Birthday bash

With Her Majesty The Queen’s blessing, the Concours of Elegance is returning to Windsor Castle this year, the location of the inaugural event back in 2012. In this, the Queen’s 90th birthday year, it’s fitting that many of the cars set to grace the magnificent ‘Quadrangle’ at Windsor Castle hold a close connection to the Royal Household, including a 1950 Rolls-Royce Phantom IV and the first ever Royal automobile: a 1900 Daimler 6HP, bought by Kind Edward VII.

The entry list for the Concours of Elegance is something of a ‘who’s who’ in automotive history, comprising a roll call of 66 sensational vintage and classic cars that would vie for contention in any of the world’s most prestigious concours events, Pebble Beach included.

There are no losers

Visitors can look forward to ogling cars such as a fabulous Art Deco-era Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet Xenia by Saoutchik, George Harrison’s psychedelic Mini Radford de Ville GT, and John Shirley’s Ferrari 250 GTO that was recently reverted to its original shade of white, as it was raced by Graham Hill in 1962. Furthermore, four cars from the very first British Grand Prix, held at Brooklands in 1926 (incidentally the Queen’s birth year), will be gathered for the first time since the momentous race, including a Delage 155B and a Talbot 700.

‘Every car is a winner’ claims the event’s organisers, hence why the participating owners uniquely vote for the coveted ‘Best of Show’ award themselves, rather than a panel of judges. Should you be visiting on Sunday, we highly recommend staying until 5pm, when the ‘Grand Depart’ will see all the concours cars leave the grounds of Windsor Castle, hopefully under a beautiful late-summer’s evening sky (and their own steam!).

Photos: Tom Shaxson for Classic Driver © 2016