NEC Classic Motor Show 2026: the debutants, Clarkson's cars and a £16m sale

Table of Contents

• The debutants worth finding
• The birthdays
• Iconic's biggest sale yet
• The rest of the show
• Which day to go
• What I will be watching

The classic car season ends the same way every year: indoors, in November, in a very large set of sheds beside the M42. On Friday 13 November the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show opens at the NEC in Birmingham, with more than 3,000 cars and bikes across seven halls, more than 320 clubs and over 450 traders. Last year 72,738 people came through the doors. The floor space comes to about 16 football pitches, so wear decent shoes.

A show more than 40 years old could happily coast. Instead the organisers have set the clubs some homework. The theme this year is Débutant, and every club was challenged to bring at least one car that has never been exhibited here before. The answer, they say, is hundreds of first-timers across the halls, including a 1921 Standard, a Jaguar fire tender and a TVR with jet engines. Meanwhile Iconic Auctioneers has filled Hall 2 with more than 600 vehicles for its largest sale so far, and three of them belong to Jeremy Clarkson.

When

Friday 13 to Sunday 15 November 2026

Where

NEC Birmingham, B40 1NT

Tickets

Adults from £40.20 in advance

Book by

Midnight on Thursday 12 November

Book tickets

The debutants worth finding

Some clubs went well past the minimum. The Morris Minor Owners Club and the XJ40 Register have filled their stands with nothing but first-timers.

I would start with the TVR Car Club, because it has the Tuscan S from the 2003 film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, turned into a silver spy car with wings and jet engines. The removable film kit has survived and will sit next to it. It is the car's first classic show in more than 20 years, and I cannot think of another Blackpool product that has been asked to do so much.

The XJ40 Register is bringing the oldest surviving XJ40 of all, which turns out to be a working fire tender and will light up on the stand. With it come the last surviving pre-production launch car and the very last XJ40 off the line.

Maserati Club UK has the grandest stand. A Tipo 26 won its class first time out in 1926, so the club is marking a hundred years of Maserati racing with cars from four eras, starting with a pre-war 4CS and running through the 300S and 450S to the track-only MCXtrema.

The MX-5 Owners Club has found a lost car. Mazda sold just 24 UK Le Mans Edition cars in 1991, after the 787B won the 24 Hours, and one of them dropped out of sight more than two decades ago. It has now turned up and will sit alongside four of the others.

The Standard Motor Club takes the prize for cutting it fine. Its 1921 Standard SLO was last restored 60 years ago, appeared unrestored at the NEC in March, and is having its last jobs finished in time for November.

For sheer stubbornness, look for the 2-door 1500 Super on the MK1 Cortina stand. It was saved from scrap for £250 in 1997, restored by its owner and has since won a shelf of trophies. My favourite entry of the lot, though, is the 1967 saloon on the Morris Minor stand, rebuilt so thoroughly that its owner calls it "the automotive embodiment of Trigger's broom".

The Focus Mk1 Preservation Club is making its first NEC appearance with a 2004 ST170 estate. If a Ford Focus at a classic show bothers you, the Meet the Experts stage has a panel on all three days called What makes a 'classic car' in 2026? I expect that one to get lively.

The birthdays

The calendar has been kind to Ford and Volkswagen. The Golf GTI and the Fiesta are both 50, and the Cortina Mk2 is 60. The Mk1 Golf Owners Club has four GTIs, including the oldest one known, built in June 1976. The Fiesta MKI Club has one of every Mk1 variant, with the XR2 and Series X among them, plus a Group 2 rally car from Haynes of Maidstone. The Ford Cortina Mk II Owners Club has three early cars, one with a direct link to the 1966 launch.

The Mk II Consul, Zephyr and Zodiac club has one of each to mark 70 years since they were unveiled at Earls Court. The Capri 280 Group has four cars for the 40th anniversary of the run that ended the Capri: 1,038 cars, built in 18 days in December 1986.

