Kop Hill Climb

Opened in 1910, the 2709 feet of Kop Hill in Princes Risborough is one of the oldest hill climbs in the UK. It was closed in the mid 1920s following a serious accident and lay dormant for decades until in 2009 it was revived for a weekend event. I have so far managed to miss this as it falls on Lilys birthday weekend, but this year we had a saturday free and it was glorious sunshine to boot. Leaving Kim at home to wrap presents and do some crafty things, Lily and I set off in the Camper (adding another 80 miles to my running in tally) bumpy up the field that acted as a carpark we were soon in the thick of it in the paddock.



The field covered over a hundred years from a 1903 Humberette to a 2012 Mclaren MP4-12C Spider and hundreds of cars and bikes in between. The playing field of the local school doubled up as a the paddock.







 





I'm a massive Blower Bentley fan, seeing this up close again was nice, hearing it thunder up the hill later in the day was pretty special.





This 1924 Vauxhall had its first run up the hill the same year it was made, the photo tucked by the grill was a wonderful snapshot from almost 90 years ago.





Lily has great taste, she saw this pedal car and exclaimed "I want that car daddy!"



A Ford Focus WRC and a 911 GT3 were used to block this 512BB in, sensible as they'd left the keys in it!







There was a small area set aside for a classic car display too.









With the paddock walked round it was soon time for the runs to start, we grabbed a spot behind the hedge near the start line, Lily promptly fell asleep which worked out nicely!

















Haurel & Lardy entertained with their Model T Ford.





Still the cool cars kept coming up the hill. Including Jay Kay from Jamiroquai in his Enzo
 










It was time for a lunch break as the cars stopped, but we had a date back at the hill as the Spitfire flypast was due. Standing around scanning the horizon the minutes ticked by until the unmistakable Merlin roar could be heard and at what felt like tree top height it zoomed towards us and performed a few passes.









With the afternoon runs beginning we decided to have one last walk round the paddock as Lily was getting a bit bored and wanted to go and see mummy at home. We stalked Jay Kay for a bit!



 





And with that we clambered aboard the Camper and headed home, the crowds still piling in, a record 12000 people had been there, smashing last years numbers. The rest of the snaps can be found here

Steve.

Windsor Castle Concours of Elegance

I've been to a huge number of classic and super car shows in my time. From small pub car park meets to massive motorshows. But today I ticked another type of show off my bucket list. A Concours. Its a super posh show in stunning surroundings with some uber rare and expensive cars being judged. Set in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle as part of the Jubilee celebrations. We left Lily behind and decided to make a day of it, parking up in Windsor and grabbing lunch we walked onto the Long Walk, the path that runs up to the George IV gate into the castle. To the left lay the Concours and the bit we'd paid for, to the left was the huge display lining both sides of the Walk from the Ferrari, Jaguar & Aston Martin OCs and a local car club. We headed down to the start and began snapping.













Following the Ferrari OC display it was the Aston Martin OCs turn to wow.











With the timed slots we'd booked still an hour or two away we decided to chance it and got waved in early, result! It was scorching so we settled down in the shade next to of the Queens Jaguars and had an ice cream before carrying on. First up was the Mclaren stand, the Woking company had brought along the MP4-1 F1 car, and three MP4 12C. A GT3, and coupe and Spider versions of the road car. The Spider having its European debut today, my backside is one of the first outside the factory to settle into the seats!.









Bentley was next to them, with a couple of Le Mans cars separated by about 80yrs.






The last part of the Long Walk was set aside for the Best of British display, cars from the last 60 years.










Only this chap lay between us millions of pounds worth of the rarest cars.



As we walked in I was a little bit speechless and a little bit, kid in a sweet shop!



It would fill up pages of my blog to show all 60 cars, so I'm sticking to my favourites. beginning with the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Touring Berlinetta



The 1938 Delahaye V12 Type 145



The 1950 Ferrari 166 MM Touring Barchetta



One of Kims favourites was this striking 1953 Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic



The brutal 1953 Maserati A6GCS Pinin Farina Berlinetta



The 1956 Ferrari 250GT Zagato Berlinetta



This was probably my favourite car of the show, the 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Jonckheere Coupé It was huge, like really huge with some many fascinating touches. I want circular doors on my next car!







Another massive car was this 1935 Avions Voisin C-25 Berline Aérodyne with its full length sunroof that slide back.



If the vast Phantom was taken this 1938 Bentley 4¼ Litre ‘Embiricos’ Pourtout Coupé would be a very close second.





Tucked in the middle was a couple of Ferraris.



This Mk3 GT40 was restored by a RRer. It looked so much better than in the white and blue scheme it was in before.



Very yellow Miura SV



The 1959 Maserati Tipo 60 ‘Birdcage’was part of a 50s sportscar corner along with a 1954 Austin-Healey ‘Works’ 100S and a 1956 Ferrari 290 MM Scaglietti Spider 0626







The centre cross of the quadrangle contained a handful of Royal cars including a pair of Rolls Royce, Prince Charles DB6 and the Duke of Edinburghs Alvis.







And that was it, we had wandered round for hours and with the temperature now hitting almost 30°C we decided to head off home back down the Long Walk. It was without doubt the most amazing car show I have ever been to. There are loads of photos here

Steve.