Seven halls. More than 3,000 cars and bikes. 320+ clubs. 450+ specialist traders.

There is quite a lot to get around at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show.

So, where do you start?

We’ve plotted a route through the NEC to give you an idea of what a day at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show could look like. From concours winners and million-pound auction cars to autojumble treasure hunting, restoration advice, modified classics and an entire hall of Fords, every turn brings something different.

Consider this your walk-through.

Just don’t expect to stick to the route perfectly. Getting distracted by a car you weren’t looking for is rather the point.

 

 

Hall 1: Start with the big names

Walk through the main entrance and Hall 1 gives you a fairly immediate idea of the scale of the weekend.

This is the Premium & Historic hall, with club stands representing Porsche, Ferrari, Lotus, Maserati, Lamborghini, Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar, AC, Bugatti and plenty more. You could spend a considerable amount of time here before remembering there are another six halls to visit.

It is also home to the Meguiar’s Club Showcase, where award-winning cars from club and concours events around the country come together for one final competition. These are some of the most carefully presented classics at the NEC, but they are not all cars that spend their lives hidden beneath covers. Many are driven, used and enjoyed by their owners before receiving a very thorough clean for the weekend.

You’ll also find headline sponsor Lancaster Insurance in Hall 1, surrounded by the sort of cars its customers have spent years cherishing.

Once you’ve finished admiring the polished end of the classic car world, follow the route upstairs towards Hall 2.

Hall 2: Cars going once, going twice...

The atmosphere changes fairly quickly in Hall 2.

Most of the space belongs to official auction partner Iconic Auctioneers, and this year there is plenty to inspect before the bidding starts. More than 600 cars and motorcycles worth over £16 million are being offered across three sales during the weekend, covering everything from serious collector machinery to enthusiast classics and restoration projects.

Even if you have absolutely no intention of buying anything, it is worth walking the rows. Auction halls have a habit of turning “I’m just having a look” into slightly more complicated conversations.

Hall 2 is also where the Classic Motorbike Showcase begins, alongside motorcycle and scooter clubs, traders and specialists. So if your definition of a classic needs two wheels rather than four, allow some extra time here.

Then keep moving through towards Hall 3.

Hall 3: Classics you can actually take home

You’ve looked at the auction cars. Now comes another dangerous area for anyone with space on the driveway.

Hall 3 includes the Dealer Hall, with specialist dealers offering classics across a range of marques, eras and price points. Around it you’ll find another broad mix of clubs, from Jaguar, Lotus and Land Rover to Mini, Reliant, microcars and kit cars.

This is also where you’ll find the Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership Autumn Final.

Twenty cars. Twenty owners. Twenty very different stories.

Unlike a traditional concours, this one is decided by visitors, so take a proper look, speak to the owners and cast your vote for the car you think deserves the title.

And if all that walking has prompted the need to sit down for a moment, the Podcast Café is nearby, bringing motoring conversation into the middle of the hall.

But before heading onwards, there is a slight detour worth making.

Hall 3A: Have a rummage

Hall 3A takes you away from the big feature displays and into one of the other essential parts of a classic car event: finding things.

Parts. Tools. Books. Models. Memorabilia. Components you recognise immediately and components you will spend five minutes staring at before asking the person behind the stand what they actually belong to.

The trader and autojumble area stretches through this part of the event, with rows of specialists to browse before you continue towards Hall 4.

If you arrived with a shopping list, this is where it may start getting shorter.

If you arrived without one, that may not help.

Hall 4: Time to get your hands dirty

From buying parts to learning what to do with them.

Hall 4 is the Restoration Hall, bringing together restoration specialists, equipment suppliers, tools, parts and another substantial stretch of autojumble.

At the heart of it is the Restoration Workshop, where you can pick up practical tips and expert advice on the skills that keep classic vehicles on the road. Whether you’re already halfway through a project or have only recently started looking suspiciously at something rusty on Marketplace, there should be something useful to take away.

Around the workshop you’ll find club stands with a particularly strong showing from Vauxhall, Triumph, Rover and the wider British Leyland family.

The nice thing about Hall 4 is that you can watch somebody explain a restoration technique, turn a corner and immediately find somebody selling the equipment or parts needed to have a go yourself.

Whether that is financially sensible is between you and your garage.

Before moving into Hall 5, take the branch off to the right.

Hall 8: Welcome to Ford country

There is no real ambiguity about Hall 8.

It is Ford.

Cortinas. Capris. Escorts. Granadas. Transits. Fiestas. RS models. Focuses. And just about every other corner of the Blue Oval enthusiast world represented by the clubs that keep them going.

You’ll find the Capri Club International alongside individual Capri registers, Escort and RS groups, Cortina clubs, the Transit Van Club, Ford AVO Owners Club, Focus clubs and plenty more.

For Ford enthusiasts, this may be less of a quick detour and more of an event within the event.

For everyone else, it is a chance to see just how broad one manufacturer’s history can look when decades of cars are parked side by side.

Once you’ve had your fill of Blue Ovals, head back through Hall 4 and take the route into Hall 5.

Hall 5: Finish with a bit of everything

If the previous halls each have their own character, Hall 5 is where things become rather more eclectic.

Near the entrance you’ll find the Year of the Débutants display, bringing the 2026 theme together in one place. The dedicated showcase includes cars making significant first appearances, including the completed restoration of Richard Hammond’s Series 1 Land Rover, more than two decades after he originally dismantled it.

Then the choices start piling up.

For something altogether less standard, head for the Zircotec Modified Zone powered by Copacetic Magazine, where classic heritage meets a rather different approach to originality. The expanded area brings together modified machinery alongside aftermarket specialists and traders.

A little further on, the YouTube Village makes its own debut for 2026. You can meet creators including JayEmm on Cars, Tasty Classics, idriveaclassic, Garage of Luke and Driven by Meg, and see cars that until now you may only have watched through a screen.

Hall 5 is also home to the Meet the Experts Theatre, with interviews, discussions and appearances from names across the motoring world. On Friday at 12 noon, Mike Brewer will reveal the four new inductees joining the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show Hall of Fame for 2026.

If you’ve brought younger enthusiasts along, the Family Zone, Mini Rovers and Scalextric give them something a little more hands-on, while the Federation Village brings together another important part of the historic vehicle community.

And then there are the Sporting Bears Dream Rides.

Choose a car, make a donation to children’s charities and head out from the NEC as a passenger in one of the machines in the Dream Rides garage. It is one of the few parts of the weekend where looking at the car is only half the experience.

All of that sits among another huge collection of club stands covering MG, Austin, Morris, Italian, French, German, American, Japanese, Scandinavian, motorsport and more.

Not a bad place to finish.

Your route. Until something distracts you.

By the time you leave Hall 5, you could have gone from concours-level classics to motorcycles, auction lots, cars for sale, live podcasts, autojumble, restoration workshops, an entire hall of Fords, modified cars, YouTubers and passenger rides.

And that is before trying to stop at all the club stands along the way.

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show fills seven halls of the NEC for a reason. There is no single type of classic enthusiast and there is no single way to spend your day here.

So use the 2026 Digital Show Guide to familiarise yourself with the halls, pick out the things you absolutely want to see and give yourself enough time for the things you had no idea you wanted to see until you walked past them.

Because the best route around the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show is usually the one with a few unplanned stops.

Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show
13–15 November 2026
NEC Birmingham