Why this year’s Festival of the Unexceptional was the best yet

Find me another car show, if you can, where the victorious car is 25 years old, has done 176,000 miles, was its owner’s wedding car and has been his daily driver ever since he bought it 20 years ago.

The car I’m talking about is a 999cc, 49bhp Volkswagen Polo C owned by Gordon McNeill, winner at the 2026 Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional, held last weekend at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire.