NEWARK SHOW REPORT – words and photos by Carol Hardy

DATE FOR 2023 IS JULY 22 & 23

PHOTOS BELOW

What a brilliant event the ‘new’ Newark show was. After a five-hour-plus journey up the M11 and A1 on Friday afternoon, I was hot and bothered when I arrived to set up.

It did feel good being in a venue that I first exhibited at way back in 1985 (right up until the show ceased in June 2013) and the place is as one almost with the kitcar industry although I was slightly concerned about the fact that there’d been a nine-year gap.

I needn’t have worried. Although not quite at ‘Classic Newark’ levels of cars, manufacturers or attendance (the show was renowned for BIG crowds) it really was encouraging to see a hall full of people interested in looking at the best of what the kitcar industry can offer in 2022.

The manufacturers in attendance and some key service and parts providers put on a great show and should be proud of themselves and it all left me feeling a bit misty-eyed for those industry figures who I enjoyed spending time with at Newark who have left us since 2013 but heartened by what was a really good show. BRING ON 2023 I say.

For the record the manufacturers exhibiting were (in alphabetical order):

AK Sportscars – Any show that AK attends they always put on a considerable display of power. Their displays don’t just feature the AK427 anymore though as their stand had examples of their AK SS and AK 40 models. www.aksportscars.co.uk.

DJC Sportscars – I’ve always liked the V-Storm. Simon Keys is a supremely talented designer (not seen or heard from him for a while) and since DJC acquired the project it has just got better and better. Somehow, it has even more visual impact on me than when I first saw it some fifteen years ago. Not just visuals either as the latest demonstrator is a veritable supercar killer. www.djcsportscars.co.uk.

Great British Sports Cars – Plenty to attract visitors to the GBS stand at Newark. They had examples of the Zero and a full inventory of parts from their ATR and Kit Spares operations, too. www.greatbritishsportscars.co.uk.

Hawk Cars – Great turnout by Hawk Cars – their beautiful new bright red Hawk 289 shared pride of place with customer Guy Mayers’ beautiful Hawk HF Stratos replica. www.hawkcars.co.uk.

MEV Ltd – Nice, bright stand from Gloucestershire-based MEV Ltd – and great to spot the marque’s founder, Stuart Mills on the stand on Saturday – with examples of their mega-successful Exocet model on hand plus an early look at a new variant, the Exocet RX based around Mazda RX-8 mechanicals including its Wankel rotary engine. Masterstroke.

www.mevltd.co.uk.

MK Sportscars – Another of the fully loaded stands at Newark, with every possible example of the Indy on display (R, RR and RX5 etc) plus parts from the kitcardirect division.  www.mksportscars.com.

Quantum Sportscars – several examples of their brilliant and newly revised Xtreme plus the first sight of an exciting new hardtop. www.quantumsportscars.com.

REBEL PERFORMANCE MACHINES – Ely-based company are doing great things with the former Exo Sportscars models, the ExoBusa and tR1ke and had two beautifully presented examples of each at Newark. www.rebel-pm.co.uk.

XCS Designs – Harvey Rice and his team are tearing up trees at the moment and once again they had a spectacular stand at Newark with examples of everything they produce. www.xcsdesigns.co.uk.

Great to see the original Newark Show organiser, Kevin Musson at Newark on the Saturday. He created the show and run it – initially with assistance from his friend Alec Trueman – until it ended in June 2013. These days Kevin – a double FIA European Formula Junior champion – takes life slightly easier and gets to spend more time looking after his collection of racecars and Classic Lotus models (including a Lotus VI and a Lotus Seven S1).

Kevin was obviously very pleased to see the return of ‘his’ show and was very complimentary about the efforts of organiser Pete Slater and his team as we all are.

HERE’S TO NEWARK 2023. DON’T MISS IT IS MY ADVICE.

NEWARK 2022 – Radiator and cooling supremos, Coolex were busy all weekend

NEWARK 2022 – Hard to believe that the concept for the Classic Mini-based Cox GTM first saw the light of day over 55-years ago. I think this tastefully revised and updated example is a beauty

NEWARK 2022 – Stunner. Spotted this lovely Chesil parked outside the exhibition hall on Sunday morning

NEWARK 2022 – Stunning AK40 just one of the cars on the AK Sportscars stand

www.grosvenorshows.co.uk (updated website coming soon).

NEWARK 2022 – The blokes at Intatrim are doing some lovely work

NEWARK 2022 – Rebel Performance Machine had two new demonstrators on their stand. Here’s the very bonkers Yamaha R1-powered tR1ke

NEWARK 2022 – XCS 427 – WOWZER. Just wowzer!

NEWARK 2022 – GBS stand – the chap behind the lovely Zero in the foreground is clearly selling it to his missus ‘look at much shopping you can get in here’!

NEWARK 2022 – A brilliant showing from MK Sportscars at Newark. They even had a functioning wi-fi’d up office on their stand. Cool.

NEWARK 2022 – This is a photo of their top-selling Exocet model but MEV Ltd also unveiled an early look at their ingenious new Exocet RX

NEWARK 2022 – The kitcar industry is full of hard working people – Quantum’s Rob Hancock is one of the most ‘xtreme’ (see what I did there!). He came to Newark with a rather tasteful new hardtop for the Xtreme

NEWARK 2022 – Hawk Cars stand featured this beautiful new Hawk 289 and behind, Guy Meyers’ superb Hawk HF Stratos replica

NEWARK 2022 – DJC Sportscars stand and their stunning V-Storm