CLASSIC cars have parked at the city they were built in, gearing up petrol heads for an annual car show.

To celebrate Oxford’s strong roots in the automotive industry, nine vintage cars have swung open their doors and bonnets to interested visitors at Cowley’s shopping centre – just down the road from the Cowley Plant they were assembled at.

The show at Templars Square will also get motoring enthusiasts revved up for the annual Cowley Classic Car Show this Sunday.

Visitors can sit behind the wheel, take some pictures, and have a chat with the owners – who will be on hand to talk all things classic motors.

Each car brags original brochures and plenty of historic photographs.

Maps of the Cowley Plant have also been displayed, which organiser Tanya Field said had prompted plenty to reminisce on where they used to work, along with a model of the Maestro production line at Cowley.

Mrs Field, who is keen to speak to people who worked on the Maestro Line, said the shopping centre was the ‘perfect venue’ to ‘bring the cars back to the people’ saying: “It is lovely. The local cars, which were built down the road.

“Old workers come in and say, ‘I built this, I did that.’

“This shopping centre was built for the works, that’s why the cars are here.”

Running alongside the week-long event, which has just three days left, will be a series of events, offering visitors background chunks of information on Oxfordshire’s extensive motoring history.

The organiser, who has run the event since 2014, said choosing her favourite classic car at the display, was like ‘choosing your favourite child’.

She said if she had to choose, it would be the Morris Oxford, which rolled off the production line 60 years ago and has remained popular in Oxfordshire ever since.

It joins a well-loved 1967 Morris Minor, still with its first ever owner, and a 1972 Morris Marina TC.

Mrs Field said: “It is really enjoyable- the stories people tell you, it’s brilliant.

“Yesterday they bought the drawings of the 1120 and the marina.”

The exhibition joins the line-up of events at the shopping centre in Cowley as part of ‘four weeks of fun’ for youngsters during the school summer holidays.

The car fanatic added: “It is constantly busy, there’s people here all day.

“People are wanting to see more cars. We have a table of brochures for the old plant, the British Motor Museum, plant tours, people can come here and there’s plenty of information on what to do after.”

Adding: “105 years on, and we’re still making cars.”

The display will be in Cowley’s Templars Square Shopping Centre until Saturday.