The NEC Restoration Show – or, to give it its full title, The Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show, kicks off this weekend at the Birmingham NEC (March 22-23, 2025).
You can expect to find club stands with a focus on projects and restorations, plus an active autojumble offering plenty for your projects (and a lot more besides). There are live talks, displays and intriguing rarities around every corner.
The NEC Restoration Show also hosts an Iconic Auctioneers sale, which is spread across both days. Although there are plenty of projects to choose from among the 178 lots, there are some fresh restorations and original cars that are worth a look, too. However, we’ve picked out ten of our favourite project cars – which ones are tempting you?
This MGC is a part-completed project originally based on a 1968 car. The floorpan, suspension and running gear have been restored, and the dashboard rebuilt. It also has Corbeau seats, an alloy bonnet, deep-dish wire wheels, new triple Weber carbs and a rebuilt engine. Based on the original car’s shell with panels from a later MGB Heritage shell, it has new metal front wings with glassfibre flared edges and glassfibre rear wings. The question is – do you continue to develop it as a Sebring homage or go the full-replica route? It’s estimated at between £10k and £12k.
Iconic Auctioneers always does well with fast Fords, and the Sierra RS500 Cosworth is one of the firm’s perennially popular cars; under Iconic’s previous trading name of Silverstone Auctions it achieved a world record that pretty much broke the UK classic car internet. We’re not expecting this particular 1988 example at the NEC Restoration Show sale, one of 52 finished in Moonstone Blue, to achieve anywhere near that, but it does represent the shifting fortunes of the RS500, from tuner hero to originality-at-all-costs classic.
At one point this car was tuned to 500bhp-plus, with a large-coil ‘High Performance’ engine long since replacing the original motor. It now produces ‘just’ 330bhp, and also features a strut brace and aftermarket breathing apparatus that were common modifications from the 1990s. It’s been recommissioned by Tremona Garage and comes with an estimate of £50k-£60k – around half the price of a standard car, given recent results for ‘normal’ RS500s (unlike the aforementioned outlier).
Would you return it to bone-stock originality, or use its lack of an original engine to develop it as the ultimate tribute to the modification era that helped make ‘The Cossie’ a folk hero?
This BMW E34 might seem like an unlikely candidate for a restoration. Even with the model’s popularity in modern-classic circles, the rusty body, worn plastics and any number of bacterial cultures growing on it might cause you to consider it a parts car at best.
However, despite its dismal condition, this example in the Iconic Auctioneers NEC Restoration Show sale is actually very special – as eagle-eyed spotters might have noticed via the grille. Not only is this a lesser-spotted 540i V8, but it’s one of a handful remaining with a manual gearbox. A closer inspection of the wider photo gallery might challenge how ‘remaining’ this car might be (especially if the engine needs a rebuild), but this rare specification is dangerously tempting at a £2k-£3k estimate.
This 1974 Aston Martin V8 S3 comes up for sale from 28 years of ownership, during which time the vendor used it both in the UK and Marbella. It was unused for several years, although it had a brake service from Pilgrim Motorsports in 2024; it is described as running and driving, but in need of work before returning to the road. It’s estimated at £25k-£30k.
In the world of the Green Oval, the Camel Trophy was a landmark series of events that underlined the ‘one life, live it’ ethos. For 20 years, Land Rover teamed up with tobacco firm Camel to sponsor competitive explorations across the globe, using a variety of Land Rovers (more details here). This 1992 Defender 110 200Tdi SW was used in the 1993 event, which took competitors to Sabah in Malaysia. After racking up 2000 miles as a medical-support vehicle to the Discovery lead cars, it was bought by the vendor – a Land Rover employee – in 1994.
It was used as a family vehicle for another 110,000 miles, although it has been parked up for a number of years since and requires restoration. It still has its original off-road equipment, including the Safety Devices internal/external roll cage, snorkel and winch, and is estimated at between £15k and £25k.
