The British Motor Show has announced that it will introduce a new display category for this year’s event. The “Mum and Dad’s Cars” exhibit will seek to highlight mundane cars from the past alongside the flamboyant supercars of today.
The cars in the display will be selected based not on their market value but rather on their unmatchable sentimental value as a nod to the regular cars that, for many petrolheads, started it all.
“This is the only car show where you’ll find a Nissan Bluebird rubbing shoulders with a brand new McLaren,” said The British Motor Show CEO, Andy Entwistle. “But it’s the cars our mums and dads owned that were the catalyst for most of us developing a love of cars, and The British Motor Show is all about the love of cars.”
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If you’ll allow me a bit of a tangent, one of my favorite TV chefs growing up, Pasquale Carpino, used to always say that “mama is the best chef in the world.” What I liked best about it was that it was something that he said sincerely, a nod to the great power early experiences have over us to create interests and define taste.
Similarly, the car that feels the most like home to me is the 1998 Ford Contour (or Mondeo, depending on your location) that I learned to drive on. It was the first car I can remember my dad owning that wasn’t a wagon and he deliberately chose the V6 with the 5-speed manual transmission. To me, it was the best car in the world.
At the risk of turning this into a lowkey QOTD, I invite you to sound off in the comments with the car from your past that fills you with the most sentiment.
People in the UK who would like to turn that QOTD into a real-life conversation can head to the British Motor Show running from August 19 to 22 at Farnborough International, southwest of London. The show will also be the first major event in the UK to go on with no COVID restrictions – but we’d advise visitors to be extra careful anyway.
