Windsor, 7th - 9th of September
Just after the Salon Privé in London´s Syon Park we headed 15
miles west to Windsor Castle to visit one of the best events in
recent years. 60 years ago Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of
Great Britain was crowned in February 1952 and this year sees
many celebrations of the diamond jubilee including the concours
in the royal country residence of Windsor.
According to the motto “60 years, 60 cars and 60 collectors” the
organizers sent out 60 invitations to the most important collectors
on both sides of the Atlantic to bring their prized treasures to
Windsor and most of them were more than happy to join the
celebration. The exclusivity and the unique cause convinced even
those who have seen all the big events in the past and about a
third of them did not spare efforts and expenses to fly their car
over from the US. When looking over the entrants list it reads like
to who-is-who in the classic car world including Pebble Beach
Concours Chairwoman Sarah Button, collectors John & Craig
McCaw, Chip Connors, Sir Michael Kadoorie, Peter Mullin, Robert
M Lee, Joseph Cassini, James Patterson and Jon Shirley to
name a few. Most of them are known for winning major concours
all over the world and the cars on show did not include less than 3
recent BoS of Pebble Beach.
We had the chance to visit the Concours on Friday, the owners
day with limited access to take a first look at the cars. Early in
the morning the day started with a parade on the “long walk”, the
alley leading to Windsor Castle before setting them up in the
central quadrangle, the Upper Ward just under the windows of the
Queen´s own rooms. The visitors had to go through a airport like
security check before walking up by the sponsors tents through
the George IV gateway to enter the lawn. Even those who are
spoiled by viewing many of the best cars in the world on various
other events were impressed by the line-up on the grass. Other
concours might have some cars of equal quality but the restriction
in the number led to a overall quality that is unmatched. Within
these 60 cars it was difficult to name one that did not deserve to
be presented here, some of them unique in type or coachwork,
others in provenance or just icons of their time. All the great
marques including Alfa Romeo, Delage, Delahaye, Voisin,
Mercedes-Benz, Bentley or Rolls-Royce were presented on the
pre-war side, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and Maserati on the
post-war side.
The cars from the dawn of motoring were found in the St George´s
Class, among the Edwardian were a Panhard et Levassor, a
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with the rare London-Edinburgh Tourer
body and especially a Straker-Squire X/2 once owned by Bertie
Kensington-Moir (later team manager of the legendary Bentley
Boys) and brought all the way from Argentina.
The class of the Grand Carriages (Thames Class) featured a
superb duo of Bentley Speed Six, one with a wonderful
Gurney-Nutting fabric tourer, the other with a two-tone saloon
body by H.J.Mulliner. The later one was presented a few weeks
ago in this year Pebble Beach Maharaja class and had a rare
lighten Lalique ornament. Even more iconic is the Blower Bentley,
the presented model had a VdP tourer body with flared wings.
Another interesting car was the Voisin C.25 Berline Aerodyne that
won its class at Pebble in 2006 and that is the sister car of the
last years BoS from the Mullin Collection.
The most impressive class was the Frogomore Class with the
aristocratic behemoths, huge luxury cars specially built for the
wealthy or in the case of the Bugatti for the royals. Star of this
class was the Rolls-Royce Phantom I Jonckheere Coupé from the
Petersen Collection that was also presented at this year
Concorso d´Eleganza at the Villa d´Este. This car dating from
1925 was rebodied in the mid 1930s by the Belgian coachbuilder
Henri Janckheere and used to be the most dramatic design found
on any Rolls-Royce including round doors and a very long floating
line. Not less impressive was the Daimler Double-Six 50 with
Corsica DHC body that won Pebble Beach in 2006, an elegant
car on a long underslung chassis. The 8 Litre Bentley with VdP
body in Le Mans style was more a drivers machine with the arm
thick exhaust pipes unlike many of the saloon bodies of the same
type. Finally the Bugatti Type 41 Royal Kellner Coupé found its
way to a royal home during the concours as it was intended for
this clientele originally but was never acquired by royals in period.
