The time of year has come around of the Salon Prive automotive show held at Blenheim Palace and with that, another Concours D'Elegance for classics to be judged and best in class awards to be handed out. In lieu of Covid-19, there has only been one other Concours event so far this year at Hampton Court Palace with the 1970 Porsche 917K coming out on top. This article will go through each of the first four car classes of this year's Concours, giving a brief description of each of the entrants and releasing the winning cars.
The first class of cars was Veterans at the Palace which is a class for pre-1920 cars and had four entrants this year. The first entrant was a 1904 Napier L49, known as the best car in the world before Rolls-Royce adopted the catchphrase in the post-war era, and press at the time of its release labelled it as the 'King of Cars'. This particular example was owned by the ruler of the Hyderabad State in India and who was, at the time, the richest man in the world. The car was later discovered in an Argentinean barn alongside two Bugattis, and last year won the best of show at Hampton Court Palace. The next entrant, the MMC 9hp from 1904, has very little information about it. It was produced by Motoring Manufacturing Company of Coventry, a very short lived manufacturer that produced less than five examples of the 9hp. It is documented that this example had its wheels turned for the first time in over a century when it took part in the 2018 London to Brighton rally. The penultimate entrant of this class was the 1911 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Open Tourer. The Silver Ghost nameplate was not standard on this car as it was known as the 40/50 but this car struck an accord with its owner so much that the nickname became the standard nameplate. Since its conception, this car has been rallied through most of its life and even, in 1977, took part in the Queen's Jubilee Parade through Windsor Castle to the Ascot Racecourse. It even came up for sale at Brooklands Motor Museum at a Historics auction where it failed to sell at an estimate of £350,000 to £450,000. The winner of the class was a 1919 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost which had the higher closed top body rather than the open top version mentioned previously. This example was sold in a era of five years (1917-1922) where Rolls-Royce sales were declining due to other manufacturers entering the market, and therefore is one of only 430 sold in that era. It also featured limousine bodywork making it a very desirable, which could be a reason it won Best in Class for Veterans at the Palace.
The next class was Pre War Touring and the first car in this class was the 1924 Bentley 3 Litre Sports which was produced between 1921 and 1929. The Sports variant was the second most common of the variants with 513 examples produced and was known as the Red Label model which was the second fastest example and didn't feature a large roofline like the standard 3 Litre. It is mainly known for being the predecessor to the legendary 4 1/2 Litre Bentley which, when supercharged, became one of the greatest racing cars of the 20th Century, as well as the Blower Bentley. The next entrant was a 1936 Lancia Astura Pininfarina 'Bocca' Cabriolet which is one of only six produced between 1933 and 1936. Built to replace the Lamba, the Astura used a 2.6l V8 which produced 72bhp, paired to a four speed manual gearbox which sent the power to the rear wheels. There are some versions which can have up to 82bhp because it was a coachbuilt car so not all examples were the same. Next was a 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental, which sounds strange as the name 'Continental' is usually associated with either Lincoln or modern Bentleys. This car however started as a coachbuilt one off short wheelbase Phantom which received no interest from the marketing department of Rolls until it won best in show at Biarritz Concours in 1930, when the sales department named the car the 'Continental Saloon', wrote a brochure and priced it. 281 examples were later produced. Next is a really interesting car being the Hispano Suiza J12, the ultimate combination of Swiss styling, Spanish money and French engineering. This car was built to rival Rolls-Royce and Dusenberg in the extraordinarily high end of the luxury car market, aiming at luxurious custom built models for high end clients. The J12 is no exception with only 120 being built, each in either saloon, coupe, cabriolet or roadster forms. This example is a roadster which makes it an even rarer car and the last example to sell at auction was just over £2million which should all indicate a best in class award but there was one other car which stopped the Hispano Suiza from winning the class. That car was the SS Jaguar 100 2.5, which surprisingly is not an actual Jaguar car. Built by SS Cars, its predecessor the SS90 had a top speed of 90mph and had the shape of the MGs at the time making it a brilliant little British sports car. The SS 100 however could top the legendary 100mph mark making it a very fast car for the time and most were built as factory-bodied roadsters with only one coupe ever made. During the Second World War, production of the SS100 ceased and in 1945, Jaguar bought SS Cars but due to the nazi connotations, the SS 100 was stopped but engineering elements of it was used in the next Jaguar car, the legendary XK120. Being one of 198 and the unique history led to this being the Best in Class for Pre-War Touring.
