Welcome to the first part of my coverage of the 2025 Concours of Elegance held at Hampton Court Palace.
I thought a sensible place to start, as this is a motorsport based blog, would be with the racing cars. I’ll be covering all of the racing cars found at the event in both the Concours itself and in the dealership’s displays.
We’ll start with a car that’s very close to my heart – UU 5872.
W.O Bentley was a believer that a naturally aspirated large displacement engine would be more reliable than a smaller supercharged engine. Team driver Henry Ralph Stanley “Tim” Birkin, who was impressed with the superchargers designed by Amherst Villiers, disagreed. He managed to persuade Bentley chairman Woolf Barnarto to allow him to build 54 4.5 litre supercharged cars with four competition race cars.
UU 5872 is the second of the four race cars. It had a short but illustrious career highlighted by the 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans where it was driven by a team led by Birkin himself.
Birkin and the car would have a fierce battle with a 7 litre supercharged Mercedes SSK driven by Rudi Caracciola and Christian Werner.
Sadly neither car would finish the race, with the Mercedes developing a severe coolant leak and UU 5872 dropping a valve with just four hours to go. In a moment I bet W.O cherished as a great “I told you so” moment – a 6.5 litre naturally aspirated Bentley Speed Six would take the win.
I built Airfix’s 1/12 Bentley Blower as UU 5872. It was a fun project at the time and has been by far the most popular model build I have ever had on here. If you’d like to check it out you can do so here:
https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2021/12/17/airfix-112-bentley-blower/
I really like this plaque on the bonnet highlighting its career achievements.
Staying in the 1920s – This is a 1926 Rally Grand Sport Type S. Never heard of Rally as a brand? Neither had I. Apparently only four or five of their cars exist today and this is the last surviving Type S.
This particular car has racing history up to the late 1920s when it disappeared. It was discovered in a collapsed shed more than 50 years later and what was left of the car was sold to an enthusiast in Scotland. He decided it was too big of a project for him to take on and in 2018 decided to sell the car on.
This is where the car came to the current owner David Foster. Unfortunately his wife Debbie was facing a terminal illness and he decided that he wanted a project to focus on to help him get through it and deliberately went out looking for the hardest project he could find.
The 7 year restoration involved a lot of people and small companies, which built up a little community centered on the car. The car debuted at Brooklands Relived earlier this year where it won vehicle of the show.
This is exactly the sort of story that I enjoy covering here. As a hobby it has given David a positive outlet and something to focus on. A community was formed in getting this car back to its former glory. It’s an extremely unusual car and a unique piece of history to restore. Plus he’s using the car and taking it to shows and events allowing new people to learn about it and see the car rather than just having it sit in a collection.
Wonderful work and thank you to David for bringing the car out. I wish you the best and look forward to seeing the car more in the future.
The car houses a 1098cc inline four and it weighs a tiny 680KG, so it’s only tiny! In order to make the body as narrow and streamlined as possible the passenger/riding mechanic’s seating position is really offset.
This was the second visit to Hampton Court Palace for this Alfa Romeo 8C. The car has also been on the Mille Miglia several times.
A Bugatti Type 13. This chassis – 678 – was first delivered to a customer in Paris in 1914. The car has had a lot of modifications and adaptations over the course of it’s life. The current owner who acquired the car in 2023 stripped it back to a bare chassis and rebuilt it as an ‘oily rag’ barn find.
It competed in the SF Edge Trophy for Edwardian era cars at Goodwood this year and I bet it’s tremendous fun!
Moving into the post war era now – we have a little Maserati single seater.
Then we get into the collection of Grand Prix cars, gathered to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Formula 1.
This Maserati 250F, chassis 2521 was raced initially by Jean Behra in the 1956 season before it was sold by the factory and was raced by numerous privateers until the end of the 1959 season. From there it was displayed in a museum until 1990. Since 1992 the car has graced the historic motorsport scene. It is currently owned by DIX Garage based in the United States.
The W196R was brought over by Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. The Mercedes and Porsche Museums are most certainly on my list of places that I’d like to visit. Everyone I’ve spoken to that’s been says how good they are.
The 1970 March 701. This car has recently changed hands and the Concours of Elegance is its first public appearance in decades.
I love the aeroplane wing side profile on the fuel tanks.
The 1977 McLaren M26 raced in period by James Hunt and now raced by Michael Lyons
One of my all time favourite cars is the Tyrrell P34. It’s a pleasure to finally see one in person!
This chassis – number 8 – was originally a spare. It was purchased in 1990 by Paul Lazante and then changed hands a number of times during it’s completion.
It made it’s historic debut in 2008 at Monterey and then competed again two year later at Laguna Seca. It then formed a part of the Jody Scheckter collection before being purchased by its current owner.
Jumping forward to the 1980s and we have the Tyrrell 012.
Ferrari’s Tipo 639. This chassis was a development bed for Ferrari’s Tipo 035 3.5ltr V12 and a very early paddle-shifted sequential gearbox. Common on road and race cars today but an innovative feature in 1988.
The 2014 Mercedes W05 campaigned by Lewis Hamilton.
Finally from Formula 1 we have the Racing Point RP19 from the 2019 season.
Moving away from Formula 1 and into Sports Car/Prototype racing.
We’ll start with the McLaren F1. I always find it amazing how small these are in person compared to how they look in pictures and on video.
Maserati MC12.
Only 19 F40 LMs were produced for GT racing. It was a factory authorised conversion by Michelotto Engineering.
Jaguar has a fantastic history in motorsport. The C and D-Type Jaguars are beautiful cars:
Aston Martin also produced some beautiful cars in the 1950s and 60s.
Aston Martin have always made good looking cars though. Post millennium GT cars are starting to appear on historic race tracks. Masters have a class for them!
Lola’s T70 is a popular car in historic racing. 100 original examples were built, but replicas are still readily available.
This particular T70 won 14 races through the 1967 and 68 seasons and the Concours of Elegance is its first public appearance in the UK since 1969.
(Note the broom handle holding the door up. Race cars will always be race cars haha!)
In 1993 the 333SP marked Ferrari’s official return to Sports Car Racing after a 20 year absence.
40 cars were built – 4 by Ferrari themselves then 11 by Dallara (who build chassis for a massive number of series including Indycar, Formula 3, Formula E and many more) and the final 26 by Michelotto.
The cars of Ferrari’s XX program will be featured both here in the racing car and in the super car section of my coverage. ‘XX’ is Ferrari’s development program. They build track only cars that Ferrari’s most esteemed customers get the opportunity to buy and then drive at six annual track days that are held across the globe.
The first of two Group C cars featured today – the Mercedes C11 from 1990. This was another car brought over by the Mercedes-Benz Museum.
The other Group C car was a Porsche 962. This is 962-010. It was the last 962 chassis to be raced by the Porsche factory team. It was driven to second place at the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours by Derek Bell, Hans Stuck and Klaus Ludwig.
The 962 was the first of several gorgeous Porsche race cars on display. Here’s a 904 which took 4th in its class at Le Mans in 1964.
This 911 GT1 EVO is one of 9 customer cars. It was raced until 1998.
In 2019 Porsche made a small run of tribute cars to the 935 based on the 991 generation 911 GT2 RS. This will be our last car of the day and nicely rounds off this exquisite list of machines.
Thanks for reading! I really hope you enjoyed this journey around the race cars at the Concours of Elegance.
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By Richard Francis.
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