Shot! The 2023 Concours of Elegance
My favourite cars from among the exceptional automobile exotica on display at Hampton Court Palace.
Now in its 12th year, Concours of Elegance has established itself as being one of the most prestigious Concours in the world. Held in the splendid Great Fountain Garden of Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, whilst the event remains much the same each year, the Concours cars are always different.
These sixty cars, all fabulous examples of their type, compete against each other for the title Best of Show. And just like all beauty contests there are lots of differences between the entrants.
Lined up on the gravel pathways between the Palace’s iconic mushroom shaped-yew trees, are automotive exotica representing different countries, different marques and different eras, from as way back as a 1913 Hispano-Suiza right up to a 2023 hypercar from Aston Martin.
Aside from their exceptional condition, the one thing they all share is their rarity. Some of these vehicles are so unique you will probably never see them again.
When it comes to presenting themselves, none of the entrants gets favourable treatment over the rest of the field and unlike other beauty pageants which resort to celebrity panels and public voting to pick a winner, here each of the Concours entrants gets to decide by dint of their individual vote.
Most years, there’s an obvious stand out car, one that from the outset appears hot favourite for Best of Show. But you never can be sure as there are always numerous contenders that could come out on top.
The Concours takes place over three days, with different things happening on different days, culminating in the Best of Show announcement on the Sunday.
This year I attended the middle day which meant I didn’t know who the winner would be when I was photographing them. With so many cars on display, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and try and shoot everything. Experience has taught me to try and focus on just a few, namely the ones that you have an instant connection with and then spend time getting the best compositions you can.
With that in mind, I narrowed the field down to a handful of cars. So let’s take a closer look at them in the order that they first came into production, beginning with a particularly special Peugeot from 1937.
Peugeot 302 DS Darl’mat: The first thing to say about this car was it’s one of just three produced for the 1937 24 Heures de Le Mans by the Parisian Peugeot dealer Darl’mat, the DS designation standing for Darl’mat Sport. The three cars wore the numbers 25, 26 and 27 and this was car 26.
The chassis was provided by Peugeot, but the car was hand built by Marcel Portout, a Parisian carrossier and styled by Portout’s in-house designer Georges Paulin.
Back then aerodynamics were still in its infancy, but Paulin created a wooden model of the body which was extensively wind-tunnel tested.
The curvacious styling is notable for a number of unusual features. It has no doors, a curved radiator grille, circular chrome Art Deco air vents and a playful heart-shaped rear licence plate frame.
I particularly liked the tricoleur name badge.
Paulin’s design was also the inspiration for the legendary Embiricos Bentley, one of my all-time favourite cars, which he also styled after being approached by Bentley’s dealer in France, Walter Sleator, to create a one-off Bentley for Greek shipping magnate and banker, Andre Maris Embiricos.
Over the years the 302 passed through many hands until it was purchased in 2019 by Philip White, an American collector, who had it undergo a painstaking restoration. And boy did it look gorgeous in the Hampton Court sunshine.
The Peugeot received the Chairman’s Award at this year’s Concours of Elegance.
From the thirties we skip a decade to the fifties and yet another stunning entrant from Jonathan and Wendy Segal.
Maserati A6GCS/53 Frua Spider: This was the one I was most looking forward to seeing as it was making its UK debut at Hampton Court. San Diego architect, Johnny Segal has great taste in Italian cars from the fifties and I absolutely adored the previous two cars he entered at Concours of Elegance.
I still can’t decide between his 1950 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 or his 1956 Maserati A6G/54 Berlinetta Zagato which I like the most, though if I was forced to choose, I’d probably go for the burgundy Maserati, not least because it’s one of the most photogenic cars I’ve ever shot.
His black and cream Maserati from 1955 was another humdinger and even rarer, being just one of only three Frua Spiders ever built.
Styled by Pietro Frua, the designation A6G stood for Alfieri (one of the Maserati brothers), the number of cylinders and Ghisa, (Italian for cast iron, the material used for the engine block).
The story goes that it was originally commissioned by Guglielmo Dei, the Maserati dealer for Rome. Carrozzeria Frua of Turin built one and Dei was so impressed he order two more, including this one, Chassis 2110. Today only two of the three survive.
The car remained in Italy until the late fifties before moving to the USA. Its last appearance in Europe was in 2010 when it won the Coppa d’Oro at the highly prestigious Villa Deste concourse.
It was sold at Gooding’s 2018 Pebble Beach auction for $5,170,000.
Today, it still wears an Italian number plate. It’s only on the rear and it’s apparently as rare as the car: Roma G6 0645, one of the few number plates you’ll see which includes the name of a city.
As with all Johnny’s cars, it was in immaculate condition, probably better even than when it was built. I loved the cream contrast on the bonnet, but in terms of design, I wasn’t overly enamoured with its over-sized grille.
Visually, I also had an issue with the dashboard aesthetics: the two main dials were hidden behind the steering wheel spokes and the rectangular gauges surely should have been round.
Another of my favourites on the day, wasn’t one of the 60 Concours entrants, but one of the thousand or so classic cars that were also on display in front of the Palace. This was a drop dead gorgeous Aston from 1965:
Aston Martin DB5 Vantage. Finished in silver, with a black interior it too was in exceptional condition, so much so that it was raised above a mirror just so you could admire the underside. Styled by Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, it was up for sale through Hilton & Moss, and although the price was not stated, I believe it’s listed for £875,000.
From its launch in 1963, Aston produced 887 DB5’s, of which only 68 were the more powerful Vantage version. What made this example even more interesting was its original owner was British comedian Dick Emery.
In 2016, Aston Engineering undertook a complete restoration of the car, changing the paint from its original California Sage to Silver Birch and in 2018, Aston Martin Works rebuilt the engine at a cost of nearly £57,000.
A silver DB5 is of course the car most associated with James Bond, and while there was an 007 Aston, complete with machine guns, spinning number plates and bullet-proof screen, on the Concours, I much preferred the timeless elegance of the Emery car.
It was especially good to see it this year as 2023 marks 60 years of the DB5.
From three cars from the past, to two hypercars of the present.
Koenigsegg Regera Ghost. First unveiled at the Geneva motor show in 2015, the Regera — which means ‘to reign’ in Swedish — was limited to a production run of 85 cars. This one displayed at Hampton Court was a 2019 Ghost model which looked superb in its Crystal White matte paint finish with black carbon trim.
If any contemporary car can be described as automotive art, it’s the tautly curved Regera. Styled by Christian von Koenigsegg and Joachim Nordwall, every aspect of the car, including parts you can only see when the hood is up is impeccably finished and few cars provide such drama when the doors, hood and bonnet are all raised simultaneously.
With an entry price of £2.6m, this car featured the Ghost package — a mere £232,000 aero-add-on.
Finished in Lingonberry Red, the Regera’s carbon-filled interior was equally stunning. I especially liked the perforations for the door speakers.
By coincidence, the newest car at this year’s Concours was about the same price as the Regera.
Aston Martin Valkyrie: Originally unveiled in 2016 when it was known as the AM-RB 001, this futuristic hypercar is a collaboration between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, no wonder it’s referred to as a race car for the road.
Named from Norse mythology, Valkyries are the spirits who decide the fate of men in battle, this was car 54 of the 150 that will be built. Costing £2.5m, it’s owned by Gregor Fiskens, founder of Fiskens Cars who previously was Aston Martin’s design director.
The car was finished in Mariana blue and featured Fraser tartan trim — Fiskens family tartan — on the nose and air scoops. Personally, I thought this was a little bit naff as it looked like someone had stuck on some wrapping paper. I don’t think tartan ever belongs on a car’s exterior, and whilst it’s fine for seat inserts, it didn’t feature anywhere on the interior. That said, the Aston Martin badge was crafted from titanium!
The Valkyrie is powered by a V12 engine and can reach 0–60mph in 2.3 seconds. No surprise then that another owner is Max Verstappen or that it won the Future Classics award at this year’s Concours.
So who was this year’s cream of the crop? While I would have plumped for the Darl’mat Peugeot just sneaking it over the AG GCS/53, it was the Maserati that was awarded the Pegasus Trophy for Best of Show. That means it will be one of just eight cars to be considered for the Peninsula Best of the Best which pits the winners of the leading concours from around the world against each other.
Whilst one’s opinion is swayed by whether the line-up appeals to you, this was possibly the best Concours of Elegance in the event’s 12 year history. Even so, I still think there’s room for improvement, especially in the way the Concours cars are displayed. To me, simply angle parking them side by side on the gravel does not do them justice. They deserve to be much more creatively displayed like the works of art they are. And surely now is the time to dispense with the invasive red signs that have been placed in front of each entrant since the very first event.
Behind the shot: These images were taken either using the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with the M Zuiko 1.8 75mm lens or the iPhone 14 Pro. As always at Concours of Elegance, getting great shots of the cars is never easy which is why I tend to focus on tight compositions. I’m always surprised when I see car images from pro photographers that include people in the frame. Unless they have something to do with the car or add value to the composition, to me that’s just lazy photography. One additional challenge this year was the abundance of red car covers that were either inside or under the cars — it had rained heavily the day before and all the entrants are covered at night. With so many cars to choose from, the temptation is to try and shoot as many as you can, but I prefer to be more selective. Choosing which ones to focus on is of course a matter of personal choice and — together with how you shoot them — ultimately is what separates one photographer’s set of images from another. Photographed at Hampton Court Palace on 2 September 2023
About the author: Based in Sussex-by-the-Sea, on England’s south coast, Gary is a creative writer and image-maker. He specialises in creating out of the ordinary portraits of musicians and people with interesting faces, as well as photographing some of the world’s finest flowers and gardens, not forgetting an array of automotive exotica.
On the writing side, he has used his research skills to author deep dives into some noteworthy songs beginning with Bryan Ferry’s ‘These Foolish Things’ ‘Ghost Town’ by The Specials, ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan and ‘All The Young Dudes’ by Mott the Hoople.
He has also written a biography of Robert Palmer and the stories behind Whitesnake’s blatant Led Zep rip-off, ‘Still Of The Night’, Harry Styles’ anthem to positivity, ‘Treat People With Kindness’ and the little known Queen track ‘Cool Cat.’
Most recently, Gary has penned the fascinating story behind George Orwell’s dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.’ as well as ‘Believe It Or Not’ a look into the rise of fake news.
All these can be found here on Medium, along with his reviews of gigs and events and chats with musicians including the likes of Royal Blood, Joe Satriani and Wolf Alice.
