Everyday cars to sit centre stage at the 2025 Festival of the Unexceptional

While glamorous exotics or rowdy muscle cars are the classics many enthusiasts crave, for others, there’s still some appeal in the humble everyday car.

That's exactly what will feature this July at one of the UK’s biggest and most distinctive car shows, the 2025 Festival of the Unexceptional.

Presented by classic car insurer Hagerty, the gathering will take place at the certainly exceptional Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire on Saturday 26th July, although the cars promise to be far less regal than the event's surroundings.

Welcoming over 2000 cars and 4000 guests in the 2024 edition, ‘FOTU’ will feature a full day of events including the Concours de L’Ordinaire for vehicles built between 1970-2000. Last year's outright winner was a completely unrestored 1982 Toyota Hilux.

Other category winners in 2024 included a 1998 Renault Clio, an Applejack Austin Metro, and a UK-built Nissan Primera to give you a taste of the kinds of fabulously ordinary vehicles you can expect to see at the world-renowned event.

An all-original 1982 Toyota Hilux was named the outright winner of last year’s Concours de L’Ordinaire (Image: Hagerty International)

“Last year’s record attendance shows just how much everyone loves the unexceptional cars that they or their parents grew up with,” said Mark Roper, managing director of Hagerty International.

“This year, the Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional is going to be bigger and better than ever and with the expanded list of qualifying years, the Concours de L’Ordinaire is going to bring some fascinating and no less unexceptional cars that we have not seen in the event before.

“FOTU is our biggest event of the year and I and the rest of the team can’t wait to celebrate unexceptional cars in exceptional style with everyone.”

Ticketing information will be announced closer to the date of the event, although you can register to be notified on the Hagerty UK website. Entries for the Concours de L’Ordinaire are already open online, although there are only limited places available.

More than 2000 cars and 4000 guests were in attendance at the 2024 edition of the world-renowned event (Image: Hagerty International)