The one I most want to see is Jaguar's. The Jaguar Drivers' Club is 70 this year and is in Hall 1 on stand 1-740. It has the original XJ220 concept, the V12 prototype built by a dozen engineers and designers in their own time. Sir John Egan unveiled it at the NEC on 18 October 1988, so it is going back to where it started. Next to it will be a production XJ220 converted from V6 to V12, which is the car a lot of buyers thought they had ordered in the first place. The same stand has XK8s for that car's 30th birthday, including the Geneva show car and MP19, the mule that started the project.

Iconic's biggest sale yet

Iconic Auctioneers has taken most of a hall for what it calls its largest ever sale, with more than £16m of cars and bikes on offer. So many owners wanted in that it closed entries early. The Iconic Sale has 160 cars on Saturday from 10am. The Classic Sale has 212 cars on Sunday from 10am, and the Iconic Motorcycle Sale follows from 10.30am with 250 lots. Viewing starts on Friday at 10am.

Your show ticket does not get you onto the auction floor. You need a catalogue, which is £20 for two people on Friday and Saturday and £10 on Sunday.

Here is what I would make a point of seeing, with Iconic's estimates:

• 1966 Honda RC173£750,000 to £950,000
  The works 350cc Honda that carried Mike Hailwood to the 1966 world title, with six Grand Prix wins along the way.Sunday
• 1983 Lamborghini Countach LP5000 SFrom £700,000
  One of 321, with fewer than 16,000 miles. Nick Mason arranged for Marcello Gandini to sign the dashboard during filming for a Citroën BX advert in 1989.Saturday
• 1970 Aston Martin DB6 Mk2 Volante£450,000 to £550,000
  One of 38, from the collection of Iconic's founder Nick Whale. It spent time as Aston Martin's reversible electric demonstrator and now has its original engine back.Saturday
• 1980 BMW M1£400,000 to £500,000
  Inka Orange, with the same Midlands owner for about 25 years. Unlike many M1s it has been used, including trips across Europe.Saturday
• 2004 Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM AMG£400,000 to £500,000
  Jenson Button bought it new and kept it for almost 15 years.Saturday
• 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo SE Flachbau£350,000 to £400,000
  Ordered by Ron Dennis and delivered straight to McLaren. Its current owner has covered just over 2,500 miles in 33 years.Saturday
• 1969 Reliant Supervan III£30,000 to £40,000
  APL 911H, the only van used in all 13 episodes of the first two series of Only Fools and Horses. Having seen the Trigger's broom Minor, you can walk over and pay your respects.Sunday
• 1978 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II£25,000 to £30,000
  Noel Gallagher's chocolate brown Rolls, which took him to the Downing Street reception in 1997.Saturday

Clarkson's three cars all go with no reserve on Saturday, so each will sell for whatever the room decides. The 1982 Lancia Montecarlo Spider is the last car he drove on The Grand Tour, in One for the Road. The 1983 Alfa Romeo GTV6 is the one from Well Aged Scotch, whose propshaft gave up on the North Coast 500. The 1978 Lincoln Continental Mark V comes from Lochdown and still has its nitrous kit, plus a set of bagpipes in the boot.

The Classic Sale on Sunday is where most of us can actually play. There are two Lotus Esprit garage finds: a Signal Red 1976 Series 1 showing 25,894 miles (£25,000 to £30,000), and a 1982 S3 believed to be one of four in Altair Green, stored since the early 1990s (£12,000 to £15,000). Chris Harris's old long-term Jaguar XKR, Big Red, is estimated at £16,000 to £20,000.

On the bike side, the Honda SP-1 that Joey Dunlop rode to win the 2000 Formula 1 TT has never been offered publicly before (£80,000 to £100,000). Aleix Espargaró is selling his 2020 Aprilia RS-GP himself, with his leathers and helmet from that season (£200,000 to £300,000).

