Hampton Court Concours of Elegance Delivers Again

Recent weeks have served up quite the classic car banquet for yours truly. And this was the highlight of the year so far.

Just lately my cup runneth over with classic car goodness. Second weekend in August I was at the Porsche Paradise that was Megaphonics at Boxengasse. Third weekend, possibly the best village car show in the UK in Broadway. Fourth weekend – the Silverstone Festival, still good even if perhaps not quite as good as it used to be. Fifth weekend – the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance. And next weekend is the Goodwood Revival…it’s almost too much of a good thing, an overdose of classic delights, but then the “season” starts to draw to a close soon in terms of major events, so one has to make the most of it!

For the weekend just passed, I was back at Hampton Court Palace, the home of King Henry VIII and some of his six wives, for the thirteenth iteration of the Concours of Elegance, and the ninth at the Palace. It has established itself as one of the world’s leading concours events, alongside the likes of Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach. It’s been a long-time fixture in my classic calendar – I went to the first one at Windsor Castle in 2012 – and I usually attend on one or both of the weekend days, but a major family event (my partner’s 50^th birthday) meant that this time I could only go on the opening day, Friday. While this meant there was reduced club presence and I didn’t get to see the cars in the Levitt Concours or the 30 under 30 category, I did get to see the Gooding & Co. auction, of which more later, but there was still more than enough to delight ay classic car enthusiast.

Hampton Court Palace provides a suitably historic setting for a collection of some 60 of the world’s rarest and most desirable historic cars participating in the Concours itself, as well as high-end dealers, purveyors of luxury goods, the auction, and club displays arranged around the palace’s lawns. It’s not the easiest place to get to, but once there, the ambience is that of a grand garden party that just happens to have a lot of very valuable and beautiful cars scattered about the place.

Day one is the day when the cars arrive and are presented on the lakeside stage, and it’s always a treat to see and hear these cars in motion, albeit slowly, especially on such a glorious late summer day as we enjoyed on Friday. As usual, the cars ranged from the very old – the oldest being a 1922 Ballot 2 LS – to the modern, with the newest being a 2024 Gordon Murray Automotive T.50. I arrived with a fellow enthusiast and found myself parked next to a smart VW Karmann Ghia Type 34, or “Razor”. Also in the car park, a bronze 1977 Lamborghini Urraco Silhouette and a 1970 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona…not bad!

Pegaso is one of the world’s lesser-spotted marques, at least in terms of cars, with the company only building between 71 and 84 Z-102’s (there is no confirmed number) between 1951 and 1958, two of which were at Hampton Court. One was a competition 1952 Berlinetta with coachwork by ENASA, that entered for – but did not qualify to compete in – the 1952 Monaco GP, ENASA being Pegaso’s parent company, who themselves produced just eleven Berlinetta’s. Its appearance at the Concours – in its national colours – was its first in public since the 1950’s

Besides the Concours entrant, a second Pegaso Z-102 was on offer in the auction, a rare opportunity indeed, as long as one had between £600,000 and £800,000 to spare…but it didn’t get past £350k. The world’s fastest road car at the time, while not necessarily beautiful, it’s a very purposeful-looking car, with quite a few similarities to an Aston Martin DB2, I think, especially in profile.

There were three Ferrari 250GT SWB variants on show, including what was probably my car of the day, the superb 1962 Ferrari 250GT SWB Speciale Aerodynamica to give it it’s full name! One of four built by Pininfarina, what a car this is, with its Superfast-inspired tail. It’s a very different design compared to the “regular” 250GT – compare and contrast below…

Another personal favourite was the 1965 Lamborghini 350GT, the company’s first production model and this one was one of 120 built before being replaced by the similarly styled 400GT. This is a relatively understated design – by Giampaolo Dallara – compared to what followed in the years to come from Lamborghini, but none the worse for that.

One of the most dramatic among many dramatic cars was one I had never seen before other than in photographs – a 1953 Siata 208CS Balbo, which featured a very small 1996cc V8. 18 208CS’s were built in total, eleven of them by Balbo. There’s a touch of Aston Martin about the front grille of this very sleek looking car – I loved it.

One feature the Siata shared with the earlier and otherwise completely different 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton was it’s concealed headlamps. The Cord was in fact the first production car to feature concealed or pop-up headlamps, and it was the first US-designed car with front-wheel-drive. In the end, the Cord was a sales failure, with only 2,972 810/812 models produced between 1936 and ’37 – perhaps it was a little too advanced for its day. This one was originally owned by none other than Amelia Earhart, but sadly, not for long.

It seems that most of the cars I am mentioning are Italian in origin, and I have to mention two more – a stunning 1956 Maserati A6G/54 in silver/grey and a 1956 Alfa Romeo 1900 C Coupé, both by Zagato. For me, Zagato can be very hit-or-miss, but these two exquisite cars are most definitely hits. Staying with Zagato, but with a British angle, there was also an example of perhaps the most famous, and in my eyes, successful Zagato design, a metallic green Aston DB4 from 1960 – stunning.

Gooding & Co is one of the world’s leading classic auction houses and the cars on offer on Friday were certainly exceptional, not least in price.

The star lots among the 23 on sale all carried the Bugatti name, in particular a spectacular 1935 Type 57 Atalante and a rather sportier 1933 Bugatti Type 43A Roadster ‘Sport Luxe’ – both carried estimates of £3m to £4m and sold for £2,362,000 and £2,981,250 (including commission) respectively – even the top end of the auction market is struggling. The latter car was far from perfect, with lots of chips and a generally lovely warm patina, while the glorious Atalante had been fully restored in a gorgeous two-tone grey. A relative bargain was a lovely red 1961 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider, which went for £50,625, but this was a tough sale, with only 11 of 23 lots sold.

Of course, if you were unsuccessful in bidding at the auction, there were a number of dealers ready to tempt you to part with your hard-earned cash – more, in fact, than I ever recall seeing at the palace before, which I’m not sure is a good sign – but if your bank account was deep enough, there was plenty to entice you to dip into it. One of the most unusual was a 1969 Chapron-bodied Citroën DS21 Berline “Majesty”, one of only three built in this notchback configuration – I have to say it doesn’t really work for me; I much prefer the regular saloon. Price on application, of course.

Back around the grounds, while Friday is generally quieter than the weekend when it comes to club cars, there were some very cool classics on show, none cooler than the 1964 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, resplendent in pale metallic blue – just fabulous. There was even one in the visitor’s car park, too!

There were several Talbot Lago’s with special coachbuilt bodies on display – my favourite was probably the sublime 1937 T150 Teardrop CSS by Figoni et Falaschi in blue over silver and I was also impressed by the 1939 T150 CSS by Pourtout in blue. The sweeping lines and curves of both these cars were delicious. A somewhat more angular and less dramatic approach could be seen on the 1957 T14 America Coupe by Carlo Delaisse, one of only a dozen built

There was, as always, so much more – the Hampton Court Concours, together with the Goodwood Members Meeting, is my favourite classic event of the year – it never disappoints, and often surprises. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event – meanwhile, enjoy the photo gallery below!