A VISIT TO THE 1963 LONDON MOTOR SHOW

The first car you hope to see at the London Motor Show is the Lotus Cortina, which debuted earlier that year. £1,100 2s 11d may be rather a lot of money, but The Motor thought it "a good compromise for a keen driver who has to remember that the family must sit somewhere".

Thinking slightly more practically, the Hillman Imp also made its bow several months ago, but you welcome the chance to inspect its light-alloy 4-cylinder OHC 'oversquare' engine. It certainly looks smart – almost like a scaled-down Chevrolet Corvair. "The World's Most Advanced Light Car" costs £532 4s 7d for the De Luxe (with a heater as standard), and The Motor said they could hurl the Imp " into corners at speeds which would be suicidal with most saloons".

But Vauxhall now has a rival in the form of the "lovely, lively, spacious, gracious" Viva HA, their first post-war small car. Motor Sport found it "economical, needs very infrequent greasing, is modern yet unobtrusive in appearance and is, perhaps most important of all, light and pleasant to drive". The De Luxe is priced at a reasonable £566 and that Magic Mirror acrylic paint finish apparently repels rust.

However, while the Viva has quite a vast boot, you crave a larger car that, to be frank, will impress the neighbours with its trans-Atlantic appearance. The Ford Consul Corsair, the replacement for the Consul Classic saloon, looks like a scaled-down Thunderbird. The sales copy promises it a "car for 'the man who still enjoys a sense of adventure". For just £840 for the Corsair GT four-door, the weekly trip to the Victor Value supermarket would never be the same.

By now, you are bedazzled by the sheer variety of cars at Earls Court. The Humber Sceptre (very good value at £997) and the Mini Cooper S (incredible amounts of fun for £695) are other vehicles introduced some months previously. But this does not prevent you from a) craving one and b) predicting your bank manager's current mood.

That Vanden Plas-trimmed Princess 1100 resembles a miniature Rolls-Royce, even if it costs about £300 more than a standard BMC ADO16. That new Jaguar S-Type appears a blend of the Mk.2 and the Mk. X, although £1,759 for the 3.8-litre version makes it slightly beyond your reach,

You then head to the Bond display as the Preston firm is making a Motor Show debut with its first four-wheel car. The Equipe is a very appealing GRP-bodied couple on the Triumph Herald's chassis with the Spitfire's engine. AC Cobra offers rather more performance, and you recently heard the Thames Ditton works has suspended production of all other models. The Daily Telegraph lists the price of $5,995 as "American only", so this is a two-seater for Route 66 rather than the A36.

And so, you allow yourself to become mesmerised by the Panhard 24 and the NSU Spider with its rotary engine. At £4,459 and £4,175, respectively, the Bristol 408 and the Aston Martin DB5 are cars for the likes of Mr. Peter Sellers, whom you glimpsed inspecting the exhibits.

The Iso Rivolta is equally out of your reach, with its blend of Chevrolet Corvette engine and jet-set lines Still, just think of achieving a top speed of 150 mph on the M1.

And with your dreams still heading beyond your bank balance, the Mercedes-Benz display tempts you with not only a 230SL – £3,595, or seven times the price of a Mini. By contrast, the Trabant, and the Wartburg, from the other side of the Iron Curtain, are making their first appearances at Earls Court, with power from two-stroke engines. They look practical, if not terribly glamorous.

As for the 'Oddity of the Show', that has to be the Ogle Design converted Ford Consul Cortina GT at the Harold Radford stand. Stirling Moss specified this "dream car", one so luxurious that it even boasts a Motorola radio and a Minifon tape recorder that can be used with a microphone for dictating letters. Autocar rather rudely described its paint finish as a "somewhat unattractive colour of Borneo Green", and who would spend £1,390 on such a car?

Rather more to your liking is the Hillman Minx Mk. V, which sports an attractive razor-edge roofline and costs a mere £635. The same amount would gain you a Herald 12/50 with more bhp than the Herald 1200 and an equipment list that includes a sliding roof. But the major news on the Triumph stand is the Vanguard replacement, for the Standard marque is no more. The 2000's Michelotti-designed lines are certainly appealing, and Motor Sport said:

There is ample interior stowage in a deep, lockable, drop-lid cubby which has a rather unnecessary two-position lid-opening, and a pull-up interior vanity mirror - Triumph stylists obviously being conscious that the little woman is a strong influence in the choice of a family car!

Leaving aside social attitudes from 1923, not 1963, you head to the Rover display and their new model that will eventually replace the P4 95/110. The 2000 P6 costs £171 more than the 2-litre Triumph, and it resembles no previous car with the Viking badge. The body panels are directly bolted onto a monocoque chassis, the interior resembles a modern office, and the engine is a new OHC unit with a Heron head.

The 2000 is also eight inches lower than the P4 and resembles a four-door coupe from some angles. Autocar regards it as "One of the outstanding cars of the decade", and it is rumoured that the new Rover will be the first European Car of The Year. Indeed, the sole mildly off-putting aspect of Rover 2000 is that it lacks room to wear a hat at the wheel.

At last, it is time for home, having inspected cars from the UK, Canada, the USA, West and East Germany, France, Sweden, the Soviet Union, and Italy. There were no Japanese marques at Earls Court – but then who would choose a Datsun or a Toyota over a Morris, a Hillman, or an Austin? The idea is quite preposterous…