The rest of the show

The YouTube Village is new this year, the first time the show has given car YouTube a home of its own, and five channels are bringing the actual cars from the videos. Tasty Classics has the Austin A40 Farina whose rescue film passed a million views. Driven by Meg has a 1998 Volvo 940 estate she bought for £100 to save it from the scrapyard. JayEmm on Cars expects to bring his Ferrari 550, Celica GT-Four and City Rover, plus a surprise car he is keeping quiet until show week. idriveaclassic brings her 1968 Morris Minor and Garage of Luke his 1992 MX-5.

The Meguiar's Club Showcase in Hall 1 gathers cars that have already won at club and concours level during the year, and the winner is named at noon on Sunday. The field has a 1987 Ferrari 328 GTB with 22,000 miles, a 1997 MX-5 still on its dealer floor mats, and a 1959 Ford Edsel Ranger whose owner came to last year's show for a look round and went home owning it. Let that be a warning to us all.

The 20 finalists in the Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership are all newcomers to the competition, and you get a vote. Among them are a 1956 Renault Juvaquatre, a 1975 Land Rover Series 3 fire engine and a 1986 Freight Rover Sherpa. I like any contest where a Sherpa can beat a Ferrari 308.

Mike Brewer is on the Meet the Experts stage in Hall 5 on all three days, with faces from Bangers & Cash, Flipping Bangers and Dream Car Fixers. The Hall of Fame names are revealed there at noon on Friday, and the car shortlist is the Ferrari F40, Lotus Esprit and Jensen Interceptor. Also in Hall 5 is the new Zircotec Modified Zone, with 15 modified cars, all built before 2006. Live podcasts record in the Podcast Café in Hall 3, and the Restoration Workshop has mechanics on hand to answer questions.

The shopping is the real danger. Between more than 450 traders, a hall of dealers and the UK's biggest indoor autojumble, you can probably find that one elusive part. Set a budget, and try not to go home with an Edsel.

Which day to go

Advance adult tickets are £47.20 on Friday, £42.20 on Saturday and £40.20 on Sunday, all including the booking fee. A three-day pass is £89.20. Family tickets for two adults and up to three under-16s start at £86.70, and under-5s go free with a paying adult. Advance sales stop at midnight on Thursday 12 November, and the door price is up to £10 more. If your club is at the show, ask before you book, as some have discount codes for members.

Friday is the dearest day and opens an hour later, but it is the one I would pick. Every lot is on view, the Hall of Fame names come out at noon, and you have a clear day on the club stands before the auctions draw everyone to Hall 2. Saturday is for anyone who wants to watch the Clarkson cars go, and I would expect it to be the busiest day. Sunday is the cheapest and the shortest, but it has the Classic Sale, the bikes and Best in Show.

The show's ticket page has the full list of prices, and our event listing covers parking and trains. Look up the clubs you want to see in our club directory before you go, because seven halls is a lot of ground to cover by luck.

What I will be watching

Iconic says it sold £11m worth of vehicles at last year's show, with an 83% sales rate. This year it has more than £16m to find homes for, and it follows a Goodwood Revival sale where buyers turned up in numbers and then would not pay last year's prices. Of the 72 cars Bonhams sold there, 47 went below their low estimate.

What strikes me about this catalogue is how much of it rests on names. Clarkson, Gallagher, Button, Dennis, Mason, Harris, Del Boy. The clearest test is that Lancia. For the programme it was given Ferrari 308 rear lights, plus wheels, headlights and a grille from a Delta Integrale, so as a Montecarlo it has gone backwards. Anything it makes above the price of a tidy standard car is the price of having been Jeremy Clarkson's, and with no reserve there is nothing to hide behind.

The Reliant is the other one. A 1969 Supervan in need of bodywork made £14,872 at Historics last November. Iconic's estimate puts this one at twice that or more, on the strength of 13 episodes and a light restoration to its screen appearance. I think it will get there, because British buyers are not rational about Only Fools and Horses, and nor should they be. If it falls short, the Goodwood mood has reached the cheap seats as well.

We will have the results after the show. Until then, book before the 12th and pick your day. It has been a long summer of standing in wet fields, and there is a lot to be said for a car show with a roof on it, particularly one with a fire tender that lights up.