I've said it before and I’ll say it again: the Festival of the Unexceptional is the country’s most important classic car show.
It’s a ‘concours de l’ordinaire’ for unexceptional old vehicles, put on by Hagerty classic insurance. If you go, you’ll see cars that were considered boring when they were new and have ended up largely forgotten simply because they were once as ubiquitous as sliced white bread.
Now, there’s an argument that if a car was a total shed when it was new, it’s still a total shed now, just an old one. And I agree entirely. You and I will have little desire to own most of the cars you’ll see on the FotU’s concours lawn (at the Claydon Estate, Buckinghamshire) and the show knowingly has its tongue slightly in cheek for that reason.
But I think it’s more significant than that. These cars are museum pieces for everyday life. In the year 3000, when the Victoria and Albert Museum wants to show what late second millennial life was actually like, in that unique period after the car had brought us mobility, but before the internet brought us videos of cats falling off things, it’s vehicles like FotU’s that’ll show it best.
Sure, Ferrari GTOs are lovely but your dad was more likely to have had a Hillman Hunter. AC Cobras are thrilling but you probably went to a first date in a Ford Fiesta. That’s why – historically – these cars are more valuable than any Bizzarrini.
The show isn’t until 20 July, but I mention it now because entries for the concours close at the end of this month. So if your car is one of the 50 loveliest least lovely old cars around, get an application in.
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Where's the problem?
I think the "problem" of shared switchgear is one only apparent to road testers who are constantly jumping between different cars. To the ordinary buyer, I suspect that the BMW controls will largely go unnoticed so long as they function well. And if it brings a cost saving to the consumer (or better profitability for the maker), then surely that can only be a good thing.
The shared powertrain might be a different matter and frankly I'd feel happier if the Supra had its own engine.
Agree with LP in Brighton
Agree with LP in Brighton
It was the same when Aston were using Volvo switchgear/keys, both part of Ford's then PAG of luxury brands. Nothing wrong with a solid indicator stalk in a British sports car, but because the road testers had driven a C70 a few months ago they were able to out-car-geek themselves.
Or even when the X type shared some (minority) parts with the Mondeo. The Mondeo had grown up into a decent solid large car, the X type had it's own take on it, but the roadtesters were insistent "Mondeo! Mondeo!" they cried before Jaguar took the ball away by axing it.
Yet Audi gets away with tarting up VWs and Skodas, but then the roadtesters and their editors have one eye on who is buying the 2 page adverts with their Vorsprung Durch Technik trendy arty marketing photos...
By and large agree with your
By and large agree with your post...though in the many interviews that Toyota's Tetsuda Tada San has given, he confirmed Toyota took the B58 engine apart to see what they needed to do, by way of ensuring the 5 year warranty would be as safe with this power plant as with their own and no changes were found to be needed, so he says...but changes made or not, they must be happy with it and to warrant it, for two years extra more than the 3 years that BMW warrant the new Z4 M40i.
I agree it is great that we
I agree it is great that we have a supra but like you I do think more could have been done to give it more of its own identity, there nowt wrong with a BMW straight 6 up front or that it shares it's underpinnings with the Z4 but from the driver's seat it appears as though you would feel like you are in a re badged BMW, and (according to reviews) , it is more than that, it just doesn't appear to be.
A Supra with "more shporty
A Supra with "more shporty suspension"? Shurely shome mishtake?