The 2018 London Concours Sees Ferraris Do Well
Report from Keith Bluemel
The second running of the London Concours, with a change of name from the City Concours, took place in the hidden green oasis of the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company in the heart of the City of London, on 07-08 June. As an aside, the Honourable Artillery Company is not only the oldest regiment in the British Army, but also a charity that was incorporated in 1537.
The event enjoyed fine warm weather, albeit overcast on Thursday, but bathed in brilliant sunshine on Friday, which seemed to swell the attendance from last year when the weather was more inclement. This year the Concours comprised of six classes – Fast, Faster, Very Fast, Superfast, Hyperfast and Era Defining, encompassing a total of 52 finely selected cars. This year there was a Royal Automobile Club display, a Global Endurance Legends display, and there were both an Evo Supercar paddock display and a general paddock display for cars that didn’t make it into the main concours, plus the dealer display cars, so there were plenty of cars on show. Amongst the trade displays were Alpine, who had the new A110 inspired model on display along with an original example, Eadon Green with their Corvette C7 based Zeclat, and TVR showing heritage models and the new Griffith. Apart from “purveyors of fine automobiles” there were also lifestyle pavilions with a variety of offerings to tempt visitors.
The class titles were relative to the car’s performance at the time that it was current, not relative to today’s analogy of the words relative to performance, thus there was quite a variety and age span of vehicles in each class. As an example, the “Very Fast” class spanned from the 1911 Fiat S76 “Beast of Turin” to a 2010 Porsche 911 SC, with the former not only winning its class, but also taking the Best of Show award. The “Era Defining” class encompassed an even greater age span, from an 1898 Panhard Levassor “Paris-Amsterdam-Paris Racing Car” to a 1995 Mclaren F1. Amongst the visitors to the show was the well known "Motoring Royal," HRH Prince Michael of Kent.
There was a fair sprinkling of Ferraris on the lawn, probably as much as 20% of the total number of cars on display, spanning from a 1952 212/225 Inter Vignale Coupé to a 2015 LaFerrari. At the end of the day, Ferrari models picked up two of the six class awards, with the 212/225 Inter Vignale Coupé winning the Faster Class, and the 250 GT SWB Comp’ Berlinetta triumphing in the Hyperfast Class.
The organizers of the London Concours, Thorough Events, also organize the famous Concours of Elegance at various English Royal Castles, plus a new Concours venture in Dubai.
Images from Keith Bluemel.
A complete report on the London Concours, with a chart of all Ferrari entrants, including model, results and the all-important chassis numbers, will be in the August 1 issue of Cavallino #226. Subscribe today!
