Classic car show attracts 400k visitors in London

APD NEWS

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Over 400,000 people attended the 2017 Regent Street Motor Show in London on Saturday for a glimpse of the timeless classic cars on display.

Regent Street once again hosted the UK's largest free-to-view motor show. Taking center stage were around 100 cars that were built before 1905.

In keeping with the spirit of the event, many drivers and passengers were dressed in period costumes, reflecting the fashions of a bygone era.

A steam-powered car from 1898, which belongs to a private collector, was one of the stars of the show this year.

A steam-powered car from 1898.

"It's a steam engine, like a truck's engine, like a railway engine, just a small version. So you boil the water, and water – when it expands – it changes into steam. It's much larger and that's the pressure that pushes the pistons," said Haikley Haikling, the renovator of the steam-powered vehicle. "Room temperature, ordinary room pressure, when it expands, it's 167 times larger, so that's where the pressure comes from."

Also at the show was a Talbot classic car manufactured in 1933. The owner, Thomas Watten, spent nine years renovating the vehicle after buying it in 2006.

A Talbot classic car manufactured in 1933.

"These renovators, these experts are experts at the job and they like to do everything as it was built in the 1930s. So it takes a long time to find the parts, and of course, make a lot of parts, 'cause you can't get them nowadays off the shelf," Watten said. "So consequently, it took many years to rebuild. When I took the car to the engineers, I was a young man. The number plate is the original number plate from 1933."

Watten said that there are only three such models in the world, and the renovator had to go to South Africa for another car of the same model to record data from the original engine.

(CGTN)