There are a staggering amount of interesting and exciting vehicles making their debut at this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, held 13-15 November at Birmingham’s NEC, in support of the season finales’ show theme. Whilst the car clubs are bringing some incredible cars, the organisers have a few surprises of their own to announce on their dedicated Debutant display.

Positioned near to the entrance of Hall 5, the Debutants showcase will feature some rarities, some cars never seen at the show, at the NEC and even in the UK before. But one vehicle has never been seen by the public until the show as The Smallest Cog will reveal the finished restoration of Richard Hammond’s Land Rover Series 1.

Richard bought the Landy in a moment of madness during a Top Gear episode back in 2003 and planned on restoring it himself. He stripped it down to its bare parts and components and then put it in storage and that’s where it remained for over 20 years. The Drivetribe team then took control and finally got all the parts and components in one place, realising that will all the bits Richard had accumulated along the way, there was everything to make the vehicle complete.

Which is where The Smallest Cog comes in. Everything was handed over to them, and the team has worked tirelessly to not only put the Landy back together but to also make it one of the finest examples in existence.

There will be several videos to watch on Drivetribe as Richard shares the restoration journey but for the team at The Smallest Cog, they are already on to the next customer’s car as when the cameras leave, it remains a busy garage with ongoing restoration projects.

Hammond’s Land Rover will be joined by another Series 1, which has been converted to all electric by Dr Ed Barsley, who is attempting to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an electric classic car. He has converted his father’s 1955 Series 1 Land Rover to fully electric for the challenge which he hopes to start in Spring 2027.

The rest of the display includes the Hillman Avenger Tiger press car and a Rover Mini Cooper Sport, which is also the first production model VIN 01 in the Classic Mini finale range as well the press car. There will also be extremely rare cars such as the Hotchkiss-Grégoire Chapron Berline and 1937 Ford V8 boat tail racer imported from Argentina amongst the exhibits.