The Silverstone Classic – or just “The Classic”, as the organisers like to call it – has been my favourite major classic event for the past half-dozen years, and I really missed it last year when it was cancelled for you-know-why. So it was with great anticipation and excitement that I looked forward to heading out last Friday morning to pick up a fellow petrol-head en route to the circuit and my spot with the BMW Car Club…
Unfortunately, the weather gods decided to intervene and the forecast was so bad my friend and I decided not to go on Friday at all, and watching the livestream as well as seeing the downpour outside proved this to be a good decision – call me chicken, but I’m too old to spend a day out getting drenched if I can avoid it.
So instead, I went on Saturday, sadly without my companion and set off at 7.30 to make the most of what promised to be a mostly dry, if not exactly summery, day. I made my way to the BMW club’s patch and parked die Zitrone, recently returned from some work at Templar Classics, alongside a number of other ‘02s in a fine looking line-up.
Much had been promised in the build-up to this year’s event, celebrating it’s 30th anniversary and billed by the organisers as the world’s biggest classic event – with record numbers of classic car displays, record grid entries, record ticket sales (the latter surely due to pent up demand after last year’s cancellation) and a record number of anniversary parades. On top of all this, there were trade stands galore, a fairground, special events, catering for just about every imaginable taste, live music…as usual, there was so much to take in that even two days wasn’t enough to see and experience everything.
I’ll split my report into road and competition cars, so this first one will focus on the road-going classics spread around the circuit and with over 130 car clubs in addition to a number of special displays, plus a major auction, I’m not going to be able to please everyone, so I’ll just please myself and hopefully please a few of you along the way.
First order of business was to check out the other BMW’s parked in the club’s area – as always, there were some beauties on display besides the row of ’02’s.
Some clubs really made an effort, particularly Porsche (see headline photo), who split their displays as pre-and post-2000 and had some mouth-watering early 911’s and 356’s on show, among others, and the Stag Owners Club, which celebrated the model’s 50 years with a (ahem) staggering (I know, and I’m sorry) gathering of their handsome coupés that must have numbered more than two hundred; they looked very impressive arrayed across their allocated spaces.
Triumph Stags as far as the eye can see…
A few metres away from the BMW display, the Maserati Owners’ Club had a small line up but it included some of their greatest hits, including an Indy, a lovely dark blue Merak SS, a stunning red 1965 Sebring, a pristine dark blue 1970 Mexico and a ’67 Quattroporte ( “four-door” just sounds so much better in Italian!). Classics bearing the trident badge have never reached the values of their more famous and arguably more glamorous rivals from Maranello, but I’d be thrilled to own any one of these gorgeous cars.
Over at the Aston Martin and Ferrari areas however, classics were harder to find – as seems to be usual these days, their displays were dominated by cars less than twenty years old. There was a handful of genuine classics on each stand, but I’d hoped for more. However, there was also much to enjoy from some of the less-exalted clubs, as I hope the photos will show.
In contrast to the high-end marques, there was a lovely display of cars that used to roam our roads in large numbers, with some exceptions such as the GAZ Volga, never a common sight at any time on UK roads. This was almost an offshoot of the Festival of the Unexceptional (being held, coincidentally, on the same weekend), featuring cars our fathers and grandfathers drove (and me, in a couple of cases). Most of these cars are of course worth a fraction of the average Porsche, Lamborghini or Ferrari, yet are probably much harder to find – certainly in the UK – than almost any of the more glamorous marques. For instance, the Austin Ambassador VdP on show was one of just two remaining on UK roads.
Silverstone Auctions held a sale of automobilia, bikes, road and competition cars across the weekend – most of the really big ticket items such as a stunning orange 1973 Porsche 911 RS didn’t sell – bidding died at £600,000 – but the auction house still claimed a successful sale. Highest price of the day was achieved with a 1997 911 3.8 RSR at £652,000; bargain of the day was possibly the red 1983 Talbot Matra Murena – it needed recommissioning, but £10,687 seems very good value for an uncommon car. Perhaps the most surprising price achieved was for the immaculate 1991 Audi UR Quattro 20V. Even though this superb Audi had fewer than 10,000 warranted miles under its wheels, and it was believed to be the last RHD Quattro built, £163,125 is an extraordinary price for a Quattro. Full results are here.
I’ve never been all that impressed by the Delorean, despite it’s fame as the time travelling machine in the Back to the Future films, but seeing so many in one place was certainly impactful, as the Delorean Owners’ Club gathered what looked to be over 20 DMC12’s to celebrate the car’s 40th anniversary. Other big anniversaries being marked at the event included the 50th (!!) for the Lamborghini Countach – incredible to think this dramatic wedge first drawn by Marcello Gandini is now 50 years old – the MG Midget’s 60th and the Mercedes-Benz W107’s 50th, although there were relatively few of the latter present.
Tucked away in a very low-profile display by Ferrari specialists DK Engineering were a trio of astonishing cars – a Ferrari 250 GT SWB, a Zagato-bodied LWB version of the same car and one of only two remaining 1956 Aston Martin DB3S fixed-head coupés. To be honest, only the metallic green 250GT was really beautiful, to my eyes; the hard-top on the DB3S looks awkward on what is a handsome roadster, with the double-bubble roofed Zagato sitting between the two. All three were remarkable cars, though.
Speaking of Zagato, over at the Lancia Club area was one of the designer’s more unusual creations – a version of the Lancia Flavia Sport Zagato which for me doesn’t work from any angle; it does seem to me that the company’s designs could be very hit-and-miss; this one missed by several miles.
The marque with perhaps the biggest presence over the weekend was Porsche – not just with the official Porsche Club GB, but also the Porsche Enthusiasts’ Club, the 924 Owners’ Club, the 911 40th Anniversary Edition Registry (for the very specific 996 40th anniversary edition), and the Independent Porsche Enthusiasts’ Club – I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than 600 examples of the Stuttgart marque on site on Saturday, but I would estimate at least two-thirds of those were post the year 2000.
I returned to Silverstone the following day, and despite a more promising weather forecast, the morning proved to be thoroughly miserable as a light but steady drizzle fell all morning over a very grey circuit, but it did improve after lunch, and we got to see some very exciting track action, more of which later. Despite its size, the Classic remains somehow more manageable, and accessible than either of the big Goodwood events, perhaps because the circuit is simply bigger, allowing everything to be spread out over a wider area, but also because there is no need to dress up, no need to pay extra for grandstand seating and no need for extra paddock passes – it’s a very democratic event. All they need to do for next year is organise some better weather…
