Women Gather at Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show

The ‘She’s a Beauty’ theme given to this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, held at Birmingham’s NEC from 13-15 November, is set to bring together some thrilling women and their prized classics. The show will team concours classics with motorsport marvels, highlighting the efforts of women across the classic car scene.

The Bentley 4.5-litre entered into the Benjafield 24 by the Bentley Belles will take pride of place on the feature display stand, along with Bentley Belle Katarina Kyvalova. The team, which also included Gillian Carr, Georgina Riley and Georgie Brewster, only met for the first time the day before the endurance event, and entered the record books as the only all-female team to campaign a Bentley in a 24hr endurance race, ever. Since then, they have added the same accolade to their list for the Spa Six Hour Race. Katarina also competed in the Flying Scotsman Rally and at Spa, as well as finishing third in a Cooper Jaguar at Goodwood Revival.

Jessica Harvey will be bringing her MGB GT, built for hillclimbing. A ‘Café racer GT’, it’s driven hard, but is also a show-scene classic, to the point where it’s received paint rectification for showing three times this year. She won “Best modified MG” with the car at MG Live in June, a testament to the uprated 2.0 B-series producing 150bhp, the race cam, the fully adjustable suspension and the uprated brakes.

The Whyte sisters are the world’s youngest all female endurance historic rally team, and compete in HERO’s Austin Seven. Seren, 23, and Elise, 25, have been competing in historic endurance rallies since their first Le Jog in 2012, and show no signs of letting up yet. They’ve used a variety of cars from the HERO fleet, including a BMW 1602 and a Triumph TR4.

But women aren’t all about motorsport. Sandra Britton has gone the opposite way with her Mini, taking it to concours-winning condition. Between her and husband Colin, the 1968 MK2 Super De Luxe has been fully restored on a suburban driveway over the course of four years. Sixty ‘first in class’ awards and scores of ‘best in show’ awards later, Sandra’s proud of the car. But not so proud as to trailer it – this car is driven to every show it attends.

Sometimes, the beauty in question isn’t human. Wanda the Chevrolet Impala really is a beauty, and embodies everything that the phrase suggests. This ten-year restoration project has seen a number of house moves, family illnesses and more interrupt progress, it’s now a credit to the restorers Vince and Andy Cooper.

The 2015 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show will be held from 13^th to 15^th November at Birmingham’s NEC. For more information on the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show or Classic Motorbike Show as well as all the ticket prices and booking details, visit www.necclassicmotorshow.com.

Staff