Today this is the most sought after collector car rarely seen
during events, this particular car was the most expensive motor
car in the 1980s with a price of 5.5 Mio Pound and is today still
totally original and unrestored.
The Brunswick Class featured 4 pre-war racing cars ranging from
a Mercedes-Benz SSK with a short Corsica DHC body and a
displacement of 7.1 litre, on the other side a small Frazer Nash
with just 1.5 litre. The most successful car of its time was the
legendary Alfa Romeo 8C 2300, two of them were in Windsor,
both with short chassis and both raced by legendary
personalities. The Zagato Spyder was first registered for the
Scuderia Ferrari and was driven by no less than Tazio Nuvolari
himself, the other one is even the 1934 Le Mans winning Brianza
in the hands of Luigi Chinetti who became famous for importing
the first Ferreris to the US and founding the North American
Racing Team (N.A.R.T.).
The evolution of the 8C 2.3 was the later 8C 2.9 that was also
available in long and short chassis form with open or closed body.
The most beautiful were without doubt the Touring Spyder and
Berlinetta, the first on both chassis length, the later on the long
chassis. Whereas the dark blue Touring Berlinetta was in
perfectly restored condition, the Spyder was originally owned by
Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and after the war it was
decorated with a Canadian flag to honour the liberators of his
country at the end of the war. Today´s owner removed a later
layer of paint to resurface the original grey colour with a lot of nice
patina.
Just after a win at the Concours in St.John two months ago and
more important 2 years ago at Pebble Beach the white Delage
D8S de Villars Roadster of James Patterson stood side by side
with the Delahaye V12 V45 and Chapron body from the Mullin
Automotive Museum.
The Chancellor´s Class of “magnificent machines” was a
German-British affair. The two Bentleys from the early Crewe era
after the takeover of Bentley by Rolls Royce showed the evolution
of the coachwork in the late 1930s. Whereas the
Vesters&Neirinck FHC is a very elegant design of the period the
famous Emiricos Bentley (named after its first owner) with
streamlined Pourtout Coupé is a more radical. The one-off
designed by Georges Paulin was even private entered at Le Mans
when Rolls Royce had no interest in this race and the Le Mans
history of Bentley. The two German cars were the rivals of the
days, Horch and Mercedes. The Horch was a standard 853a
Cabriolet, the Mercedes-Benz the most elegant 500 K Special
Roadster, a 540 variation of this design set the auction record for
a pre-war car at the Gooding sale last month. Today many of the
less elegant Cabriolet B were rebodied to special roadster
specification but this car was found in total original condition
behind a butcher´s shop and restored to perfection, today it is in
the Dutch National Motor Museum.
No less than 5 classes were dedicated to sports cars. The first,
the Saxon Class with cars from the thirties included a very rare
Squire featuring a very complex 1.5 litre engine with 105 hp. With
just 7 cars built this is a small but very interesting side marker in
the history of the automobile. The Lagonda LG45 and the Jaguar
SS100 are icons of the British car industry.
The Consort Class of the early post-war sportive coachbuilt cars
featuring the work of Pinin Farina, Zagato, Ghia and Touring.
Touring and the patented Superleggera technique is responsible
for some of the best looking cars just before and after the war.
After the two Alfa Romeo mentioned earlier some of the first
Ferrari were bodied by the Milanese company. The Ferrari 166
MM was long time in the collection of the late Jacques Swaters,
the two-tone blue-green colour combination adds a lot to the
timeless elegance of the tiny 12-cylinder. Before Pinin Farina
became the favourite coachbuilder of Ferrari they worked on many
other chassis like the Bristol 400 and the Lancia Aurelia, but the
most exciting was the Maserati A6 G54, one of only a handful
built. This car was displayed earlier this year in the new Casa
Enzo Ferrari museum in Modena.
The Supersonic was one of Ghia´s most famous designs, most of
them built on the Fiat 8V, but also on an Jaguar and an Aston
Martin. The car on show was one of the Fiat 8V and was winner of
several concours on the continent.
