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 Hypercar class which you can rad about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/12/london-concours-2024-hypercars
Today we’ll be looking at my personal favourite class of the show – Great British Racing sponsored by Hilton & Moss. It was an absolutely lovely opportunity to be able to get to be able to see these cars in person.
Every car in this class is absolutely lovely and it was really difficult to decide where to begin so I’m actually going to start with my favourite car which was the Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9 Group C.
From 1982 to 1993 the FIA Group C formula was the top sports car/prototype category in endurance racing around the world (excluding North America who ran the IMSA GTP category which had very similar rules so most cars could run in both)
It had a really interesting rule which stemmed from the prior Group 6 GTP formula which restricted cars on fuel consumption (they could roughly consume 60 litres per 100km or just 4.7 miles per U.K gallon (3.9 miles per U.S gallon.)) rather than engine displacement or aspiration.
This meant that the whole field was running wildly different powertrains from Porsche’s Flat 6s to Mazda’s rotaries, there were V6s, V8s, V12s all from a plethora of different manufacturers and teams.
This Jaguar, chassis 186 debuted in 1986 as an XJR-6. In 1987 the V12 was bored out to 7 litres and now made 720hp, but as far as I can attain didn’t race that season. It then returned in 1988 as the 750hp XJR-9 (the specification it has retained) where it finished 4th at Le Mans whilst being driven by Irishman Derek Daly, Australian Larry Perkins and American Kevin Cogan.
To it’s left was a Metro 6R4 from the absolutely incredible era of Group B rallying.
Group B was a relatively unrestricted class. The cars had to have two seats and minimum weight was determined by engine displacement. There was no restrictions on turbocharging and the cars could be spaceframed with a fibreglass body rather than the conventional monocoque design used in passenger cars.
Manufacturers did have to produce 200 homologation production cars that could be sold. Lancia very famously took liberty with that by showing the FIA representatives 100 cars in a lot, and saying that the other 100 cars were in another lot on the other side of town. On the way to the other lot the FIA and Lancia representatives stopped off for a business lunch with a lot of wine whilst the 100 were moved to the second lot.
Group B was scrapped in 1987 following several horrific accidents.
The 6R4 is my favourite of the Group B cars as both my parents had Metros when I was a kid. My dear old Mum had a blue Austin Metro when I was very young (a normal one – not a 6R4 -Group B had long been outlawed, I was born in ’93). It got written off by a van on my fourth birthday. My Dad had a red MG Metro Turbo for a while too but it was stolen.
At the London Classic Car Show a few years back a 6R4 was displayed alongside a Vanden Plas edition Metro. It’s amazing how very little the Group B actually shares with the mass production equivalent.
When Jaguar released the XK120 in 1948 it was the fastest production car in the world and a strikingly beautiful little sports car.
This one was built in 1951 and was raced until the 1990s when it was crashed. The car was reshelled but in recent years the original shell was restored and the car rebuilt.
The Chevron B16 2 litre Group 6 sports car.
This particular car runs in the Masters Sports Car Legends championship. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been to the Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch (an event you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2022/06/01/brands-hatch-masters-historic-festival-2022/) but it has always been a good day out full of good racing. If you get the chance to go I highly recommend it.
Alan Mann Mk1 Escort. Through the 1960s Alan Mann Racing worked closely with Ford in touring car and sports car racing. The famous red and gold livery adorned lots of cars ranging from Anglias, Escorts and Cortinas to Falcons, Mustangs and GT40s.
Lotus Elites are another car you’ll see raced in the Masters series. This particular one was originally a works race car in the U.S where it spent most of its’ life. It was purchased in 2010 by its’ current European owner and graces a handful of events across the continent.
Now onto another highlight – a trio of Formula 1 cars.
The first was a 1971 Surtees in a lovely ‘Flame Out’ livery.
Along with its’ successor, the 1972 TS9B.
Finally we have another personal highlight for me – The 1978 Hesketh 308E in the iconic Penthouse livery.
I had the pleasure of witnessing an interview of, and meeting Lord Hesketh at the Concours last year (which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2023/06/09/2023-london-concours/)
Lord Hesketh, James Hunt, Bubbles Horsley and the rest of the Hesketh Racing team were fantastic characters in the sport. They’re my favourite Formula 1 team so far.
This one is part of the Lyons family collection. They have a few of these historic Formula 1 cars that they race in the Masters series and at different events around the globe.
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).
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