A gloriously basic 1992 Skoda Favorit has been crowned winner of the 2025 Festival of the Unexceptional Concours de L’Ordinaire – the event that celebrates long-forgotten everyday cars, particularly those in base trim.
Owned by 22-year-old Simon Packowski, the Skoda Favorit Forum is an ultra-basic version of Skoda’s crisply-styled five-door hatchback.
Indeed, it’s so basic, it doesn’t even have a radio.
The car was rescued by Simon just before it was to be sent to the scrapyard because of a failed head gasket.
He toiled to bring it back to showroom-fresh condition – even driving 1,000 miles to buy a set of headrests.
Not only did the Skoda Favorit Forum scoop first place in the Concours de L’Ordinaire, it also won the People’s Choice Award, voted by Festival of the Unexceptional show-goers.
Second place in the Concours de L’Ordinaire went to Callum Bailey and his 1999 Ford Mondeo. He spotted it on a truck literally on its way to being converted into a banger racer.
He rescued it, then spent £6,000 on restoring it to factory-fresh standard. This is despite the car still only being worth around £1,500…
A 1979 Citroen Visa Club owned by Andy Smith took third place. One of the very first Citroen Visas, it’s also one of only three still surviving.
The expert judges included Steve Cropley, Andrew Frankel, Richard Bremner, Jese Billington, Sarah Crabtree, Gary Axon and Jon Bentley.
They also gave special mention to Lucas Split’s Talbot Solara, which was driven from Poland – a 1,000-mile road trip – to attend FOTU.
Glyn Hayler’s Fiat Multipla, Paul Frost’s Bedford Rascal, Matthew Coleman’s Rover 214Si and Jason Crawley’s Citroen Berlingo Van were also commended.
It’s the 11th year of Festival of the Unexceptional, which continues to get bigger each year.
“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,” said Hagerty International MD Mark Roper, the title sponsor of the event.
“Hagerty is proud to be at the forefront of this.”
Top podcast duo Smith and Sniff were also at the event recording a live show and more, while the British Motor Museum bought a host of special cars including Sir Alec Issigonis’ 1969 Mini 9X prototype, the 1975 Triumph SD2 prototype and 1981 British Leyland ECV3 concept.
The organisers say thousands attended, with hundreds of unexceptional cars including Maxis, Novas, Allegros, Ladas, Datsuns and Trabants.
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