60 of the world’s rarest cars, ranging from the very earliest pioneering models to the present day are brought to the stunning grounds of Hampton Court Palace to compete for the coveted ‘Best In Show’ award. Uniquely, the ‘Best In Show’ winner is determind by the owners’ themselves, each with one vote to choose the car (other than their own), to be selected as the finest motor car of the Concours.
With the support of his Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, no other UK motoring event offers the same prestige as Hampton Court Concours d’Elégance.
The event draws a close on what is a busy weekend in the automotive world and with Tom present in his 1929 Bentley 4 1/2 Litre Vanden Plas Open Tourer, chassis no. DS3575, we couldn’t help but keep a watchful eye on some of our old girls too. In amongst the array of impressive cars, you could see our previously sold Parabolica-liveried McLaren F1 GTR Longtail, stealing a lot of attention and casting a shadow on some otherwise jaw-dropping cars as it displayed some of Gordon Murray’s finest work.
In celebration of 75 years of Ferrari, a line-up of prancing horses gathered in front of the palace and amongst the herd was our old 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial, chassis no. 0424MD, and you can always trust that wherever there’s a herd, there’s never a bull too far away, with our more recently sold 1976 Lamborghini Countach LP400 Periscopio, chassis no. 1120204, sitting with its doors in the only way they should be.
The standard of cars on display was impressive to say the least, ranging from art deco classics to modern day masterpieces, and despite ‘Best In Show’ being awarded to a fantastic 1938 Delage D8-120 S ‘de Villars’, we were delighted to receive ‘Runner Up In Class’ in the Bentley Trophy Class for Tom’s 1929 Bentley 41/2 Litre.
Following on from a weekend of silverware, the last of the awards went to Tom Jnr, winning the ‘Junior Concours’ in our 1977 Ferrari 312 T2 ‘Ferrarina 77’, which is a 1:2 scale replica of the 312 T2 in which Niki Lauda contested the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship and is 1 of just 7 examples ever built.
For a lot of events on the automotive calendar, it is a pleasure for us to be in attendance, giving us an opportunity to present some of the world’s greatest cars. Hampton Court is different. Here, it is an honour to be invited and we look forward to gracing the grounds once again next year!
