I love a nice surprise. Like waking up on Christmas morning to find you've actually received all the presents you wished for. There's a hot car on the drive, the biggest train set you've ever seen chugging around the lounge and a message from your sprout-guzzling Nan that she's going elsewhere for lunch.

Well happiness comes in many different shapes and sizes, and with a month to go until Santa drops off his usual delivery of Christmas tat, a huge and not entirely expected gift of the awesome, rare, famous and fast unwrapped before my eyes as I walked into Hall 1, at the NEC. Classic cars, yes, but so much more on top – and not a dodgy pair of socks in sight – the Footman James Classic Motor Show was an absolute cracker!

First up in our exclusive TotallyMotor coverage is a spotlight on the legends of road and track; all the cars we'd all park-up in our dream garage, right after a good back-lane-blast, that is.