Salon Prive Concours D'Elegance Review - Part 3

 This is the third part of the Salon Prive Concours D'Elegance review, which has now become longer than originally planned because the Salon Prive entrants list has expanded to include cars that were entered but weren't shown previously. This means that the number of cars in these four classes has near enough doubled, but the more cars, the more fun in explaining them, so to begin is Class L being the Milestones of Endurance Racing. 

The first car in this class is the 1972 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT/3 which can only be described as an open top monster. Built to take part in the World Sports Car Championship, the Tipo 33 follows a long line of Alfa Romeos built to win championships and though this one wasn't as successful it is still an absolute beast. Powered by a 3.0 V8, the car produced 440bhp which was inspired by the lightweight and powerful Porsche 908, the top speed is unknown as each car was handbuilt and there are only 12 units that exist. This would have been an extremely successful racing car but Ferrari had just begun to race their 312P and so Alfa Romeo couldn't keep up. Only one example has been sold through auction and it managed to raise £392,000. The next car is the class winner being the 1988 Porsche 962. Anyone who knows endurance racing cars knows how dominant Porsche were in the 1980s with the 956/962 and this particular car, the Kenwood car, is no exception. Powered by the same 3.0 Flat 6 as the Porsche 935, the 962 was mid-engined and twin turbocharged meaning the power produced was 790bhp, which is around the same as a modern day Formula One car. This example was chassis CK6-88 which was built to compete in the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans where it finished a commendable 9th in class, and was later fitted with the Kremer high downforce kit until it finished racing in 1989. It's been restored to original specification and was driven by Derek Bell at the 2012 Le Mans support race. At auction, there have been a few 962s to cross the block, the most recent selling for £1.5million. Moving a few years on, next is the 2000 Audi R8 LMP900 which was Audi's first venture into endurance racing after massive success in rallying and touring cars. Two versions were created, the R8C which was built for Le Mans and this version, the R8R, which was built for LMP900 and was open topped much like the Alfa Romeo previously. Powered by a twin turbocharged 3.6 litre V8, it produced around 600bhp, the R8 R took the LMP 900 route because of the new American Le Mans series (ALMS) so much so that at the opener at the 12 hours of Sebring, the R8s recorded a 1-2 win. They later took all three podium spots at Le Mans starting the era of domination for Audi in endurance racing. Only one has sold at auction in 2012 and the final price was £1,034,000. Next is the 2010 Ford GT1, which was a car released in the final few years of the GT1 category of racing being active. Having returned to GT3 racing in 2007, the Ford GT was making waves in the motorsport world and so Matech decided to take a Ford GT GT3 and modify it for GT1 usage. Powered by a 5.0 V8, it produced 600bhp putting it in line with other cars in its class such as the Maserati MC12 GT1 and the Lamborghini Murcielago R-SV. Not particularly successful in GT1 in the few years it was active before the FIA pulled the plug, but one of the best sounding V8s ever fitted to a racing car. One was sold in Monterey in 2014 for £1,200,000 which is much more than expected for this car. Next is the 2012 Peugeot 90X which was the best car a Peugeot could be although there was a slight issue with it. It was built to replace the 908 which had won top honours at Le Mans in 2009 and was built as a hybrid version as the previous generations had been diesel powered. It was taken out for pre-season testing at the Sebring circuit but it would never race again as in 2011, Peugeot cancelled their sport division and therefore the 90X never raced. The only example of Peugeot's endurance machine to sell at auction was a 908 HDI for £1.5million. The final three cars can be clumped together as they are very similar to each other, all entered by Aston Martin. The first is their 2020 Vantage GTE which is still based on the old Vantage body so is presumed to be the last one made. The GTE is their top car when it comes to endurance racing with multiple class wins at the World Endurance Championship including a few Le Mans class victories. The second car is the 2020 Vantage GT3, which is from a lower class than the GTE but is still featured in the World Endurance Championship. Again based on the previous generation, the GT3 focuses on the British GT Championship as well as the WEC, with a few class wins in each. The final car entered by Aston Martin is the Vantage GT4 which was an updated version of the Vantage N24 car which raced in the FIA GT4 Championship. All three of these cars are special as they have very few miles on as if they're factory prototypes or owned by the Aston Martin heritage centre. The only record of any of these cars selling at auction was a Vantage GT4 which sold last year for only £81,200. 

