As Salon Prive is a Concours de Vente, in which every car is for sale, there is a huge variety of cars on display.
In the past the easiest way I have found to break the coverage from this show into more manageable pieces is by covering the pre-millennial (pre-2000) classic cars and the post-millennial cars in two separate posts.
I’m going to do the same this year – so today we will be covering the pre-millennial classics of Salon Prive London 2026.
We’ll start British with Aston Martin. Which would you prefer; The DB5?
Or the DB6?
I’d have the slightly later DBS. I really like the muscular look of this era Aston.
From Aston to another British icon – Rolls Royce. We’ll start with this lovely 1912 Silver Ghost:
This was alongside a beautiful 1926 Barker bodied Landaulette.
A pair of Phantom Vs. Even today these look absolutely massive in person. I bet in the 1960s it looked titanic around the Minis and Austin A40s of the day.
I’m not the biggest fan of modern Range Rovers but these early cars are cool – especially the two doors. The Kingsley retromods make these a really, really classy daily driver, for someone who earns a lot more than I do haha!
Coachbuilder Wood & Pickett developed this upmarket Mini called the Margrave. It is based on a 1275GT.
Moving on to Jaguar. This XK120 is chassis number 003 and was originally owned by the “King of Hollywood” Clark Gable.
There were a number of E-Types of course.
Including this beautiful ‘semi-lightweight’ which was offered with a FIA Historic Technical Passport (Period F) and is ready to compete in Pre-66 GT events including LeMans Classic.
Rounding off the British cars is a Bentley 4.5 litre – the naturally aspirated cousin of the famous ‘Blower’
Each day Salon Prive rotate some of the displays out to keep the show fresh for people who attend multiple days. I went on the Thursday which was the Porsche day. Between the Porsche Club GB stand and the other Porsches scattered about the show, there was plenty to look at!
I wasn’t sure whether to put the Porsche 996 in the pre or post millennial article, as it ran from 1997 to 2005. As production started in ’97 I’ll put it here.
I’ve still got a real inkling for one of these as a weekend car.
The Singer DLS Turbo – a restromod based on the 964. This beast boasts 700hp!
My favourite Porsche of the day was this 934.
The 934 was a Group 4 race car based on the 930 Turbo. Over the years a handful have been converted to road cars, with this being one of them.
Aside from it being an extremely rare car and an interesting piece of Porsche history, I love the 1970s style graphics haha!
Speaking of 1970s race cars – Dylan Miles brought along two Group 5 era BMWs.
The first is the famous CSL. This particular one, sporting a ‘Gosser Beer’ livery, was campaigned in by Formula 1’s Ronnie Peterson, Dieter Quester, Abrecht Krebs, Gunnar Nillson and Brian Redman.
The second was the CSL’s replacement based on the E21 chassis of the new 3-Series model. Again, this car was driven by Ronnie Peterson.
Dylan Miles also displayed this lovely BMW 503.
Rupert Hunt Classics & Modern Classics had this little 2002tii.
The W113 ‘Pagoda’ SL is always popular at this type of event.
The 190SL, the famous 300SL’s little brother.
The stacked headlight Mercedes are my favourite though – If I won the lottery, one of these arriving would be a tell-tale sign! I’d have a coupe or saloon rather than a cabriolet though.
There were a plethora of 1960s Ferraris.
A lovely Daytona from DD Classics.
Two of the original Testarossas:
Alongside the slightly later 512TR.
The Testarossa has always been considered a bit of a 1980s poster car, but the ultimate 1980s car in my opinion is the Lamborghini Countach. It’s so ‘of the era’!
The Diablo has really grown on me the past year or so. I was never a fan, but I’ve really begun to appreciate them. I think it’s because I’ve always loved the Countach – it was a hard act to follow!
We’ll end today’s article with a few unusual cars – all three of which I must confess I hadn’t heard of before this show.
The Maserati Indy. A four seater GT named in honour of Maserati’s wins at the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940. The car is obviously much later – Indys were built from 1969 to 1975.
A Monteverdi High Speed. This is a Swiss built car, designed by Italians with an American Hemi-head V8. It’s very elegant and I bet its a superb car to drive!
Finally we have an exceptionally rare car – A Pegaso Z102B with a body by Saoutchik.
Pegaso were a Spanish company who are mostly known for building trucks and buses.
In 1951 they decided to build a ‘cost is no object’ sports car – the Z102 and then the Z103. 84 Z102s were built and just three Z103s until Pegaso stopped the program in 1958 as it was far too expensive.
They were offered in a number of different body styles. This is one of 18 cars bodied by French coach-builder Saoutchik.
I love this staggered carburettor set-up on the V8. The engine is an in-house unit featuring an all aluminium construction, quad overhead camshafts, four carburettors (of course) and a dry sump lubrication system. It was offered in a number of displacements ranging from 2.5 litre up to 4.7. Incredibly sophisticated for the 1950s!
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed seeing the classic cars of Salon Prive!
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By Richard Francis.
