Don't throw Mervyn's money at the banks, spend it on cars instead

BRITAIN'S beleaguered bunch of bankers and business tsars really ought to stop ruining the economy and move into classic cars instead.

This is just one of the conclusions I've learned from a weekend traipsing around the Classic Motor Show, an annual gathering of beards, Brummies and old Bristols at the National Exhibition Centre, just outside Birmingham.



Sure, the sight of Alan Sugar sprawled underneath a Sunbeam Tiger is about as likely as Richard Hammond running Northern Rock, but I honestly think the world of classic cars could do with a little quantative easing.




Lots of you have probably been to these shows - our very own Woodvale Rally does a great job of showcasing Southport's older motors - but the telling thing wasn't actually the acres of polished panels adorning the show's entrants.

It was actually the suspicious number of car-sized trailers parked just outside, some probably costing more than their cargo. I wager that not one of the wheeled wonders at the show actually arrived under its own steam, which gives naïve visitors the wrong impression.



The best bits were undoubtedly the dream classics nobody could afford to run - apart from Sir Fred Goodwin, perhaps - but away from all the D-Types, Astons and Ferraris was a procession of MGs, Singers and other sad machines that spend their lives in lock-ups and had been ushered into the show on trailers like diva celebrities. Even Mariah Carey doesn't get that sort of treatment.

Don't get me wrong, the show was fantastic but too many of the machines just seemed the subject of Mervyn King-style investment. And there I was thinking the £5,500 my flatmate's just spent on another Ford Capri was a bit much.



In fact the real star of the show was in fact the lone Triumph Stag parked next to us in the car park, which had all those lovely telltale signs of actually being used on a daily basis. Away from the endless array of too-clean Cortinas and money-no-object Morris Marinas, this was a refreshing shot of reality.

The chap who owns it is clearly a sensible soul who knows how to spend money properly. I think he should be our leader.



Revisit Life On Cars later this week for more pictures from the show.