Festival of the Unexceptional Encourages Car Fans to Rethink
British auto show sheds light on models we tend to forget about despite having been a big part of our lives
Being born in 1993 helps describe how I started to learn about cars. I grew up surrounded by magazines, posters and sticker albums, so the first ones I could tell apart were Ferrari F50, Jaguar XJ220, and Lamborghini Diablo, to name a few. My family has always been impressed with how I could talk about them even at a low age, especially when I’d skillfully handle the fake questions my father and aunt would ask to tease me. However, those talks often had an anticlimactic end: What’s your favorite car?
Over the years, I learned that the supercar of the moment was the answer that would most easily avoid an awkward moment but, to tell the truth, I’ve never been fascinated with what I now refer to as superlative models — performance coupes, flashy limousines or rugged pickups. I admire them for many reasons, sure, but I’ve always been thrown off by how “unrealistic” they are: expensive, suitable in few environments, and/or easy to become obsolete. This is why the topic of this story has surprised me so much.
The opposite type of cars is often named generalist. Those are the hatchbacks, sedans, minivans and, more recently, crossovers we spot as soon as we step on the street. It’s difficult to see a truly expensive model simply because it’d clash with the closest equivalent from the superlative ones. Not only are there more automakers that design them, but also they do it in more countries: Brazil, for example, doesn’t have a strong one of its own at the moment but offers many locally-designed models of foreign makers.
Superlative cars are loved for being fully committed to their purpose. A coupe, for example, achieves high performance figures by seating only two, having a small cabin and being difficult to maneuver. Those characteristics aren’t really problems here because a coupe doesn’t need to worry about all that; it doesn’t need to deal everything. The latter is the function of generalist cars, and this is why they don’t excel at anything: they’re busy handling many requirements at once. The thing is, why do we find that bad?
Generalist cars make our commute more comfortable, haul some cargo when we need, take our loved ones to wherever we want and do all that spending as little fuel as possible, working more silently than ever, and being as affordable as you want them to (considering new and used ones). We may not turn back on the street when they pass by us, daydream about ever owning one or avidly reading the latest information about them but, for most of us, generalist cars are the ones that truly make our lives better.
After years of studying cars and better understanding my opinion about them, you can imagine how surprised I was when learning about the Festival of the Unexceptional. According to CAR Magazine, it gathers models from the 1960s to the 1990s kept as close as possible to their original condition, which means non-metallic paint, steel wheels and cheap trim in many cases. If you observe enough of them, you can even spot some symbols of the visual trends they had to follow back in their respective decades.
Walking around those cars is a sure and easy way to time-travel: you’ll quickly see a model just like your parents had, another one you almost bought back in the day, that one whose TV ad you remember… The memories will come back sooner than you think especially the most remote ones. In many cases, they’re similar to those of the person next to you, so there’s also a chance to meet new people and eventually bond over a mutual interest which came from a mutual memory. But there’s still more to it.
Those who enjoy every new discovery about cars, like me, will find events like that a gold mine: they often feature cars from companies that no longer exist, cars that represent a particular time of the automotive history of your country, cars that were discontinued more quickly than usual for some bizarre reason, cars that sold very well in the past but would never do it nowadays because of how different society became… If you’re interested enough in this topic, each of them can lead to a different reflection.
While the event is held in the UK, we can interpret its message from wherever we are: generalist cars are just as memorable as the superlative ones; the only difference is that they participate in our lives in separate ways, so they’ll form separate memories as well. In fact, it’s probable that the minivan or the sedan parked in your garage has already formed a new one over this week, whereas the intimidating SUV or the fast hypercar recently introduced will stay merely confined in the screen of your phone.
For people who live in other regions, classic-car events are the closest there is to the Festival of the Unexceptional. They are usually focused on a particular brand or a particular decade, but the environment is similar: their owners are always sharing information with one another, you can see many exotic models and pretty much everything there is an opportunity to learn. Which generalist car models have been a part of your life so far? Feel free to leave a comment sharing your memories!
