very pleasant company of the enthusiasts from Shetland.

The next day would have been something of a nightmare as parking a car, let alone a large luxury coach at the NEC is not only never easy but usually entails a lengthy walk to the show. Not so. Morris dropped us off at the front door of the NEC and was there again at 6pm when the doors closed. So, it was a superb door-to-door experience. I should have said we travelled down on the Thursday and spent the first day, Friday, at the show. Back to the hotel with Morris displaying his magic with Google Maps on his mobile phone. Not one wrong turning and that was the way whenever he was at the wheel. I was really quite stunned.

I was also very surprised, as were others, with the amazing turnout on the Friday, in the past a very expensive and not overly busy day. This year, quite the opposite. Huge queues to get in but with excellent organisation we were all inside in no time. The following day, Morris wound his way through central Birmingham and its huge buildings, to get us right up to the front door once again and, at the end of the day at the show, was there to whisk us up to Weatherby, magically avoiding any motorway holdups.

Our rooms, mine anyway, at a Days Inn at the service station was highly impressive, larger even than mine at Birmingham, was very pleasant and I had my first taste of a KFC, with excellent chicken. I had not been at one before, but AMGOC member Alastair Chisholm, the only other Club member on the trip other than me, was obviously an old hand so made sure I ordered what I wanted.

The next day started with an impressive Continental breakfast followed by the Sunday run. Again, Morris did a sterling job. The sun shone in the sky all the way to Brechin. There the rain started, but we were in Aberdeen mid-afternoon.

So that was a first in many years for me as virtually everything that would cause me to experience the usual anxiety breakdown had been taken care of by Morris, despite his totally laid back attitude.

I really cannot recommend Andrews Adventures more highly. For me, it’s now the only way to enjoy time at what is a sensational show with a world-wide reputation. There is no way it can be fully explored in one day. Two days seemed just about right. Doing it ones-self, or with friends, would save very little if anything at all. And you would have to put up with all the hassle that would entail. Here’s to next year.

This seems to be an excellent way to visit the show so hopefully the trip will be repeated next year.

Unfortunately David only took one picture, reproduced below, but highlights of the 2023 show can be found at the following link: