To call the assembled ranks of Vintage Cars at the Gloucestershire Steam Extravaganza simply a Classic Car Section, is possibly the biggest injustice you'll find on the South Cerney showground. Why? Well if you visit this particular section on the Sunday afternoon, you'll find around 800, yes that's eight hundred Vintage, Veteran, Classic and Collectors Cars representing makers from all over the world.
We are not exaggerating when we say that if you're a petrol head of any description you will be needing a good day to get around and have a proper look at what our various car section leaders have assembled for you.
The overall display is split into five sub sections all of which represent a specific era in car manufacture and will showcase various makes, models, design improvement and design failures that you'll be able to browse at close quarters, reminisce about and quite possibly drool over.
Our oldest display is that of 'Veteran, Vintage and Pre War' cars, which assembles iconic names such as Austin, Delarge, Morris and of course the iconic Ford Model T. With examples dating from 1912 onwards this really should be your first port of call in the various displays presented to you.
You can follow the development of the motor car in our next section, the 'Post War Cars (Pre 1972)'. What a diverse and interesting display this particular element is with all the iconic names you'd associate with your own family history.
Next up we have the post 1972 cars, or 'The Classic Collectors Cars' as we call them. Mainly gathered from the 1970's we have the delights of the Ford empire (Capri, Escort, Granada, Cortina) as well as other iconic names that you'll recognise instantly and will possibly have owned in your own lifetime.We also have a separate section for 'Historic American Cars', which not only brings a sense of scale to the motor car, but also a slice of Hollywood to South Cerney. Iconic to say the least.
Finally we have our 'Car Clubs' section, which pretty much covers all of the above categories in variety but are 'groups' of vehicles presented by owners who are members of national, regional and local car clubs.
It's a fascinating section. Rich in quality as well as diversity and one which any self respecting car enthusiast would be hard to beat anywhere else during the first weekend in August!