Film now showing
British Motor Show, 1965

The British Motor Show since WW2

Duration: 1 min. 30 seconds

To view the film, scroll to the bottom of the page

For more than 100 years, the British Motor Show has been the national showplace for every new car built in Britain, as well as the collective "get-together" for the great and good of the domestic motor industry.

Before the Second World War, the event was held exclusively in London, but from 1978 it moved to the new National Exhibition Centre outside Birmingham, where its central location and huge halls were seen as the perfect opportunity to make the event even bigger and more popular than it had been before.

It remained at the NEC as a biennial event until returning to the capital in 2006 where it was rehoused at the Excel Centre on the south bank of the River Thames and is scheduled to remain here for the foreseeable future.

First post-war show
The first show of the post-war era was held in October/November 1948, at the old pre-war venue of Earls Court, where it attracted a record turn out of more than 275,000 people. A number of notable cars also made their debuts at the event. One was Alec Issigonis’s new Morris Minor, which subsequently helped earn the country much needed foreign revenue from its successful export drive and later became Britain’s first million selling car. But the model which attracted most attention at the 1948 show was the Jaguar XK120. This had both the press and public drooling over its curvaceous shape and with a top speed of 120 miles an hour was regarded as the most desirable of sports cars in an era of general austerity.

From the 1950s to 1970s, the show was dominated by the leading British manufacturers who occupied most of the available space, particularly, Ford, BMC/British Leyland and the various derivatives, but in recent times, it has become much more of an international event as the industry has become truly global.

In the early post-war era, almost every notable British made-car was either launched at the British Motor Show or had a prominent position at the following event. In 1954, no less than forty new cars made their debut at the Motor Show, including the contemporary Jensen 541 with its all-plastic body. Every event has also had it range of "show-stopping" concept cars, and while most are now housed in museums -as opposed to gliding down the highway- they have always provided the respective manufacturers with a cost-effective way of generating interest in their production models.

During the 1950s, as more people began to afford the new cars being made, the shows became ever more popular. Indeed, by the 1960s, the event was an unmissable attraction on the social calendar and often the centre of high-fashion. Most of the manufacturers hired posses of glamorous female models to add even more "eye candy" to their stands, and as the nation became more liberated, the girls’ clothing became ever more skimpy. The zenith was finally reached in 1971 when TVR had entirely naked models spread over their cars which, not surprisingly, generated considerable publicity, as well as controversy.

These days, with plenty of alternative entertainment on offer, the event is geared more towards entire families, than being aimed almost entirely at red-blooded males. But while the British Motor Show is still the biggest event of its kind in the UK, it is less important to the manufacturers than the more notable industry events at Detroit, Geneva and Tokyo. It has also lost interest among British enthusiasts. Whereas nearly one million people attended the first show at the NEC in 1978, less than half that number attended the return to London in 2006.

As for the future, the role of the car in society could determine the popularity of this great motoring jamboree in the years to come -coupled of course with the range of cars and innovations available to be seen.

Multimedia stories from history

Motoring through history
Follow the evolution of the motor car with a free, online, informative illustrated history of the automobile, go to:
www.motoring-history.com

Film provided courtesy of www.auto-history.tv

(c) Universal Motoring History Enterprises

New Cortinas on display at the Ford stand, 1961

All the shows have given car enthusiasts the chance to
 see at first hand some of the world's most luxurious cars

At the 2002 show, one of the most talked about cars was the brutal looking MG XPower SV 

While there are now much fewer British companies attending, there are many more foriegn manufacturers

After a 10 year break due to WW2, the British Motor
Show returned to Earl's Court in October 1948 

The Bentley stand at the 1953
 British Motor Show

A model at the 1956 show demonstrates a
new semi-automatic clutch on a Standard 10 car

The undoubted star of the 1948 show
was the stunning Jaguar XK120

In 2006, the British Motor Show returned to London and was rehoused at the Excel Centre on the banks of the River Thames

Motor racing star Jensen Button (on balcony) 
was one of the many celebrities on hand in 2006

The 1959 Motor Show saw the launch of
the Mini, Ford Anglia and Triumph Herald

Many of the famous British car makers which had
big stands at the shows in the 1960s no longer exist

Concept cars and "split" cars, such as the Austin 1800 above, have always been popular with show attendees

The 1975 event marked the diamond
 jubilee of the SMMT's first exhibition

The amphibious Gibbs Aquada has been one of the
many unusual cars exhibited at the show over the years

Lotus use the 2008 British Motor Show to
launch their latest sports car, the Evora

Citroen display their new urban Cactus
concept car the 2008 British Motor Show