Concours of Elegance 2024: Pre-War Cars

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Welcome to the final chapter of my Concours of Elegance 2024 coverage. Today we shall be looking at the pre-war cars of the show.

There were anumber of pre-war racing cars. I won’t be covering those here. They were featured on my dedicated post covering the racing cars of the show which you can find here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2024/09/14/concours-of-elegance-2024-racing-cars/

We’ll start with the Bentleys. Pre-war Bentleys have always been a love of mine andhave featured heavily on this website. One of my most popular posts is my build thread of Airfix’s 1/12 scale Blower (which you can read about here: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2021/12/17/airfix-112-bentley-blower/)

XR 7117 is an official recreation of the prototype of the 4.5 ltr ‘Blower’.

A couple more racing Bentleys:

A few more Bentleys with the lovely open-touring body style.

The final open car I’d like to show you is this 1927 3 Litre with a boat tailed body by Martin Walter. The Concours of Elegance was the first time this car had been seen in public for more than 60 years.

It was interesting to see a couple of Bentleys with Barouche style bodywork – with enclosed rear seats and open front seats. There was a green and black James Young bodied car that was debuted at the 1938 Earls Court Motor Show.

There was also a 4 1/4 ltr with a Sedanca Coupe body built by Hooper. This car was comissioned by Lady Duff Ashton Smith.

The little opera lamps on the flanks were a lovely detail.

A lovely Speed Six by Mulliner.

Note the ornate glass radiator cap.

A second Speed Six coupe.

Finally there was an 8 litre saloon. The final model Bentley introduced before being swallowed by their rivals Rolls-Royce.

There were also plenty of cars from the aforementioned Rolls Royce.

Of particular note to me was this lovely Oxford Grey 1925 Silver Ghost.

This Thrupp & Maberly bodied Wraith was absolutely stunning.

It was originally owned by R. C. Sherriff who wrote the play Journey’s End, which tells the story of a group of junior officers in the build up to an attack outside of Saint-Quentin in the First World War. I’ve not seen the play, but the 2017 film is really good!

The last Rolls Royce I’d like to highlight is affectionately known as Nellie!

Nellie is a 1912 Silver Ghost I saw at Brooklands a number of years back and fell in love with.

She was originally a trials car built for Rolls Royce Bombay to show off to potential customers.

For the Indian market she was fitted with a number of upgrades – including a louvered bonnet, a bigger fuel tank and chain link flaps on the front, which would prevent the front wheels from spitting up discarded oxen shoes on the road.

She also boasts this lovely ‘Taj Mahal’ name plate which was what really grabbed my attention.

Another pre-war British car that I absolutely love are Austin 7s. I’d imagine they’re great fun to drive!

The last British car isn’t exactly pre-war, having been built in 1940 WW2 was well underway, but I had to include it.

This is an Aston Martin Speed Model Type C featuring an aerodynamic body by Enrico Bertelli.

I’ve not had a tremendous amount to do with pre-war American luxury cars but they are rather impressive and I’d certainly like to see more of them!

This is a 1935 Lincoln Model K Coupe. The first owner of this car clearly wasn’t too affected by The Great Depression. This car originally cost just shy of $5000, when the average American home cost $3450 and a 1935 Ford Model 48 Coupe cost $500.

1933 Chrysler CL Imperial Dual Windshield Phaeton. Fun fact: the bonnet (or hood) of this car alone is 6 feet long!

This Cord 812 was originally owned by aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart.

The 812 is an unusual car for the period. It features these wrap around louvers for airflow rather than the traditional radiator grill, and was the first production car to feature pop up headlights! Under the body is just as weird! It has a V8 but is front wheel driven. Throughout history V8, front driven cars are very few and far between.

Heading back across the Atlantic to France, there were a few pre-war Bugattis.

It was lovely to finally see a Type 57 in person.

During the First World War the Ballot brothers made a fortune selling engines to the French government. Following the war they had a short run building cars (between 1919 and 1932).

The Ballot 2, seen here, was the most expensive sports car in the world in 1922. It was the first car to go into production with a dual overhead cam engine. With a displacement of only 1.95 litres it was able to reach speeds of over 100mph, which was unheard of from such a small engine at the time.

Fewer than 50 were built and only 5 survive.