The London Concours held at the the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is one of the highlights of my automotive calendar.
The line-up of cars at this event is always spectacular and the classes they are divided into are always interesting. This year was no exception and so to give the cars in the classes the screen time they deserve, I’ve decided to split my content from this year’s show into multiple parts.
The last post was covering the Purple Reign class which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/12/london-concours-2024-purple-reign/
Today we’ll be covering the Hypercar class sponsored by Apollo Capital.
Despite the congestion in London there is a strong supercar scene within the city. The London Concours always puts on a great display of some of the most exotic cars in the city.
When I saw Ferrari’s SP3 Daytona at Salon Prive last year I’ll be honest, I wasn’t a big fan. However, that car was in the traditional Rosso Corsa red which for some reason just didn’t suit the car in my eyes. In the green I think it looks rather elegant.
The SP1 (single seater) and SP2 (two seater) are based on the 812 Superfast and hark back to the cars of the 1950s.
An Enzo rounds off the lineup of Ferraris in this class.
The Porsche 918 from the ‘Holy Trinity’ of first generation hybrid hypercars.
Along with it’s predecessor the Carrera GT.
Speaking of the ‘Holy Trinity’, there were a couple of McLaren P1s in this class.
The first was a HDK MSO. HDK stands for High Downforce Kit – as you can see this car has extensively revised bodywork over the standard car. MSO is McLaren Special Operations – If you want something bespoke on your McLaren build they’ll be the people that handle it.
The other was XP05 – this is one of McLaren’s prototypes of the P1.
The Ford GT. When these came out a lot of people gave them flak because it was a twin turbo V6 Ecoboost rather than a V8 like the original GT40 and the 2004-2006 reboot. I don’t think it really matters though. It’s still a ballisticly quick car and I adore that teardrop style bodywork.
Ford can make good sports cars when they want to as proven by the GT series of cars and of course the Mustang in the U.S but in Europe we also had the Capri, RS200 Group B homologation car and later on the Puma. I didn’t like the Puma at the time but a little sports car based on the Fiesta platform really worked and could work again. Instead Ford made the abhorrent soft, small SUV with the Puma name badge instead.
It’s always an absolute pleasure to see Koenigseggs in person. This CCXR is the earliest of the Koenigsegg cars I’ve seen so far.
This CCXR is the only right hand driven example of the four built.
Finally we have the Jaguar C-X75. This is a bit of an odd one. The C-X75 was a concept car debuted at the Paris Motor Show back in 2010. The project was sadly cancelled but 7 stunt cars were used in the James Bond film Spectre.
The stunt cars shared very little with the original C-X75 under the skin as they were built to do jumps and handle the rough and tumble of a hollywood car chase. However, it is a surviving C-X75 body. This one has been modified to be road legal in the U.K by CALLUM Designs.
Thanks for reading! There are still a few more classes of the London Concours for me to cover, so if you would like to stay up to date with all my blog posts please subscribe to the blog via email (from the box at the bottom of the page).
Follow me on the following social media platforms:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/motorsportformentalhealth/
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/richard-francis-b45025137/
TikTok: @richardfrancismsfmh
Twitter: @richardmsfmh
Instagram: @motorsport4mentalhealth
Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-j8broFg4i2rWIBy6W82Q
2 Comments