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.

A scorcher at Wheels Day

For the first time in several years, Good Friday dawned bright and sunny and stayed that way till the evening. Making this Wheels Day the hottest, sunniest and busiest since we first came in 2005. We rolled in a little later than usual as the crowds were queuing early.



Nibbling breakfast in the queue meant hit the ground running and set off across the show fields trying to see everything. Its impossible! But we did our best. With the eBay bargain buggy in tow it made the bumpy show ground a doddle.









There was something for everyone from American muscle through to English classics.







Having cleared the side field we heading back to the main area and cooled off with an ice cream. (thank you Pab)





This Thames van looked in mint condition, but a little odd, closer inspection revealed a hefty set of tyres out back ….



….and a stonking V8 in the middle!







As ever our merry band of followers got bigger as we gathered up more friends on the walk about.









Worn out we headed back to the camper for a bite to eat and ended up crashed out for a couple of hours chatting. Lily was munching on her fruity snacks and entertaining an older man!





Showing Alfie who was boss, she moved in for a snog!



Suitably refreshed and deciding to head off on our own for a bit we took in the traders and the bikes.









Before heading up the hill to take it all in, I reckon there were a good few thousand cars and several times that in visitors.



Back on the field we did a final wander round until the heat got to much for us all.





Then we settled by the vans for a bit, the queue to get out growing ever longer. We rested until it was gone.





As we headed out there could only have been a few dozen cars left, the roads we clear and we took the scenic route back through the woods. The weather looks to be staying hot and sunny for a bit now, with a nice 11 day break lets hope so.

The rest of the photos are here.

Steve.

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