This 1980 Ford Escort Mk2 Harrier up for auction in the Iconic Auctioneers NEC Restoration Show sale is one of 1500 built to celebrate the Blue Oval’s 1979 World Rally Championship victory, and one of 500 finished in Strato Silver. It retains all the Harrier-specific bits: the flat front and rubber rear RS spoiler, plus the front quarter bumpers, Halogen headlamps, auxiliary driving lamps, rear spoiler, Triplex bronze-tinted glass, black door mirrors and handles, simulated-leather sports steering wheel, Recaro front seats with head restraints, centre console incorporating quartz clock, heated rear window, tachometer, padded sun visors and ‘Aeroflow’ ventilation with eyeball vents – and, of course, the body stripes.
The Recaro seats (with fishnet headrests) have been retrimmed by Aldridge Trimming, but the car is not running – the engine turns over yet there is no oil pressure. The Escort is estimated at between £15k and £18k.
The Rover SD1 is currently having a bit of a cultural renaissance. The touring-car versions have been a popular mainstay of Historic racing for many years, but US journalist Jason Cammisa has done much to bring the daring wedge-shaped saloon to a new audience. This particular SD1 is a 1977 3500 manual in Tobacco Brown – a shade that’s also going through a bit of a cultural renaissance.
This mixture of Rover/Buick V8 and a five-speed LT77 manual gearbox is a rare one, a factor in this example’s survival – it was originally bought as an engine donor for another project. However, it drove so well the owner couldn’t bring himself to break the car. It has been largely stored for six years, and the interior is described as needing a refresh; estimate is between £6k and £8k.
Here is another unfinished project set to be put up for auction at the Iconic Auctioneers NEC Restoration Show 2025 sale – this time, a 1963 Jaguar Mk2 3.4. It was in storage from 1978 until it was bought by the vendor in 2015. At that point, restoration was begun with the original metallic green paint being stripped back and the bodywork primed. Originally fitted with red leather seats, carpets and door cards, the Jaguar originally had a three-speed automatic transmission. The front and rear windscreen, door cards, rear seats and lights all come with the car, with the only missing items being the front and rear bumpers. It’s estimated at between £4k and £6k.
For many years the W123 (or C123 as seen here) was the default ‘cheap’ Mercedes-Benz, often seen smoking around London’s North Circular in various states of disrepair, or in estate form used as cheap work vans for antiques merchants. Those times are long gone now – fully restored two-doors and estates can cost you upwards of £50k, if not more, which makes this 1981 280 CE a deeply tempting choice at the Iconic Auctioneers NEC Restoration Show 2025 sale.
This UK-supplied car has the desirable fuel-injected twin-cam straight-six boasting a meaty 185bhp, but it’s also finished in a fetching shade of Midnight Blue. The downside is that it’s not currently running, while those period-correct aftermarket wheelarch extensions are well known for hiding a multitude of rot. In addition, original parts are getting very hard to find, and expensive when you do. The good news is that with an estimate of £4k-£6k, there’s plenty of scope for restoration.
Potentially, is this the most important car for sale at the Iconic Auctioneers NEC Restoration Show 2025 sale? The 1964 Jaguar E-type Series 1 4.2 was originally the 1964 Earls Court Motor Show car, and it was then sent to Jaguar’s Browns Lane experimental department. It was used for US emissions testing and even spent time in California, returning to Blighty in the 1970s; during this time it was used as a daily car by famed Jaguar racing director Lofty England.
In 1972 it was bought by Jim Graham, a member of Jaguar’s Experimental Department, who had worked on the car during his employment. He would go on to race and hillclimb the E-type extensively over the next 50 years. In 1995 it was restored to its current specification, with a glassfibre bonnet, although plenty of its original parts are available with the sale, including the interior and bumpers. It’s been in storage since 2019, and although a new battery has been fitted and the car is described as running and driving, it’ll need further fettling before serious use. It’s estimated at between £50k and £60k.
Further details
For more information on the NEC Restoration Show sale, head here.
