With this year’s Spring Autojumble at Beaulieu attracting a record-breaking number of visitors – almost 14,000 in all – and other events organisers reporting brisk business, Britain’s classic car movement could be heading for one of its most successful show seasons of all time.

Despite classic owners facing higher than ever fuel costs, it seems they have no intention of staying away from their favourite events this year. And with many show organisers seeing an increase in their bookings so far, there’s real hope that 2011 will be one of the busiest classic summers of recent times.
Among the event specialists doing particularly well this year is Geoff Price of Midlands-based Transtar Promotions (www.transtarpromotions.co.uk), who is delighted with his current levels of business: ‘We’ve been organising classic car and transport shows for the last forty years, and 2011 is proving to be a real success. In fact, classic vehicle display bookings have been well up on last year, and club stand bookings have really taken off.’

In any one year, Transtar attracts around 11,000 vehicle bookings across its events portfolio, with some of the la rger shows each seeing around 1,500 different classics on display. Bookings for this year should top those figures.

Classic tours are also proving as popular as ever, as Keith McGee of Merlin Events (www.merlinevents.com) confirmed: ‘We get a lot of repeat business, which certainly helps to keep bookings at a healthy level. And everyone we deal with is telling us they have no intention of letting the cost of fuel influence their classic car hobby this year. One of our customers told me the other day that no matter how much the Government decides to tax us on fuel, he’ll not be cutting back on his classic touring.’