The stars of this year's Pride of Ownership Awards

Did you join us at last year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, held at Birmingham's NEC? If not, you missed a great show! As ever, the highlights included our very own Pride of Ownership Awards, in which owners of some of the most beautiful, rarest and most lovingly maintained classic cars in Britain got to show off their beloved automobiles. And what a wonderful crop they were this year. Let’s take a closer look at this year’s finalists.

What are the Pride of Ownership Awards?

We've been running the Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership Awards for several years now, as a celebration of both the many wonderful classic cars out there, and their fantastically dedicated, knowledgeable owners.

This was a world we really wanted to celebrate. After all, as we all know, as an owner of a classic vehicle, you want to look after it – and to show it off in all its lavishly polished and restored beauty, to other like-minded enthusiasts. And that's just what these Awards do.

The Pride of Ownership Awards allow Britain's classic car owners to show off their own cherished vehicles – and to take a look at the wealth of other expertly restored and superbly maintained vehicles out there. They are also a brilliant social event, where classic car aficionados can meet other like-minded petrolheads and get to know some of the wonderful stories behind the great cars on show.

The Awards welcome all sorts of classics, from barn finds to rare vehicles, or simply those classics that have a story behind them and mean something special to their owner. Whatever the backstory, every classic is welcome here!

The Awards themselves are a weekend event, with the winner being chosen by visitors to the show and typically announced on the Sunday afternoon.

Who won this year’s top prize?

Many congratulations to this year's winner, Jake Clappison with his gorgeous yellow 1979 Triumph Spitfire. There's a great story behind this year's winner: Jake had long wanted to own a classic of his own, and bought this Spitfire at the age of just 19.

He's done some fine work on the car since, including installing a new head gasket, and fitting new carpets and seat trim. The car now looks immaculate, showing off the Spitfire's wonderful colours at its very best and reminding us why this was one of the most sought-after British cars, right from its introduction in the very early 1960s.

Jake's Spitfire is from the last generation of the brilliant British convertible – also known as the Spitfire 1500, in reference to its 1,493cc engine. One of the major improvements of this final Spitfire was its greater torque, achieved by increasing the engine's cylinder stroke to 3.44 inches.

Result: the final Spitfire was, as Jake and many others will know, a very entertaining drive as well as extremely capable in traffic. Triumph's two-seater has always been a beautiful car – in particular, we love its rear headlight arrangement, evoking its bigger Stag sibling – and Jake's example is one of the best we've seen.

Like its British Leyland cousin, the MG, the Spitfire is a wonderful example of great British engineering and would make an excellent starter classic for anyone just entering the world of classic car ownership and restoration. Its mechanicals are relatively straightforward and used examples can be had for relatively little money – somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000 should get you a decent example. Small wonder that the Spitfire is one of the most popular cars for which we provide insurance for your classic car.

Jake must be doubly proud as his father Paul was a previous winner of the award, with his equally stunning cream MGB GT from 1972.

This year’s finalists

Jake narrowly won this year's Pride of Ownership Award in a crowded field of lovingly maintained classics. It's very hard not to mention them all, but we're going to single out a few. We loved Richard Stringer's VW Golf Mk1 from 1975, very early in the Golf's life. The fact that Richard's Golf is in one of the Mk1's rarer and more distinctive colours, Bali Green Beige, only added to its appeal.

The Mk1 Golf has been an established classic for some time now. It may have launched over 45 years ago but the car's neat, sharp lines still cut a serious dash today. Richard found this one in the Netherlands, with an incredible 12,000 miles on the clock. He now keeps it just for show appearances – and it's an absolute gem, and a worthy finalist.

Elsewhere, we were thrilled to see a Vauxhall Velox from 1957, belonging to Paul Siudowski. This is a very late second-generation Velox – the Mk2 cars were phased out that same year, 1957, with the larger, more American-styled third generation coming in simultaneously.

Paul's delightful, jet-black Velox has undergone a full restoration and is in splendid condition. One of the final five off the production line in Luton, it has a 2.3-litre, straight-six engine and a three-speed column change. It also has its original registration plate: TTM 368.

One of this year's more unusual finalists, meanwhile, was the 1970 Opel GT belonging to Dave Thunder. The GT was a genuinely striking rear-wheel drive two-seater made from 1960 to 1973 and bearing more than a passing resemblance to the contemporary generation (C3) of the Chevrolet Corvette.

It had the unusual feature of manually operated pop-up headlights (controlled by a lever next to the gearstick) that both rotated in the same direction. Dave's GT was imported from the States in 2017, after which it got a respray – from green to its current, attention-grabbing orange.

A car to be "driven not hidden"

Moving along the illustrious line of 2021 Pride of Ownership finalists, we come to the 1953 MG TD belonging to Alan East-Jones. Alan acquired the car in 2013, by which time it had undergone a thorough restoration over in Canada.

The MG sports some delightful period racing modifications, including an adapted exhaust system, and has also had some fettling last year to make sure all the running gear is working perfectly. Now, Alan says proudly, the MG is a car to be “driven not hidden”.

