Local event nails it

Last year 94 cars turned up for Kidwelly Motor Club’s car show: this year, more than 200. Clearly local shows are as popular – if not more popular – than before.

And this show saw cars and tractors coming not just from Llanelli and Carmarthen but from further away, the upshot being a mixed bag of motors, a clutch of pre-war cars joining regular and modern classics: the latter were thoroughly welcome, and we didn’t hear any grousing from the old guard about letting in ‘those modern cars.’

Talking of modern classics this was the first 2026 outing for Mrs Special’s Escort 55 and while it was parked out the back, the Daytona Yellow sedan delivery generated a decent amount of interest. The view we got from showgoers was it’s examples of modern classics that have all but disappeared – luckily there are a few survivors.

And talking of talking, this was a friendly, no trying-too-hard event. Reassuringly there was none of that ‘inclusivity’ nonsense that seems to be increasingly affecting car shows – the shows that, to our mind at least, try too hard and consequently become political. Surely car shows have always been ‘inclusive’? Anyway, some hay bales were provided to sit on and surely that’s all that’s needed?

We didn’t enter for judging so the Escort trundled home without even the chance of bagging a cup. Still, there’s always next year…