The next class is fairly similar to the previous, being endurance racers, though this class is exclusive for the V12 powered cars. The first car in this class is the 1974 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 TT/12 which is the V12 version of the Alfa Romeo in the previous class. In hindsight, this car was used as a developmental car for the later 33SC12 model. However as far as development cars go, it was incredibly successful with seven out of eight race wins against some of the more competitive 1970s racing cars such as the Renault Alpine A442-B and the Porsche 908/3. Powered by a 500bhp V12 and with the car weighing only 670kg, this car is incredibly close to achieving a 1:1 power to weight ratio, which for 1974 is insane. There has never been one of these cars to sell at auction but Girardo & Co. have sold this exact example before and this car ended up winning the Best in Class award. Next is a 1978 Ferrari 512 BB LM which was a racing version of the road going Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer and this example is a second generation example after the first iteration was not very successful. The body was designed by Pininfarina and certainly makes an impact on first view, carrying over very few elements of the original design as it features built in lights rather than pop-up and the tail was extended to the maximum according to regulations. 25 were built in total and the racing success of the cars did not improve as much as Ferrari believed it would. A win in class at the 1981 24 Hours of Le Mans is the standout performance by the 512 as it was almost always in the rear view mirrors of the much more powerful Porsche 935 K3s. Only one has been recorded to have sold at auction which was in 2014 when a 1981 example sold for £990,000 which can only increase in the future. Next is a British brute being the incredible 1988 Jaguar XJR9 which is a Le Mans legend. Built by Jaguar alongside Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) it used a 7.0 V8 as well as a unique design package which had the rear wheels covered by the bodywork to increase aerodynamics and top speed on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. While racing in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship, the XJR9 won the Le Mans 24 hour race and later won the team and drivers championship, with Formula One driver Martin Brundle being the winning driver. It is believed that the XJR9 had around 750bhp which led to an extreme 245mph top speed though it never achieved this speed during any races. This car is also famous for having two iconic racing liveries, the first being the one this example is displayed in being the purple Silk Cut livery and the second being a green Castrol livery, the latter example selling at auction for £2.1million in 2015. Sticking with Jaguar, the next car is a 1991 Jaguar XJR-15 which is known as the car that the world forgot about even though it is a majesty of design. Built based on the XJR9 as a road going racing car made for a one make series that Jaguar planned to run and did so for one year in 1991. Made entirely of carbon fibre, it was built after the XJ220 concept was released to the public and TWR decided to develop a road legal XJR9 as an alternative. The initial plan was to produce 50 examples but in the end 53 chassis were built with a price tag of £500,000 each which was, and still is, extremely expensive. They are much more accepted now as a quality super car than at the time though it has racing heritage in that an XJR-15 chassis was used to develop Nissan's R390 prototype car. The interesting thing is that since the XJR-15s have been appearing in the last few years, the auction value has not skyrocketed and in fact has gone in the opposite way, with the last example selling just three years ago for £270,000 which is half the value of the car new. The next car is extremely unique and one people may only know from the Gran Turismo racing games being the 1999 Lister Storm. It was built as a homologated version of the racing car and broke the record on its launch of the largest engine in a road car since WW2 with a 7.0 V12, used by the XJR9 racing car. It participated in the British GT Championship where in the first season it raced against Chrysler-Oreca Dodge Vipers, Marcos LM600s, Porsche 911 GT2s and the very rare Venturi 400LM and it came out on top during its first season. Later it became the only factory team in the championship as Chrysler pulled out of the championship, which led to a plethora of wins. The most interesting part about this car, however is that it was owned by Newcastle United. In the late 1990s, Newcastle United bought two Lister Storm cars to race in the GT Championship and finished them with interesting liveries featuring many Newcastle badges, leading to variable successes in racing but no improvement to the football team. This exact Lister Storm was sold at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed for £465,000 which is over £300,000 more than a road car that sold a year earlier. The final car in this class is the 2001 Ferrari 550 Maranello GT1 which is a car from the last fine years of the GT1 championship. The Ferrari 550 was never made eligible for racing by Ferrari and so privateers took 550 chassis and developed them into racing cars, the most significant being the projects made by Prodrive. 12 were built by Prodrive to race in the GT1 series and was the final V12 Ferrari to win a race at the GT1 championship. This car has a good record at auctions especially recently as RM Sotheby's sold a 2001 550 GT1 by Prodrive during their Monterrey online auction this summer for £4.29million which is the most expensive car ever sold during an online auction, even beating a Ferrari Enzo and a Ferrari 275 GTB. 

