Anniversaries

We love to celebrate a milestone

Each year The Classic celebrates landmark anniversaries for marques, models, championship wins, constructors, and historic motorsport moments - there's nothing more we enjoy than a birthday celebration!

In recent years, we've staged record-breaking processions featuring evocative E-type Jaguars, fabulous Ferrari F40s, evergreen Porsche 911s, muscular Ford Mustangs, sensational Jaguar XJ220 supercars, iconic Minis, fastback Ford Capris, and never-before-seen numbers of stunning McLarens – as well as a whole host of other glittering parades.

Our Online 30th Anniversary Party in 2020!

In 2020 we had planned to celebrate our own 30th anniversary but with plans on hold until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we held a very special Online 30th Anniversary Party with four special programmes now available on our YouTube channel bringing you 9 hours of incredible historic motorsport moments at the Classic. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our series of programmes.

We do plan to carry forward celebrations that we had planned for 2020 to the 2021 event wherever possible but please bear with us as we look at balancing both 2020 and 2021 celebrations when finalising next year’s anniversary plans. Anyone with tickets for our special 30th Anniversary Celebration Package has the option to carry this forward as part of our deferred celebrations for our 30th anniversary.

For now, take a look at some of our past celebrations detailed below.

The 50th Anniversary of Sir Jackie Stewart's first win at Silverstone in 1969 which paved the way for his world championship win the same year.

An incredible 100 years of Bentley.

There was a record turn-out of iconic racing Bentleys in a hugely evocative field racing for the Bentley Centenary Trophy for Pre War Sports Cars with pre-war Alfa Romeos, Aston Martins, Bugattis, Fraser Nashes, Lagondas and MGs all dating back to the 1920s and 1930s.

The Diamond Jubilee of the iconic Mini.

In addition to the showdowns on track over the weekend when we had the world’s biggest grid of pre '66 racing Minis, there was also a special anniversary parade and display on Friday 26 July, led out by the legendary Paddy Hopkirk.

The golden anniversary of Ford’s fastback Capri.

There was a showdown on track when the Capris took part in the Historic Touring Car Challenge, contesting the Gordon Spice Trophy which was awarded by the man himself to the first Capri over the line. There was also a special 50th anniversary track parade at lunchtime on Sunday and a spectacular Capri display.

The Classic highlights programme that aired on ITV4 after the 2019 event features each of these anniversaries and is available to watch here.

2018

We celebrated 60 glorious years of the British Touring Car Championship with a special display and parade of championship cars through the years.

The ITV4 highlights programme which aired after the event showcases these celebrations. You can watch the full programme here.

2017

We worked with the McLaren Owners Group to put on a record-breaking display, winning a Guinness World Record for the largest parade of McLaren cars.

This was organised to mark what would have been company founder, Bruce McLaren’s 80th birthday.

2016

We celebrated the headline-grabbing career of the charismatic James Hunt, 40 years on from his FIA Formula One World Championship win in 1976

You can watch more here.

2015

It was our own anniversary as we celebrated 25 years since the first Classic event at Silverstone.

We celebrated with a special Silver anniversary parade and also rocked out with the legendary Status Quo on Saturday night.

2014

We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Ford Mustang.

The Mustang Celebration Trophy for Transatlantic Touring Cars was dominated by Ford Mustangs.

The Mustang Owners Club also came out in force to support a massive track parade and stunning display. We even created a Bullitt homage as a fitting tribute to the anniversary.