Besides pulling in some of the world’s most glamorous and expensive cars for the Concours of Elegance, Hampton Court also attracts hundreds of cars from the more prestigious car clubs on the Saturday and Sunday, as well as a selection of eye-wateringly expensive classics offered by some of the UK’s most exclusive dealers. I say “eye-wateringly expensive” – it’s an assumption, since no prices are displayed, but then when I visit their websites advertising these cars, there’re few prices shown there either…
On the Saturday, there were impressive turnouts from the XK, E-Type, Jensen, Alvis and Aston Martin clubs, with others including Bentley and Lotus taking the spotlight on the Sunday. Separately, some 50 Jaguars were entered for the Jaguar Trophy, and what a superb sight they made outside the Hampton Court Real Tennis Court.
It was interesting to see how the clubs chose to represent themselves at such an elite classic event – the Jensen Club included a lovely line-up of the Frua-bodied, Chrysler-engined Interceptors, as well as a couple of CV-8’s and first generation Austin-based Interceptors. the row of Jaguars alongside Hampton Court’s Real Tennis court contained what you might expect – a superb selection of E-types and XK120’s, 140’s and 150’s, as well as a lovely Mark VII and a 1969 Daimler Sovereign. They might be considered to be clichéd by some, but there’s no denying their beauty and they are undeniably classics.
The Aston Martin Club, on the other hand, while showing a handful of the DB4, 5 and 6’s beloved by most classic car enthusiasts, was dominated by examples from the mid-1990’s onwards, and while impressive in and of themselves, these are not classics. – at least, not yet. Indeed, some of their club cars on show were little more than five years old, not really in the spirit of the event, in my view.
Elsewhere around the Palace gardens could be found a deep blue 1960 AC Ace Bristol that came with a lovely backstory – this is a car that has seen serious use, having covered over 300,000 (sic) miles, and been used to teach the owner’s son and grandson to drive – how cool is that? And the car still looks wonderful.
There were two exceptional Ferrari’s displayed among the miscellaneous club cars – a bright red 1960 Ferrari 250GT was hard to miss, as was the stunning cream 365GT 2+2 – Ferrari made some absolutely beautiful cars in the 1960’s. A little further on, an elegant pair of Alvises (Alvi?) could be found, including a very lovely Graber-bodied Alvis TC108 from 1958 – the standard Coventry cars are very desirable in their own right, but the Graber versions are even more so, not least due to their rarity – only 19 of these Swiss coachbuilt beauties were made.
A wonderful surprise – actually, three – could be found at the far end of the Jaguar Club display, where those who were prepared to walk to the far end of the line would have found a stunning dark green 1933 Alfa Romeo Monza 8C 2300 – this particular car has had a book written about it – and two Bugatti’s – one a 1934 Type 59 (but more “standard” than the one auctioned by Gooding and Company) the other a red 1939 Type 57 convertible with tan hood – gorgeous, each of them of high enough quality to probably have qualified for the Concours itself, to my untrained eye, at least. It was as if these three astonishing cars had been nonchalantly parked at the end of the row of Jaguars, though I’m sure there must have been some (very) discreet security not far away…
In among the dealer displays were some truly superlative cars. Had it been participating in the actual Concours, the 1960 Zagato-bodied Porsche 356B displayed by Export 56 would have been very high on my list of cars I wanted to take home. Only nine coupés and nine convertibles were built by the venerated Italian coachbuilder and this achingly pretty car looked like nothing more or less than a miniaturised Aston Martin DB4 Zagato. Actually, I wanted to take it home anyway, but it wasn’t for sale – not that I could have afforded it. My non-Concours car of the weekend, though, without a doubt.
The dealers that attend the event are of course among the highest of the high end – Fiskens and Joe Macari to name but two. I’ve singled these two out because their displays were outstanding (as were the price tags – probably; I didn’t dare ask). Macari was showing a fantastically desirable sporting Italian quartet – who doesn’t love a Lamborghini Miura, Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Ferrari 275GTB and a Maserati 3500GT? These are cars to stir the soul, and if they don’t stir yours, you should check your pulse…
Not to be outdone, Fiskens also turned up with a row of serious connoisseur cars, not least one of my absolute favourites, a fabulous bright red 1966 Bizzarrini 3500GT – on the market for the first time since 1988 – alongside a 1966 Giallo Fly Ferrari 275GTB Competizione with racing pedigree… oh, and a silver 1953 Jaguar C-Type and a 1912 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, resplendent in black with brass fittings. Not too shabby…
There were a handful of other displays around the Fountain Gardens of supercars and “continuation” models, but I’m going to assume these are of little interest to our readers – they certainly were of little interest to me.
Finally, there was time to wander among the visitors’ classics in the car park across the road from the Palace – there’s no comparison with the Goodwood Revival car park, but nevertheless there’s always a few gems to be found, with the “star cars” for me being a very lovely red 1959 Mercedes-Benz 190SL and a mighty ‘67 Iso Grifo – in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful cars ever made.
Among others to catch the eye were a very smart 1957 Porsche 356A in black, and a gorgeous, elegant dark green 1953 Bentley R-Type Continental with long sweeping fastback and rear wheel spats. Only 207 of these graceful sporting saloons were made, and at the time the Bentley was the world’s fastest four-seater – it was a privilege to see one, and this was probably the most valuable car in the car park, with examples fetching around £1m in this kind of condition.
I love that cars as exotic and valuable as these had been driven to East Molesey and parked up among all the more regular classic visitors such as MGB’s and VW Beetles. I’m always impressed by the owner’s preparedness to just lock their precious classic up and leave it; I’m not sure I could do the same.
It’s always a delightful surprise to see a tidy Alfasud, this one in silver from – if the DVLA’s information is correct, 1984 so a fairly late model, probably registered some months after production had ceased. Nearby was another perhaps less exotic but nonetheless interesting classic, a pale yellow 1964 Skoda Octavia in what looked to be mint condition.
As usual at Hampton Court, there’s an incredible amount to see and enjoy – the third day also had a Junior Concours of pedal cars, plus the additional club cars, Bentley Trophy and the Grand Depart but unfortunately, it was a day which I had to miss. Nevertheless, this event in any normal year is always a highlight for me, and in this most unusual and restricted of years, even more so. The atmosphere at the Palace is one of a very exclusive and relaxed garden party where a lucky few owners have come to show off their cars, and I’m very glad that they do; I’ll be back next year, and the year after that…
and the one after that…
