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 ‘Great British Racing’ class which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/16/london-concours-great-british-racing/
Today we’ll be looking at this show’s Aero class which was called ‘Front Enlightened’. It’s a celebration of hidden headlights.
We’ll start with the 1970 Dodge Charger. The lights on these were hidden behind doors at either end of that long grill.
The Lamborghini Miura had interesting headlights that raised up from their horizontal position in the body.
Apparently only 26 right hand drive Miuras were made. This P400 is one of them.
Porsche’s 928 had a similar system. I’m glad the front engined Porsches (928, 924 and 944) are getting more collectible and people are realising what cool cars they are.
The most popular form of pop up light is the type that folds down into the car under a body coloured panel to give the car a nice smooth look at the front.
When I think of these I typically think of Japanese cars from the late 1970s to the 1990s – Mazda RX7s, the Honda NSX, the Mk3 Toyota Supra, the S13 generation of Nissan’s Silvia etc. However, lots of manufacturers utilised pop-up headlights over the years including Maserati who were represented with both a 1969 Ghibli Spyder…
… and a 1971 Indy.
The DeTomaso Pantera (Italian for Panther) is an Italian sports car that was powered by a number of Ford V8s.
Over 7000 were built and over 75% of those cars were old by Lincoln-Mercury dealers in the U.S between 1972 and 1975. After 1975 they were produced in very small numbers until 1992.
This particular car is a ’73 and was prepared for Group 3 racing then rebuilt for Group 4 sport car racing. It apparently produces 490bhp and has a theoretical top speed of over 200mph.
Harry Metcalfe who runs the YouTube channel Harry’s Garage brought along his 1973 Lotus Elan Sprint. He has owned this car for 31 years which I think is incredibly impressive!
The last two cars are my two personal favourites.
The first is the massive 1980s wedge that is the Aston Martin Lagonda.
I didn’t realise that these had pop up lights. I assumed that the lights alongside the grill were the only set of headlights. There are two bulbs in each of the pop-ups alongside the four bulbs in the fixed lights and then two more bulbs in the side lights, meaning that if you are driving a Lagonda, the road ahead of you is illuminated by 10 bulbs!
I know the Lagonda is a bit of a ‘marmite’ car, but I think they’re absolutely magnificent. A little like the Lamborghini Countach, it was designed in the ’70’s but screams 1980’s excess.
This is also my first time seeing the back of one. For some reason I don’t think I’ve ever seen one from the rear.
Long time readers of this blog will know that I love a homologation special – a road going version of a purpose built racing car constructed to appease the FIA.
The Stratos was the first car built from the ground up for the World Rally Championship – a precursor if you will to the Group B monsters such as the Lancia 037 and Ford RS200 that followed in the 1980s. It won the 1974, 75 and 76 championships driven by Sandro Munari and Bjorn Waldegard.
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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