Zagato is known for its sleek design with the famous double
bubble on the roofline to add stability to the aluminium body, one
of the best looking cars is the 250 GT Zagato Berlinetta of Zagato
Collector David Sydorick. This car is regularly seen on the
concours of the world and was one of the cover cars on a former
Pebble Beach poster.
Even more sportive was the class of race cars ranging from the
last Jaguar C-Type built, a works Austin Healey 100 S brought by
Mark Knopfler (singer and guitarist of Dire Straits) to a small
Porsche 550 Spyder that became famous after James Dean died
in a sister car. The Aston Martin DB3S is one of the team cars,
the 9th of 11 built for the works entries at races such as Le Mans
or Goodwood. This particular car was second in Le Mans in the
hands of Sir Stirling Moss and Peter Collins, the best result of
Aston Martin until David Brown finally got his desired victory in
1959.
Ferrari was presented by two cars in this class, a 290 MM and a
250 TR/58. The 290 MM is named after the Mille Miglia and was
one of the cars entered in the 1956 sports car championship
along the 4 cylinder 860 Monza. This particular car was driven at
the Mille Miglia to a fourth place by Manuel Fangio.
The 250 TR/58 one show was chassis 0704TR, the second TR
built and features a great patina. After 30 years in the Henry Ford
Museum fortunately none of the later owners restored it but a
renovation brought this car back in driving condition demonstrated
on various occasions. Not less patina could be found on the
Maserati Tipo 60 Birdcage, named after the filigree tube frame.
The Ensign Class featured design icons of the 1950s and 1960s
starting with a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL with the famous Gullwing
doors entered by Paul Stewart, Jackie´s son. The main rival of the
roadster variation was the BMW 507, this example was a
donation from Count Agusta to works driver John Surtees after the
World Championship on the MV Agusta. Surtees still owns the
car today and might be one of only a few first owners of this car
remaining.
Jaguar had two cars in this class, a very original XKSS (the street
version of the D-Type) and a E-Type. The AC Cobra is celebrating
its golden jubilee this year but the most elegant car in the class
was the light blue metallic Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, the last
of 19 built.
The last class was the Lancester Class of legendary
masterpieces. Masterpieces are without doubt the Ferrari 250
GTO and its predecessor, the 250 GT SWB. Especially the 250
GTO celebrating it golden jubilee in 2012 and is featured in almost
every concours is always a show stopper. The dark blue example
is very well known and in superb preserved condition. The first car
named supercar by the press was the Lamborghini Miura, the car
at Windsor was a desirable Miura SV in typical yellow paint.
The class was rounded off by a Ford GT40 MKIII, a rare road
version of Ford´s Ferrari challenger that won Le Mans no less
than 4 times.
So now, when looking over these 60 cars one could ask how to
choose a favourite, fortunately the organizers avoided a
competition between the collectors by waiving a jury and class
prizes. The Best of Show was voted by the entrants themselves
and was announced during the dinner after the owners day on
Friday evening. Best of Show was donated to Jon Shirley for his
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 Touring Berlinetta adding another
victory to his long list. After running the Alfa in the 2006 Mille
Miglia on trouble free 1000 miles through Italy the car was
restored just in time for the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours where it
won Best of Show. In 2009 the car was displayed at the Concorso
d´Eleganza at the Villa d´Este where it was the first car to win all
3 major prices including both public votes and the BoS of the
Jury. Later that year it was also voted for the Louis Vuitton Award,
the best of all Concours winners of the previous year. One can
see that this car is not just favoured by the judges all over the
world but it is also considered the best amongst the collectors
themselves making this an even higher ranking prize apart from all
the politics on the concours circus.
Conclusion: In some press releases the concours was called “the
first one” indicating this might not be the last Windsor Concours.
