Festival of the Unexceptional
Last weekend, one of the greatest car festivals our world has to offer took place: the Festival of the Unexceptional. A Skoda Favorit took home the first prize.
There are already enough car festivals where you stumble upon perfectly conditioned classic Bugattis, Maseratis, and Porsches. You won’t find such cars at the British Festival of the Unexceptional, and that’s what makes it so much fun. It’s all about the unsung heroes of the roads from bygone eras. Cars like the Nissan Sunny, Ford Escort, and Peugeot 306. Here you’ll find the cars that once populated every street corner, but now, due to their sneaky rarity, are worth a second look.
As every year, some winners are announced at the ‘FOTU’ in the ‘Concours de L’Ordinaire’. This year, the main prize went to a blue 1992 Skoda Favorit. The 33-year-old Czech is from the eleven-year-younger Simon Packowski, who snatched the car from the junkyard. The Favorit was nominated for the junkyard because of a broken head gasket, but Packowski gave it a second chance. According to the jury, he also drove 1,600 km to pick up a set of original headrests. If that’s not love. He received the main prize as a reward last weekend.
The second prize was for a red 1999 Ford Mondeo Wagon. Who would have thought that you could ever win a prize with that at a car festival? It is also a very bare Mondeo, which was once ready for a banger-race. Owner Callum Bailey put no less than 6,000 pounds into making it completely neat. Just try to do it. The third prize was for Andy Smith and his bright yellow Citroën Visa Club. According to the jury, ‘one of the three remaining copies’. We assume that it refers to the right-hand drive versions of this specific version of the Visa. Special enough in any case. The trio makes for a nice colorful picture.