Elvetham Heath Car Show

Despite celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Its the first time we've been to the Elvetham Car Show, so we had no idea what to expect. I saw a few photos from previous years but as we followed the directions into a housing estate I was dubious. We arrived at a couple of playing fields surrounded by houses and full of cars and were told to head to the far end by the speedboat! Parking up we could see it wasn't massive, but there was some very interesting cars on show already.



After a quick snack and wishing we'd brought jumpers (its funny when you feel chilly and its 20°C) we set off. Lily clutching her I Spy Classic Cars book once more and posing in front of cool stuff.





Heading back to the main field, it was a real mix of marques.







Lily was busily (with help from mummy and daddy) ticking off more cars in her book.





One model that wasn't in, but would surely have been a top scorer was this amazing Jaguar XJ220S, one of less than 300 cars built and only six of those were the S version. The standard car came with 550hp, the S upped that to almost 700! This thing had a crowd round it all day.







The owner was seen lurking nearby most of the day in his matching t-shirt!



There was a good selection of bikes as well, but we only saw a handful as the rest had gone on a cruise for the morning, Lily was in time to wave the last few away.







Ferraris were there in big numbers too, with a brace of modern ones as well as some 1980s and an ex Schumacher Formula 1 car as well. Hidden to the side were some replicas based on MR2s, the owner was letting anyone have a sit in.



 





We headed back to the Camper for lunch and a rest, Lily was getting tired so I had a quick walk round on my own to see the last few cars.













The mention of ice creams had Lily on her feet and we headed for the shortened queue, before demolishing some cold snacks.



With the late arrivals looked over.





We loaded up and followed a 911 out of the show and cruised home, Lily snoozing as soon as we hit the main road!



It wasn't the biggest show ever, but it was free and there were some amazing cars on display. There are more photos 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.