There are too many car festivals to consider them all, but for the ‘Festival of the Unexceptional’ we like to make an exception. This year it can take place again and the organization is already showing which gems can be expected.
Forget the festivals filled with millions of Ferraris, 300 SL Gullwings and hundred-year-old curios. After all, there are plenty of those. The wonderfully opposite approach of the ‘Festival of the Unexceptional’ can certainly be appreciated. At the car party, also known as ‘Concours de l’Ordinaire’, which takes place on July 31 in Lincolnshire, England, the cars of the common man or woman are lifted to the highest stage. Cars that you once stumbled upon, that sometimes were never worth a second look, but are really fun because of the nostalgia. Our ‘In the Wild’ section would be red hot if we were to shoot photos there.
The organization already shows a series of cars that will be shown there anyway and that is a list to lick your fingers. If you can ever appreciate it so terribly ordinary, that is. For example, there is an ordinary Ford Escort Mk4 from 1989, but one that remained with its first owner for 30 years and is still maintained at the dealer where it was once sold new. It appears to be in exceptionally neat condition. Nice, since you almost never see them anymore. This certainly applies to the Fiat Ritmo, first generation Renault Espace and the Renault 19, which are also represented there. The Renault 19 is described wonderfully sarcastically by the organization: “Under the hood is the incorrectly called ‘energy’ 1.4 and it is also an extra impractical three-door, so it scores a bonus point or two.”
That the extinct ‘ordinary’ is put in the spotlight with the occasional joke, is also apparent from what we think is the most striking entry from this list: a Daewoo Espero. We can hardly imagine that this model has ever been in the spotlights anywhere after its unveiling in 1991. Yes, maybe at the dealer. Now an Espero can once again be the center of attention, a white one from 1995, which was snatched from the claws of the wrecker in 2014. Whether it’s nice enough to steal the attention of the apparently rather crispy Lancia Trevi from 1982 (photo 9), we dare to doubt.