Walton Hall, 06 July 2008
Anybody watching the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, will realise that the weather in central England was not
conducive to attending outdoor events on Sunday 06 July. A few miles to the north west of Silverstone, the
Ferrari Owners’ Club were holding their annual concours at Walton Hall near Stratford-Upon-Avon, and like the
attendees at the Grand Prix, those at the concours were subject to heavy squally showers and some persistent
rain. However, the rain at the concours cleared by lunchtime, to provide a pleasant warm afternoon, although by
then the damage had been done, as the weather forecast affected overall attendance, and there were a number
of no-shows in the concours field.
All credit to radio and television personality Chris Evans, who braved the elements to bring his recently acquired
250 GT California Spider along, as did many other club members who also showed that they were died in the
wool enthusiasts, by bringing not only a fine selection of modern machinery, but a few rare gems, with which to
delight attendees. Paul Osborn’s Cars International Kensington Ltd, brought along one of two F1 cars on
display, an ex-Jean Alesi F93A, the other being an ex-Jacky Ickx 312 B2, # 005, from Speedmaster Ltd. Sports
racing Ferraris were represented by a Dino 206S, # 032, and a 268 SP, # 0798, whilst Nigel Chiltern-Hunt’s 512
BB/LM, # 26685, bridged the gap between sports racing and GT cars. The earliest cars in attendance were both
166 MMs, the 166 Inter Touring berlinetta, # 043 S, owned by Danny Donovan, and the 166 MM/53 Vignale
Spider, # 0308 M, of Bernard Worth which he has owned for 48 years, and is always driven to events! For many
people, the star of the display on the main lawn was the 410 SA, # 0721, the 1957 Turin Salon car, which was
shown by Bob Houghton for a client, one of its attractions, being its rarity in the UK, this being the first time that
an example has been shown for many years.
Despite the abysmal weather in the morning the sodden judging teams completed their tasks, and as the sun
shone on the class winners gathered in front of the main entrance later in the afternoon, everybody awaited the
Best of Show announcement, which deservedly (in my opinion) went to the immaculate 275 GTS of Clive Bate,
which had been restored by his son’s company, Emblem Sports Cars, and was the first major restoration that
they had undertaken on a classic Ferrari, although others have followed since. With perfect timing, club
member Peter Teichman arrived just after the final presentation, flying low over the concours field in his WWII
Spitfire, before treating everybody to a spectacular aerobatic display. A fine end to a day which had initially been
upset by the rain.
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