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.
My last post was covering the cars built by legendary coach-builder Zagato. You can read that article here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/27/london-concours-2024-coachbuilt-greats-zagato
Today, we’ll be looking at the cars of the Wildcard Category.
The Wildcard Category is for cars that the organisers want in the show, but they don’t fit into any of the other classes. There’s always quite an interesting mix of cars in this class.
We’ll start today’s proceedings with this Jaguar XJC restomodded by Ian Callum, the Jaguar designer who designed the C-X75 and recently rebuilt an ex James Bond stunt C-X75 to be road legal, which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/12/london-concours-2024-hypercars/. He has also just launched the Callum Skye at the Concours on Savile Row, which you can rad about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/05/28/concours-on-savile-row-2024/
The larger steel wheels and bullet mirrors tastefully finish the car that Ian used as a daily driver before selling it to it’s current owner.
Keeping with the James Bond connection, this is a Lotus Turbo Esprit in Monaco White with red decals and red leather interior. The same as the one Bond drove briefly in For Your Eyes Only.
This Porsche 911 RSR was hand painted by L.A based artist Francesco Campanella or ‘Lefty’. It’s very 1970s!
1958 Mercedes W180 220S ‘Ponton’ Cabriolet.
1961 Jaguar E-Type S1 ‘Pinto’.
When I first read the board in front of this car I thought someone had swapped a Ford Pinto engine from a Sierra/Capri/Cortina into it, which would be the weirdest engine swap ever. Turns out it was first owned by a Portuguese racing driver Manuel Nogueira Pinto, which makes a lot more sense.
A C1 Corvette in a one off ‘Root Beer’ colour. There was a seperate class celebrating Corvettes at this show (which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/06/23/london-concours-2024-corvette-a-design-icon/)
1966 Iso Grifo. A Bertone designed Italian GT car powered by the Chevrolet L79 V8 found in the C2 Corvette.
This little race car is a Costin-Nathan GT Prototype. It was hand built by Frank Costin and Roger Nathan to compete in the Group 6 series.
The frame is actually made of wood and the whole car weighs just 317KG.
It’s powered by a heavily tuned 998cc engine from a Hillman Imp.
The car was competitive and won it’s first 5 races.
It was retired in 1966 and acquired by a Geoffrey Horsley who kept it until he passed in 2016. The car went was then brought by someone in the U.S and was sent to Roger Nathan, one of the original builders, for full restoration.
Finally we have the ultimate wildcard – the TVR Scamander Amphibious.
TVR CEO and Engineer Peter Wheeler built the Scamander to carry him and a couple of his mates across the moors and lakes on his farm.
Peter’s son Joe, with the help of Harry Metcalfe from the YouTube channel Harry’s Garage, has recently revived it from a 12 year slumber.
It’s an interesting looking thing. Inside it has a seating arrangement like a McLaren F1 with the driver in the middle and a passenger on either side.
Thanks for reading! This is the last of the main classes of the concours, but there is still an exhibition of E-Type Jaguars to come! 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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