Salon Privé
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire 31 August
A PAIR OF RED ITALIAN beauties styled by Pininfarina made a clean sweep at the 2017 Salon Privé Concours d’Elegance, held on the south lawn of Blenheim Palace on a late summer’s day. A 1973 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder took the People’s Choice award and an avant garde concept car, the 1960 Alfa Romeo 3000CM Superflow coupé entered by Steve Tillack (see Octane 171), was deservedly judged Best in Show.
Blenheim Palace, nowadays a world heritage site, was hosting Salon Privé for the third year. Guests walked down an avenue of hypercars, where the Union Flag-bedecked entrance had a brace of helicopters parked close by. Salon Privé lived up to its billing, borrowed from pre-war Brooklands, of ‘the right crowd and no crowding’.
Once in the show arena, there was the unveiling of the new ATS GT to witness on the way to the concours display. This year’s panel of judges included Derek Bell (as chief judge, in fact), Rolls-Royce design director Giles Taylor, Frank Stephenson (until recently McLaren’s design director), and Italian car designer and former Pininfarina supremo Fabio Filippini.
One of the delights of this event is that there’s space to take a good look at the cars and motorcycles on display, ten classes in all. Then, after the barbecue lobster lunch, the entrants make up a parade of cars and motorcycles, during which many take up the offer of a photograph in front of the Italian Garden. It’s a particular bonus for the many tourists who visit the Palace. As we watched the venerable 1908 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost waft past the palace portico, we could easily imagine the Duke of Marlborough taking a drive to Oxford in Edwardian times.
Around lunchtime, the rain gods delivered a torrential shower after a clap of thunder. This prompted some improvised weather protection for the concours cars, such as a black umbrella being deployed to prevent the flooding of a ‘birdcage’ Maserati’s interior, while the scramble for covers was watched by visitors dining, unsoaked, in the tented village. The rain delayed the programme, but once the sun was shining again the entrants drove their charges past the judges’ pavilion with commentary by the enthusiastic and knowledgeable collector-car broker Max Girardo, while guests sipped Champagne in a relaxed atmosphere not always present at other concours events.
The Best in Show winner was announced at the evening’s gala dinner but the class winners’ awards were presented during the day – including that esteemed People’s Choice trophy for Stephen Allmand-Smith’s pristine Daytona Spyder. It looked absolutely magnificent, despite having been driven on the Salon’s tour of the Cotswolds in the rain the day before.
And so ended the day, the Ferrari driving off west into the sunset, passenger waving the silver trophy above his head…
Clockwise from top right Cover comes off the new ATS GT; chief judge Derek Bell; Daytona Spyder was People’s Choice; Ford GT40 MkIII; Champagne and shininess on the lawn.