Which is a philosophy, come to think of it, that we'd echo for many of these cars. Having a classic is a wonderful thing – how much better, though, when you can actually take it out and enjoy it on the open road. Just make sure that your classics insurance covers you for all the adventures you have planned in your vintage vehicle.

Next up, we have an example of perhaps one of our very favourite coachbuilt modifications to a classic car. The Jaguar XJ-S was always a beautiful thing to look at, and most observers might have thought that the car's sleek, elongated looks didn't bear tampering with. Not so coachbuilders Lynx, who in 1982 began modifying the XJ-S' tapering rear end to create a rather elegant shooting brake.

It's thought that around 67 Lynx Eventers were eventually built, and the very early (X-reg) example belonging to Fay Morgan-Hine is one of the best we've seen. The car formerly belonged to the late musician Rupert Hine, who collaborated with the likes of Tina Turner, Bob Geldof, Chris de Burgh and the Thompson Twins. Fay and Rupert's Eventer is in pristine condition – and the fact that it's given rides to a few musical giants down the years only adds to its considerable appeal.

A 1960s beauty and a 1990s beast

Staying with Jaguar, one of our favourite cars at this year's Awards was the 1969 E-Type convertible owned by Tim Ward. Now, the E-Type is no stranger to motor shows, classic car displays and the like: its combination of beauty, almost universal admiration and still relatively high numbers makes it a common sight at these shows.

However, this particular E-Type is definitely a little bit special. For one thing, Tim saw it at the 2017 Pride of Ownership Awards, so we're proud to have played a small part in its presence here this year. It was actually for sale at the time, albeit priced just a little out of Tim's budget.

However, when he saw it, he knew he had to have it. Tim and his friend Shaun have since done all the restoration work themselves and, unsurprisingly, he's pretty thrilled with what they've achieved.

Last but not least, we'll single out the arresting and very rare 1993 Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth that belongs to Gideon Mayers. Purchased in 2015 and formerly part of a famous fast Ford collection, Gideon's Sierra has quite a few distinctions to it.

The last UK-spec right-hand drive Cossie to roll off the production line at Dagenham, it's also the only one painted in the rather smart Mallard Green. Gideon's father owned a brace of Cosworths, so he'd always wanted one of his own. Well done Gideon – as eloquent an illustration of following your dreams as we could hope to see.

Past Pride of Ownership winners

Since their inception, the Pride of Ownership Awards have witnessed some pretty spectacular winners and finalists.

That very first year, the winning car was a 1926 skiff-bodied Packard owned, and indeed created, by Steve Mills. This body style was a French innovation, designed to cheat the wind – Steve, a boat builder by trade, gave the Packard the marine styling, based on a skiff-bodied Mercedes he'd seen. And, with its own hand-made 'boat tail', Steve's Packard is truly stunning – and testament to one man's skill, expertise and devotion to creating and maintaining a truly wonderful car.

The 2016 winner was James Cribb's 1989 Austin Metro City. It was nice to see a well-preserved example of a car that, during the 1980s and early 1990s, was near-ubiquitous in Britain but of which now, sadly, all too few examples remain. The 2017 champ was an immaculately presented 1983 VW Golf GTI Mk1 – always a favourite car among enthusiasts – owned by Simon McNamara.

The 2018 winner was Ron Sargent's 1969 Ford Cortina Savage Mk2, a very worthy winner on account of its historical interest as well as its immaculate condition. The Savage was a high-performance Cortina variant designed and produced by Jeff Uren, winner of the 1959 British Saloon Car Championship.

In 2019, the first prize went to Ted Brookes and his stunningly preserved, 1961 Morris Minor Million. (You can read more about the Morris Minor Million, Britain's first limited-edition car, elsewhere on our blog).

COVID-19 forced the 2020 Award to be an online-only event – but we still unearthed a very worthy winner in the shape of Paul Hibbert's 1973 Porsche 914. The restoration of this beauty really was a labour of love for Paul when he became the car's fifth owner in 2016. A Porsche mechanic had already rebuilt the engine, but the paintwork was in need of some care and attention.

Paul boldly went ahead with a full, 'bare metal' restoration. The process took him four months, and at the end of it Paul had himself a concours-standard car in Zambezi Green. Hats off to Paul – and remember, if you fancy taking on a restoration project like this one, our classic car insurance will be able to cover the process in its entirety.

All kinds of classics, insured by Lancaster

The cars we have discussed above are all wonders to behold – hugely impressive feats of restoration and maintenance, and simply sparkling examples of the joy and beauty of classic car ownership.

Your own classic car, or restoration project, might be as immaculate as these cars – or it might be much more of a work-in-progress. No matter: whatever state your own classic is in, we'll be delighted to provide a suitable classic car cover policy for you.

Benefits of insuring with us can include:

• Static show and historic rally cover
• Choice of repairer
• Salvage retention
• Two year agreed valuation
• Laid up cover
• 24-hour claims helpline
• Limit mileage discounts
• Car Club Member discounts up to 25%

Contact us today and let the specialists protect your classic.