Festival of the Unexceptional: Concours Top Ten

As promised last time, here's the second of my top tens from the brilliant Festival of the Unexceptional. This one is a run down of my favourites in the Concours de l'Ordinaire and, new to celebrate the Festival's fifth birthday, the Invitational Class consisting of past winners, cars from manufacturers' heritage fleets and others specifically invited by Hagerty. As ever, the standard of entries was extremely high and they're all deserving winners so it proved very difficult to select only ten, but here after a lot of deliberation are my final choices...  

Festival of the Unexceptional: Classic Parking Top Ten

Saturday 14th July marked the fifth birthday of Hagerty's Festival of the Unexceptional, a celebration of mundane and ordinary motoring held for the second year running in the glamorous surroundings of Stowe House and Gardens. The Concours de l'Ordinaire and its hand-selected entrants may be the centrepiece of the event, but there were plenty more equally remarkable vehicles to be found quietly lurking in the classic car parking alongside. After much deliberation and hard decision making over what would make the final cut, here's a round up of my top ten favourites from that area. How many of these do you remember?

Range Rover field test

Modern Range Rovers leave me cold. I think they're hideous and vulgar and have absolutely no desire to own one. The original, retrospectively known as the Range Rover Classic, on the other hand has long been a favourite of mine and I think its simple, rugged yet elegant shape is a design classic that looks great. I'd never actually driven or even sat in one though, until now that is.

A proper Range Rover in what should be its natural habitat

The Saturday just gone was the fifth running of Hagerty Insurance's Festival of the Unexceptional and there will be a full report on that event in due course, but this year it was decided to make a weekend of it and hold an after party in the Field of Dreams for invited guests. A nice man called Ian from Hagerty owns the blue Range Rover that can usually be found at the events they sponsor, and when he turned up on Sunday I cheekily asked if I could have a go. "Sure", he said, "the keys are in it", so I clambered in and off I went across the field to realise my dream of driving a classic Range Rover.

Dream cars: Isuzu 117 Coupé

As you've probably guessed by now, I have rather esoteric tastes when it comes to cars. I don't want to fill my dream garage with the common-or-garden Ferraris, Porsches and Rolls-Royces that most enthusiasts lust after and instead I fantasise over more left-field choices that you may never have heard of. Isuzu for instance is not a name usually associated with road cars and is better known for trucks and 4x4s like the Trooper and Rodeo. Indeed, the company is no longer active in the car market but in the past there were some little-known yet very attractive Isuzu cars, none more so than today's object of my affection, the 117 Coupé.

Isn't it a stunner? That colour is great too
(Image: eBay via taketotheroad.co.uk)