Alongside the classic cars, the Concours of Elegance also attracts a large number of contemporary super and hypercars, which we will be having a look through today.
I’ve made two posts covering the classic cars which you can read here:
Pre-war: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2026/09/10/concours-of-elegance-2026-pre-war-cars/
Golden Era: https://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2026/09/24/concours-of-elegance-2026-golden-era-sports-cars/
In the interests of keeping this article reasonably concise I’m only going to be covering cars built after the year 2000 here.
We’ll start with one of the earlier cars actually. The SLR was a collaboration between Mercedes-Benz and McLaren built between 2003 and 2010.
Mercedes handled the styling and each engine was handbuilt by AMG, but McLaren themselves developed and built the chassis themselves. It was this project that was the catalyst for getting McLaren back into building road cars after such a long hiatus following the famous F1.
The MP4-12C (later just 12C) would be the first production car of this new era.
The P1 arrived in 2013 and was one of the ‘Holy Trinity’ of hybrid hypercars of the period, alongside the Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 918.
Following the P1, McLaren have gone on to expand their range of hypercars through the Ultimate Series. This includes the Senna, Elva and the latest W1.
The rest of the McLaren range of the 2010s also drew a lot of inspiration from the P1. You can clearly see the resemblance between the P1 and this later 650S.
There were a lovely range of modern Aston Martins including this Vanquish Volante.
Along with a stunning Zagato bodied version of the same car.
I hadn’t seen a Rapide in person until now. I really disliked Aston Martin’s four door GT until I saw one in the metal.
Pictures and videos really don’t do them justice – they’re actually a really nice car.
The V12 Vantage RS Concept car.
This was the precursor to the V12 Vantage. Aston Martin shoehorned a 600hp, Prodrive developed, 6 litre V12 into a Vantage platform. Customer response was so strong that Aston Martin released the production V12 Vantage the following year.
110 Valours were built to celebrate Aston Martin’s 110th anniversary.
The styling was heavily inspired by the 1970s V8 Vantage.
Valhalla in a rather bold choice of colours.
Valkyrie is one of my favourite modern cars. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing a few in person now and every time they stop me in my tracks. A lottery win car for sure!
Maserati’s MC20 is another one of my favourite modern cars. This one has had the trident removed from the grill which is a shame. It’s ever such a handsome car though!
The MC12 was based on Ferrari’s Enzo and was a homologation special to allow Maserati to race in the FIA GT Championship.
Two batches of 25 road cars were produced along with 12 racing cars – bringing the total production run up to 62.
Speaking of Ferraris – there were lots! Predictably, many were red.
I might be in the minority here but I actually think a lot of Ferraris look better in other colours, especially the front engined GT cars. The dark blue they do always suits them!
There was a nice display of Bentley Continental GTs. This wasn’t the full line up, there were a couple more that will be appearing in a article covering the racing cars at the show soon.
The Gordon Murray Automotive T50.
This seems to be the car of the moment. It features a Cosworth built V12 that redlines at 12,100rpm and has a fan, inspired by Gordon Murray’s Brabham BT46B that literally pulls the car onto the floor.
Bugatti’s Veyron.
We’ll end on a rather unusual car that I don’t get to see anywhere near enough. This is a second generation Honda NSX.
Apparently just shy of 3,000 have been sold worldwide since production began in 2016. I’ve only ever seen a couple at shows and never seen one in the wild!
Thanks for reading! I really hoped you enjoyed this look around the supercars of the Hampton Court Palace Concours of Elegance.
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By Richard Francis
