The Festival of the Unexceptional might be best known for celebrating forgotten family cars, but the vans and pickups scattered around this year’s show at Grimsthorpe Castle were arguably even more evocative.
Thirteen light commercial vehicles made it to this year’s event, ranging from familiar Ford and Volkswagen workhorses to obscure pickups and vans that would have been rare even when new.
The sold-out show attracted 4,500 visitors and around 2,500 vehicles, making it the largest Festival of the Unexceptional held so far. Fifty vehicles were selected for the Concours de l’Ordinaire, with the remainder filling the grounds and long driveway around Grimsthorpe Castle.
Professional Van arrived in suitably unexceptional fashion, borrowing a Ford Transit Hallmark from Ford’s heritage fleet. Arguably a little too special to be worthy of an award, just 600 Hallmark models were made, but this timecapsule had covered just 1,200 miles since it rolled off the production line in 1995.
The Hallmark was one of several Ford commercial vehicles at the show. Karen and Mark Clare brought along their remarkably original 2000 Ford Escort Van 1.8D, which has had just three owners. All original — there’s not even any welding — the Escort now spends its days going from show to show, and acting as a mobile kennel for two wonderful assistance dogs.
Jack Duxbury’s 1991 Ford P100 Popular TD was one of the two commercial vehicles selected for the concours. Jack bought the P100 because it was the same model his father had owned, and the judges considered it worthy of a special commendation. Maintained but not restored, Jack’s P100 includes the dents, scratches and imperfections that tell you more about its history than any amount of polishing could ever do.
Volkswagen was represented by a 1990 T25 and a 1999 T4 Transporter crew van, while a 2002 Seat Inca provided a reminder of how many compact car-derived vans once filled Britain’s streets.
Other familiar names included a 1989 Subaru MV pickup — more famous as the Brat — which has covered only 3,000 miles in the past 20 years.
A 1999 Skoda Felicia Fun arguably stretched the definition of a commercial vehicle, but its pickup body and sliding rear bulkhead that reveals a pair of jump seats were enough to earn it a place among the vans and pickups.
The more unusual entries included a 1985 Talbot 1100 pickup, a 1970 Toyota Corona pickup and a 1966 Volvo P210 Duett converted into a pickup.
There was also a 1962 Triumph Herald Courier Van, a surviving example of a small commercial vehicle that has become considerably rarer than the saloon on which it was based.
Perhaps the most exotic LCV of the day was a 1967 Autobianchi Bianchina Furgoncino. The tiny Italian van had been restored over 12 years and was one of those vehicles capable of stopping even knowledgeable enthusiasts in their tracks.
Commercial vehicles deserve preserving too
Many of the vans and pickups celebrated at the Festival were once considered purely disposable tools.
Unlike family cars, commercial vehicles generally worked hard from the moment they were registered. They carried tools, equipment, parcels and building materials, often before being sold cheaply and worked even harder by their next owner.
That makes an unwelded Escort Van, an unmodified Seat Inca or an elderly Transit in its original specification increasingly difficult to find.
The Festival of the Unexceptional exists to celebrate ordinary vehicles that might otherwise have been scrapped and forgotten. On that basis, its small collection of surviving vans and pickups may have been among the most deserving vehicles at the entire show.
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