An extremely mundane Skoda Favorit took top honours at the 2025 Festival of the Unexceptional (FOTU), Concours d’Ordinaire presented by classic-car insurer Hagerty.
Now it its 11th year and held at Grimsthorpe Castle, the event is growing exponentially and is a must-do on the British motoring calendar.
This year’s winner was Simon Packowski who drove 1000 miles to collect a pair of headrests for his 1992 Skoda Favorit Forum, showing truly exceptional dedication to his very unexceptional Czech hatchback.
Packowski’s journey began after he spotted the Skoda on Facebook marketplace where it was being offered for scrap thanks to a failed head gasket.
“I loved the colour when I first set eyes on it,” he said. “The condition was amazing and it was a base model. I love base-model boxy cars and so I had to have it.”
The Favorit was pitted against around 40 equally mundane offerings from the 1970s to 2000 to win the Concours d’Ordinaire.
The judging panel of legendary motoring writers: Steve Cropley, Andrew Frankel, Richard Bremner, Jesse Billington, Sarah Crabtree, Gary Axon and Jon Bentley, were so taken with the 22-year-old’s Favorit and his enthusiasm for the car they awarded him first prize in the Concours.
It wasn’t just the judges that that favoured the Skoda Favorit, with the FOTU’s attendees also giving it the people’s choice award.
As always it’s the people that make FOTU such a special event. Unlike other classic car shows the focus is on inclusivity not exclusivity and the fans and cars that come are always incredibly diverse.
“I think you could argue that it’s the youngest profile of any car show,” explained Cropley.
“The trouble with most old-car events is that the cars are all owned by old people who are trying to guard their value. Half the time the owners fear the value and it’s not about the pleasure of car ownership at all.
“The folks here have bought them because they love them, but they can afford them. This is real, and as soon as you see cars start to arrive here it just makes you feel better.”
Saving cars from the scrap heap seemed to be a favourite theme with the judges who awarded second place to Callum Bailey and his 1999 Ford Mondeo.
He spotted the car on a truck, on its way to becoming a banger racer. He managed to persuade the owner to sell to him for £700 and then spent an astonishing £6000 on restoring the forgettable Ford to its motorway-munching glory days.
In third place was Andy Smith with his Citröen Visa Club which also looked just as good as the day its tiny 2CV twin-cylinder engine first putt-putted into life in 1979.
Glyn Hayler was also awarded a rosette for his Fiat Multipla, so perhaps his wife will no longer wear a paper bag over her head when they go out in what many describe as the world’s ugliest car.
One final award was given by the British Motor Museum which picked Stephen Tearl’s Nissan Micra 1.0 Celebration, a car which has been in the family since new. The museum team brought along a selection of rare British Leyland prototypes including a 1969 Mini 9X, 1981 BL ECV3 and 1975 Triumph SD2.
There was a FOTU for-sale area where attendees could browse and barter on a selection of cars from a Renault 4-based convertible kit car to a Saab 9000 and an MG Metro.
Alongside, Anglia Auctions displayed two likely candidates for next year’s Concours d’Ordinaire – a 2002 Ford Fiesta Flight with only 235 miles on the clock and a 1988 Mazda 323 Javelin with one lady owner.
Beyond the main Concours area, rows and rows of unexceptional filled the expansive lawns of the castle grounds. Around 1200 mundane motors and their owners braved the traditional British weather, alternating between umbrellas and T-shirts, raising and lowering convertible tops and drying off bodywork.
“Festival of the Unexceptional continues to grow bigger with every year,” Mark Roper, managing director of classic-car insurance provider, Hagerty.
“Over the past 11 years we have seen FOTU-era cars become recognised as proper classic cars, and the younger owner demographic shows this is a new movement in car culture.
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