The next class was to celebrate the 110th anniversary of one of the most beautiful car manufacturers of all time, Alfa Romeo. The first car is very significant because not only did it win Best in Class but it was crowned Best in Show meaning it joins the Porsche 917K in the Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Concours and that car was the 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider by Zagato. This is an extremely important car in Alfa Romeo's history as it remains in its Monza set up, meaning its racing set up as many were converted after they were raced. It was raced in period by Tazio Nuvolari, meaning this exact car won both the 1931 and 1932 Targa Florio races in Sicily as well as the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in 1931, which gave the car its name. There were 188 of these built but very few remain in racing format which gives this car a unique edge which was a factor leading to the Best in Show. Also in this class was an 8C 2300 Cabriolet which is the road legal and non racing version of the 8C Monza but it also took some styling cues from the 8C 2300 LM which was the Le Mans version of that car, which won the 24 hours of Le Mans a few times. The final three cars are fairly similar as they are all the same model, the Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Cabriolet. Being the final model in the 6C timeline, it preceded the brilliant Alfa Romeo 1900 also known as the Alfa Junior so it has some brilliant features to it. The 6C was one of the most expensive cars on sale when it first launched and due to that it had some very high class owners such as the former King of Monaco, Rita Hayworth and Tyrone Power and it even featured in The Godfather, driven by Al Pacino on screen as Micheal Corleone. All three trims were present at the event being the standard, the S and the SS, with the only difference being that in the SS it features a double carburetor rather than a single one on the S and standard cars.
The next class was the Post-War Sports Racers which in a nutshell is racing cars or road going versions of racing cars from the 1940s and 1950s, which is the start of what has become my favourite class of cars, vintage and classic Le Mans cars. The first car is the Ferrari 166 MM from 1949 which was the third Ferrari model to be built after the 125S and 159S. Originally this car was labelled the 166S but only 12 of them were produced before the 166 MM arrived which is named after the Mille Miglia race in Italy. 47 of these were produced and were highly successful in road racing and was known for being the first Ferrari to be highly successful competitively which solidified their reputation as a serious competitor. This car won its class and came second best in show for the whole concours. The next stunner entered was the 1951 Ferrari 212 Export Vignale Barchetta which replaced the successor to the 166, the 195, and was the first Ferrari to have coachbuilt elements from an external design house, being Vignale. This example is one of only eight Barchetta bodied cars, as the others were either a coupe or spyder format. A famous example of the 212 is the Uovo, 'the egg', due to the strange shape of the grill. This car was previously for sale at DK Engineering where it states it has the upgraded 2.5l Colombo V12 from the later 225 model, and a good example of one of these can sell for up to £8million. Next is a 1953 Ferrari 166 MM/53 Pininfarina Berlinetta which is a later version of the previous 166 MM spoken about on here. This was built to race in the two litre class at Mille Miglia and with 154bhp it was more powerful than the predecessor and a lot rarer as well with only 13 of these built for Ferrari clients, only one bodied by Pininfarina. With a five-speed manual and only weighing 650kg, it was a rapid sports car. Auction history for these is sparse due to its rarity but one did fail to sell in 2009 for £1.1million at RM Monterrey. The penultimate car in this class was the 1955 Jaguar D-Type, one of the most important cars in Jaguar's history. It is their most successful racing car of all time having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans three times in a row from 1955 to 1957 only failing to win the 1954 race out of the ones it entered. Built as a development of the C-Type and XK120C racers, Jaguar knew they needed a new car to keep up with Ferrari, even though they won in 1953 with the Jaguar C-Type. When the prototype was being tested, it apparently hit 178mph, which was over 30mph faster than the C-Type could achieve and with a magnesium alloy body rather than the traditionally aluminium, it was much lighter, though much more expensive. It was such an iconic car for Jaguar that their classic department are creating a limited run of 25 continuation D-Types, following their success with recreating the E Type Lightweight and the XKSS. In terms of auction history, a non race winning D-Type can reach £3million but when RM Sotheby's sold the 1955 Le Mans winning D-Type, it sold for £21.78million which at the time was a record for a British car. The final car is a 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC by Scaglietti which was originally built to keep the 500 Testarossa up to date with the 1957 racing regulations and to continue their successes. It used an inline-four engine unlike the standard Ferrari V12 that they usually use for racing with but this allowed them to excel in the 2 litre class with 220bhp and a curb weight of only 726kg. It is also exceptionally rare much like the other cars in this class with only 19 examples built and auction prices surprisingly have never surpassed £5million given this knowledge.
The next post will cover the next four classes of cars being the Post War Touring (Open), Post War Touring (Closed, Two-Seater), Post War Touring (Closed, Four-Seater) and the Passione Ferrari class. As an overview the winners of class for these categories were the 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, 1936 SS Jaguar 100 2.5, 1931 Alfa Romeo 8C Monza Zagato Spider and the 1949 Ferrari 166 MM.
No comments:
Post a Comment