Although another edition of equal quality would be more than
welcome one might doubt that this is possible. First of all many of
the collectors came because of the unique character and further
editions might not be that attractive to them anymore so quality
might decrease. But this would also mean that it might dampen
the experience of the first edition as an annual or biennial event
would not be that special anymore. But this is the future and for
now we are happy to cover one of the best events in years. We
hope that we can give you an impression of the concours with the
following pictures, at the moment one for every car on the lawn. A
more extensive gallery will follow at a later date.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
Entries
ST GEORGE'S CLASS - PIONEERING AUTOMOBILES
1896 Panhard et Levassor Private Omnibus
1904 Lenawee Rear-Entrance Touring Tonneau
1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost London-Edinburgh Tourer
1914 Sunbeam Tourist Trophy
1918 Straker-Squire X/2 Prototype
THAMES CLASS - GRAND CARRIAGES
1924 Vauxhall 30-98 Type OE Boattail Wensum Tourer
1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Barker Open Tourer
1930 Bentley Gurney-Nutting Speed Six Tourer
1930 Bentley Speed Six H.J.Mulliner Saloon
1931 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged ‘Blower Bentley’
1935 Avions Voisin C-25 Berline Aérodyne
FROGMORE CLASS - ARISTOCRATIC BEHEMOTHS
1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Jonckheere Coupé
1931 Daimler Double-Six 50 Sport Corsica Drophead Coupé
1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale 'Kellner' Coupé
1932 Bentley 8 Litre Tourer
1933 Duesenberg Model SJ Beverly Berline by Murphy
1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Gurney Nutting
Sedanca Drophead Coupé
1958 Bentley Continental S Type H J Mulliner
BRUNSWICK CLASS - PRE-WAR SPORTING HERITAGE
1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK Corsica Drophead Coupé
1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato Spider
1934 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 LM Spyder Le Mans
1935 Frazer Nash Twin Supercharged ‘Shelsley’
WINCHESTER CLASS - GRAND TOURERS OF THE 30s
1932 Cadillac V-16 Fisher Convertible Coupe
1933 Delage D8S de Villars Roadster
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Corto Touring Spider
1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta
1938 Delahaye V12 Type 145
1938 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante
CHANCELLOR'S CLASS - MAGNIFICENT MACHINES
1936 Mercedes-Benz 500k Special Roadster
1937 Bentley 4¼ Litre Vesters & Neirinck Fixed Head Coupé
1938 Bentley 4¼ Litre ‘Embiricos’ Pourtout Coupé
1939 Horch 853A Cabriolet
SAXON CLASS - THE THRILLING THIRTIES
1935 Squire 1500 Markham Roadster Short Chassis ‘Skimpy’
1936 Delahaye 135S
1937 Lagonda LG45 Rapide Tourer
1939 SS100 Jaguar
1939 AC 16/90
CONSORT CLASS - LEGENDS OF STYLE
1947 Bristol 400 Pinin Farina Drophead
1950 Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta 0064M
1953 Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic
1953 Maserati A6GCS Pinin Farina Berlinetta
1955 Lancia Aurelia B24 Pinin Farina Spider
1956 Ferrari 250GT Zagato Berlinetta 0515GT
GUNNERS' CLASS - BUILT TO WIN
1953 Jaguar XK ‘C Type’ 053 Lightweight
1954 Austin-Healey ‘Works’ 100S
1955 Porsche 550 Spyder
1956 Ferrari 290 MM Scaglietti Spider 0626
1956 Aston Martin DB3S/9
1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa TR58 Scaglietti 0704TR
1959 Maserati Tipo 60 ‘Birdcage’
ENSIGN CLASS - SPORTING THOROUGHBREDS
1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Coupé ‘Gullwing’
1957 Jaguar XKSS
1957 BMW 507
1961 Jaguar E-Type Roadster ‘77 RW’
1963 AC Cobra 289
1963 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Berlinetta
LANCASTER CLASS - MYTHICAL MASTERPIECES
1961 Ferrari SWB Berlinetta 3037GT
1963 Ferrari 250 GTO Series 1 4219GT
1968 Ford GT40 MKIII
1972 Lamborghini Miura SV
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