Weird & wonderful: highlights of the Hanworth Classic car festival

Every year, Bushy Park near Hampton Court in south west London brings together fabulous cars with period music to create an amazing event.

This year the weather looked kindly upon the proceedings and Autocar as it visited the festival amid sweltering temperatures. We picked out all the best cars, and here are the highlights:

Mercedes-Benz 280SE

It’s funny to think this relatively modest 280SE (left) was the S-Class of its day. This example from 1971 is one of the final examples from the W108 generation, first introduced in 1965, and featured a 2.8-litre straight six.

Mercedes-Benz 560SEC

Behold this marvellous 560SEC bruiser from 1990. This handsome beast has aged extremely well, and with a sunroof and its pillar-less doors, is almost a convertible on this boiling hot day. This generation was dubbed C126, the coupe cousin of the W126 four-door, and was first built in 1981.

The 560 variant arrived in 1985, and as production ended in 1991, this is one of the last of the breed. The 560 featured a 295hp V8, compared to 231hp for the 500; full fat in other words.

Citroen DS

The look of this car still has the power to both shock and entertain; when it was first unleashed to the world in 1955 it must have looked like it came from another planet.

Mercedes SL ‘Pagoda’

The delicate elegance of the W113 SL (1963-71) is always lovely to behold, especially in white and when you have two of them.  The car on the left is a 280SL from 1968; its different headlamp configuration, left-hand-drive, and the side reflector suggest this is an import from America. The car on the right is a very early 230SL model from 1964. Magnificent.

TR7 Drophead Coupé

The 1970s gave us the ‘wedge’ shape in all shapes and sized, from a vast array of car makers. Triumph was not to be left out of the party, and even the colour of this one from 1980-81 is very much of its time. A great way to get around on a summer’s day. The car went out of production later in 1981, after 115,000 had been made, of which 28,864 were convertibles.

Citroen 2CV

France and perhaps much of Europe would have trundled around in the early ‘40s in the 2CV if the Second World War hadn’t got in the way. Instead, its destiny was to help France get back onto its feet when the war finally ended.

The nine horsepower on offer in the early cars doesn’t sound endlessly generous by today’s standards, but when the alternative was your own two feet or a horse, it wasn’t a bad option. This example is from the first generation of cars, made between 1949 and 1960.

A Citroen CX

…but not as you know it, Jim.

Ford Transit

This police van is the first generation Transit, built between 1965 and 1986. Versions sold in Britain initially came from Slough, but production was moved to Southampton in 1972. The Transit was and is a workhorse of the nation, and has been the best-selling commercial vehicle for several years.

This vehicle is doubly historic as it was the first product of Ford of Europe – previously Ford’s British and German operations were fiercely independent of each other.

Ford Capri & Bedford Dormobile

The Capri (right) was the Ford that teenagers aspired to, in part because it was a realistic ambition, unlike the Italian exotica that they might have hung on their bedroom walls instead. Produced between 1969 and 1986 (this particular one is a late example from 1984), it was originally supposed to be a Mustang for Europe but it never quite worked that way.

Still, Ford shifted 1.9 million of them, and perhaps we should all salute the days when a sports coupe from a mainstream company could make it. We shall not see its like again.

The Bedford is also an icon of sorts; venerable coachbuilder Martin Walter would take the Bedford CA van and convert them into campervans at its factory in Folkstone. Lacking the hippy cachet of the VW Camper, they nonetheless had their fans, and indeed Dormobile became something of a generic term for the van-based motorhome.

Citroen Ami 6

You either love the Ami… or you don’t. A car in the segment above the 2CV, it addressed a demand for something more practical and less utilitarian in nature. Its arch rival was the Renault 4, which launched shortly after it did in 1961, and both were big sellers in France and some other markets.

Deep down, there is a 2CV hiding under every Ami – but luckily with all that extra weight you got a (somewhat) more generous engine: a 602cc flat-two belting out 26hp, as in this 1965 example. Production ceased in 1978.

Triumph Herald 1200

If you were a man or woman about town in the swinging 60s in London, the Herald was the car to have. Obtainable, affordable, stylish, it had everything you could want except reliability. That last matter improved with the arrival of the 1200 version in 1961, and power was boosted up to 39hp, up from 34.5hp in the original.

Production came to an end in 1971, after half a million Heralds were sold in various guises. This particular example hails from 1966.

MG MGB

Picnic hamper on the back, rug on the ground, a table under the shade – no more need be asked of this particular summer’s day. And doesn't the MG look smart?

Triumph TR5

Produced for just over a year in 1967-8, we admire the muscular presence of this car. Power came from a 2.5-litre straight six (purloined from the Triumph 2000 sports saloon), delivering 150bhp. Just 2947 cars were produced before it was replaced by the TR6, which addressed some of the infuriating foibles of the 5, such as abrupt power failure due to a poorly designed fuel system.

Plymouth Superbird

Surely the most dramatic car of the show, the Superbird was a development of the Road Runner and produced only in 1970. Developed for NASCAR racing, power came from a choice of three V8s in various states of tune.  Around 2783 were built, and are today very valuable – probably even more so over here as so few have made the trip over.

Dodge Chargers

A brace of these magnificently brutal machines shook up a corner of the event. One inevitably is in the General Lee colour, though fortunately not with the Confederate flag on its roof on this occasion.

Morris Minor 1000

A huge selling car in the ‘50s, this Minor Series II has undergone... discreet modification.

Ford Mustang Mach 1

This particular Mach 1 is a second generation high performance Mustang, dating from 1972-73. Not nearly as pretty as the original Mustang Mach 1, an additional menace to this generation of American sports car was the impact of new federal emissions regulations which saw power from even immense engines throttled substantially.

Ford Mustang

This is more like it – the original Mustang, and the best.

Chevrolet Parkwood

A vast station wagon from 1959, when such machines were the only way to cart a family around. Built only for three years, the name disappeared in 1961 when GM rejigged its alphabet soup of model names.

Chevrolet C/K 10 Pickup

A burly piece of Americana in this corner of south-west London.

Ford Thunderbird

This is an example of a third-generation Thunderbird, produced between 1961 and 1963. The updated design and powerful 6.4-litre V8 engine good for 300bhp contributed to decent sales.

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Look at this: this Stingray from 1971-72 looks in amazing condition, and nicely complements the Austin-Healey 3000 behind it.

Chrysler Imperial

What a glorious beast this is, from the days when fins ruled the roost in American car design. We believe this is a 1961 model.

Continue browsing some of the other highlights of the show:

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival

Hanworth Classic car festival