This next class is a very small one with only two cars in the whole class but it is a special class as it celebrates the road going McLaren F1. The first car is one that has appeared at both the 2018 and 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed being McLaren F1 chassis 028 which has a remarkable story behind it. Firstly it is believed to be the only example finished in Grand Prix Red and that paired with a cream interior looks absolutely stunning and this car was owned by a very famous racing driver. In 1993, Michael Andretti was gifted this car by McLaren as a contractual obligation for his stint with the F1 team for that season, though he kept the car in the UK for storage. It was later displayed as the promo car for McLaren at the 1995 Goodwood Festival of Speed before changing hands to Tokyo before going to the US. It then was sold as part of a multi car sale deal so the owner could buy a Ferrari 250 Testarossa before being delivered to DK Engineering and now resides in the UK with its new owner. The second and final car of the class is the McLaren F1 chassis 037 which has a lot less known about it. What is known is that it resides in the UK and is finished in Special Silver over grey alcantara which is a fairly common McLaren F1 spec. The car has made its way around the world with its various owners as it has been spotted in Newport Beach as well as Johannesberg before being spotted at Donington Park for the recent SupercarDriver Super Secret Meet where it featured alongside many other hypercars for one of the best gatherings of cars ever. Auction prices of McLaren F1s have always been high and the last road car to sell at auction was sold for £15,650,000 which is now seen as cheap for a McLaren F1. 

The final class of this section of the review focuses on the racing versions of the McLaren F1 and there are four beautiful examples to gawp at. The first example is the McLaren F1 GTR #13R which is finished in the black and red Lark livery. The GTR was the first racing version of the F1 and this example was sold by McLaren originally to Japan and Team Goh Racing (which would become Team Lark McLaren) alongside a second F1 GTR. It was displayed at an auto museum in Japan for a long time alongside a McLaren F1 road car and the extremely rare F1 GT. In terms of race history, it won the All Japan Grand Touring Championship in 1996 with Ralf Schumacher as the lead driver with three wins in total. Since its racing days, the current owner took the car to McLaren to get the car road legalised at a cost of around £200,000 and since then has been seen at many UK events including the Goodwood Breakfast meets and the Festival of Speed. The next car has quite an interesting story to it because it was not a purpose built GTR but a converted road car, built to GTR specification in 1994. It did enter the legendary 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans, but was the one F1 that failed to finish in the same race the F1s dominated with 1st, 3rd, 4th and 6th. However the following year it managed to finish 6th at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Due to this car originally being a road car, it did not need to undergo the road legality conversion and therefore it has been seen a few times on the road. The car is finished in the red and white UenoClinic livery. The next car is the first of the Longtail variations of the F1 which was built for the FIA GT1 championship and the 1997 Le Mans regulations and is one of only ten built. This one has been finished in many liveries originally being a Lark livery as this was sold to Team Goh in Japan same as 13R, failing to finish the 1997 Le Mans race. It later traded through different teams featuring a yellow Parabolica livery (which the car is finished in now) as well as a full Papaya Orange spray. The final car in class is 28R which is finished in the most famous Longtail livery, the Gulf Warsteiner livery. This car is actually a rebuild of chassis 27R after it was damaged during transport but was later rebuilt as chassis 28R as a spare car for the FIA GT Championship. This car does not have much racing history as by the time it came to be raced it was used as a spare car and never actually raced. When it comes to auction records of F1 GTRs and GTR Longtails, there have actually been a few to come to auction. The only F1 Longtail to sell at auction was in 2014 with the FINA liveried BMW F1 GTR Longtail which sold for £5.2 million, and there's only been F1 LMs to sell at auction rather than GTRs and the most recent sold for £19.8 million a few years ago. 

The final two classes will be in the final review of the Salon Prive Concours D'Elegance and those classes include some 90s supercars and some future classics which has around 10 cars in it which should be incredible.