Nothing to See Here But Amazingly Historic Racecars

November 16, 2014
Story By
John Brooks

The Concours of Elegance series of car shows, launched in 2012 as part of the celebration of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, have instantly become a "must see/do" event for those of us in the UK who enjoy the company of fine automobiles.

So the news that for 2014 proceedings would be held at Hampton Court Palace, within walking distance of my own modest abode, was most welcome. No trains, planes or automobiles!

Well, actually, lots of automobiles, in all shapes and sizes in a truly fantastic setting. Hampton Court Palace was built for Cardinal Wolsey around 1514, when he fell from favour he gifted the palace to King Henry VIII who took over the estate and for the next 200 years or so it was a Royal Palace.

The original Tudor buildings were expanded by Henry's successors, especially the Palace of Versailles inspired works of William and Mary. Today it is one of London's greatest tourist attractions with well over half a million visitors each year. The palace is still owned by The Queen on behalf of the Nation, and is managed by a charity, Historic Royal Palaces, which receives no funding from either the Crown nor the Government.

As is customary in events such as these, the Concours of Elegance started with a brief Tour, which visited neighbouring Bushy Park and then back in through Home Park, with this 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre heading the pack on the way to the display.

The cast of cars on display had just about everything, as is neatly illustrated by this contrasting pair, this year's LaFerrari overshadowed by the Lutzmann Victoria 'Vis-a-Vis' Four Seater Tourer, a mere 118 years older than the latest Maranello HyperCar. The classic is powered by a single cylinder 2.5 litre engine and was the creation of Leopold Lutzmann, one of the pioneers of the motor car in general and the German motor industry in particular. More on the LaFerrari can be found HERE.

A double Martini, Sir? Yes, be prepared to be shaken and stirred...

Nearly thirty years have passed since the golden years of Group B rallying, when there was a tidal wave of stupendously fast cars from manufacturers such as Audi, Citroën, Ford, Peugeot, Rover and Lancia. The Italian's Delta S4 Corse was one of the most extreme, its 550bhp four cylinder 1.75 litre engine that was both supercharged and turbocharged gave the 890kg car an amazing power to weight ratio. Add that to four wheel drive and a mid-engine, and your have a very serious racer. This particular example won the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally driven by Henri Toivonen and navigated by Sergio Cresto.

It was the unfortunate death of that pair a couple of months later in an accident on the Tour de Corse that prompted the FIA to ban the Group B cars altogether, as their speed and power tested the abilities of even the greatest drivers to the limit. The legendary status of Group B amongst the hard core rally fans remains to this day.

Another Martini-sponsored car that has become a legend is the Porsche 911 RSR Turbo, one of three cars built for the 1974 World Endurance Championship. This particular car finished second in the Le Mans 24 Hours that year driven by Gijs van Lennep and Herbert Müller, nearly upsetting the favourites, the French Matra prototypes. The wild aerodynamics and dramatic rear wing would ensure that everyone would take notice, when added to a lightweight turbocharged 2.1 litre flat-six engine producing up to 500bhp the result was a very potent racer that has passed into motorsport history.

Another racer that was on display at Hampton Court was the Alvis 200 Miles race car, a racing version of the Alvis 12/50. The Alvis was designed to race at tracks such as Brooklands and this example finished fifth in 1924 Junior Car Club 200 Miles Race in the hands of Major Frank Halford.

It was not only performance that was featured at the Concours, but elegance also, art even. Automotive Art is the only appropriate description for this Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS with coachwork from Figoni and Falaschi. The styling is known as "goutte d'eau" or teardrop and was the product of a collaboration between Anthony Lago and Joseph Figoni.

Powered by a 4-litre Straight-Six engine, just 19 of these marvels were built, most being dressed by Figoni and Falaschi coachwork but four examples were given over to Carrosserie Pourtout who had Georges Paulin work his individual magic on the styling. We looked earlier at arguably the most famous car to come from Carrosserie Pourtout and Paulin, the Embiricos Bentley, HERE.

A car as exclusive as the Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS attracted equally exclusive owners, sometimes eccentric, as it is said that the Maharani of Khapurthala would change her car's colour scheme to match her latest fashion. This particular chassis, 90112, was sold initially to a Belgian Casino owner, hidden from the Germans during the war, and restored to this condition in the first years of this century.

In addition to the Concours cars, various car clubs were invited to add to the ingredients of the event and did so with great success. This Alfa Romeo Montreal being a good example, dating from the 70's and still cool.

The lack of rain tempted out a few gems on the Sunday, this trio of Aston Martins looking just right on the gravel, all that is needed now is James Bond.

A complete contrast is this Peel P50, originally built in the 60's on the Isle of Man. Since 2009 production has resumed with either electric or petrol power being offered, it still holds the record for being the world's smallest production car (check out more tiny cars on show at Monterey this past summer).

Another hybrid effort on display was the BMW i8.

Given the nature of the likely visitors to such an event as the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance, companies such as BMW and Ferrari are keen to get in on the act.

Back to the Concours entries, everywhere there were fine cars to be seen, especially Ferraris. This sole surviving 315S Scaglietti Spyder still sporting the starting time it was allocated for the 1957 Mille Miglia, 05.35. Powered by a 3.8 litre V12 engine (what else?) this elegant roadster won the final running of that classic event driven by Piero Taruffi. That year at Le Mans, this car finished 5th in the hands of Stuart Lewis-Evans and Martino Severi, the only factory car to be classified and the only non Jaguar D-Type in the top six finishers.

Another Mille Miglia veteran is this 1949 Ferrari 166MM with bodywork by Touring Superleggera. The Mille Miglia was run on public roads on a route than ran from Brescia to Rome and back to Brescia, with an estimated audience of five million spectators enthusiastically lining the streets. This car, driven by Felice Bonetto and Pierre-Louis Carpani, led till Rome when brake issues slowed them up and they had to settle for second place. A few weeks later saw this car triumph in the Spa 24 Hours in the hands of Luigi Chinetti and Jean Lucas, while a sister car also won that year's Le Mans 24 Hours. The Ferrari 166MM was an important element in creating the Ferrari legend.

Another 50's Ferrari that enjoyed competition success was this 340/375 MM Vignale Spyder. In 1953 Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina, both Formula One World Champions, won the Nürburging 1000kms driving this car. The car was then sold to Luigi Chinetti, the first Ferrari factory agent in the USA, also a three time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The current livery dates from 1954 when it was entered in the Carrera Panamericana race, driven by future Formula One World Champion, Phil Hill and future Grand Prix star, Richie Ginther. The Carrera Panamericana was run in Mexico along the lines of the Mille Miglia, i.e. racing on public roads and even by the standards of those times was considered by many to be the most dangerous race of them all. Hill and Ginther finished second in what would be the last running of the event, which was cancelled the following year in the wake of the 1955 Le Mans disaster.

The final look at the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance will be found in part two.

Nothing to See Here But Amazingly Historic Racecars

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