Couple showcase 'unexceptional' car at festival of everyday family vehicles

Hilary and Alan Foster have been attending the Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional for four years now after they were told about the event that takes place at Grimsthorpe Castle Park and Gardens in Lincolnshire.

The purpose of the event is to recognise cars of years gone by: but the ordinary ones, rather than the souped-up headline grabbers .

And os the Up Holland pair’s 1990 Ford Escort fits in perfectly and fared well in the latest competition.

And despite the vehicle’s age, it is still used regularly including trips to Southport and has more than 60,000 miles on the clock.

In a competition which there were plenty entrants, the Escort finished in the top 50 – which Hilary sees as a great achievement.

She said: “We think we’ve won because we got in the top 50; that’s good enough for us. You get loads of people telling you that they learned to drive in one of these, or their dad owned one.

"We had a police officer show us a picture of his first car which was a Ford Escort.”

Organisers Hagerty typically look for cars registered between 1967 and 1997, with judges placing an emphasis on originality and ordinary versions of cars. For example Renaults are much preferred to Rolls-Royces and the story behind the vehicle can make all the difference when having to choose between a number of the same make and model.

And the Escort isn’t their only unexceptional car!

Hilary said: “The Fiesta we have is a 1983 model and Alan uses that as his daily run-around and we make sure that we get the necessary work done to it.

"We’re not so sure whether we’ll be entering the Hagerty Festival next year as it’s a long way to drive. It’s the 10th year so we hope to make it, but we don’t think we’d get onto the Concours again due to other cars being there. We’ll see what condition the Escort is in at the time, so you never know.

"We took our grandson and he was amazed. You don’t see them on the road but there were so many at the event, you wonder where they all come from!”