The London Classic Car show has managed to build a name for itself even though this was only the third edition. It attracted 37.000 visitors to the Excel (Exhibition Centre London), close to the historic Royal Victoria Dock where some of the Olympics were held in 2012. Similar to the Retromobile show in Paris, the price per square meter is rather expensive which attracts only the more expensive/rare Classics and modern supercars.
The most defining aspect of the London Classic car is without a doubt the “Grand Avenue” that runs through the exhibition centre. Quite a few cars were presented on the Grand Avenue, luxuary berlines like the Aston Martin Lagonda but also a Toleman Formula 1 car from 1981. The crowd favorite was the small but very loud MG Metro 6R4 rally-cross car with over 800 HP. Just like every other carshow this year, Ferrari got some special attention to celebrate their 70th anniversary, in this case with some lovely cars on the Avenue including a magnificent Ferrari Enzo in Tour De France blue.
A bit further down in ExCel the 70th anniversay was quite explicitly celebrated with an impressive boot with the entire supercar line up present: from 288GTO to LaFerrari. Besides that the 250 GTO from Nick Mason the famous car collector who also drums in Pink Floyd ;-). And a rare Ferrari 375 MM racecar in an unusual livery.
Ferrari is always well represented at this type of carshows but somehow they managed to take it another step further in London! Famous supercar dealer Tom Hartley had some very nice Maranello cars at his booth including a Ferrari F50, LaFerrari and a 599 GTO. Ferrari specialist GTO engineering presented a Ferrari 250 GTO, one of the most expensive cars in the world. Hoyle-Fox had a 288 GTO and a Ferrari F12TDF on display.
Obviously there was a lot more to see besides Ferrari in London. Prindiville: an exclusive car dealer from London attracted a lot of attention with his “holy trinity”-combo. This refers to the combination of a Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and the Ferrari LaFerrari. The LaFerrari was for a brief moment available as an Aperta (open top) version before it was sold out hopelessly yet again.
There was no shortage of rare cars at the London Classic Car show, for example the unique Aston Martin Rapide Jet 2+2 which has a Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo kinde of look going. Also quite unique is the righthand drive RUF RTR for sale at Samuel Laurence from Londen. It’s not entirely clear how many AC 378 GT zagato cars were built but the one one display in London is the prototype of the South African sportscar that was on display at the 2012 motorshow in Geneva.
A new addition to the London Classic Car Show is the “Historic Motorsport International” wing. Which has a strong focus on Motorsport and had some boots from major players like Cosworth which produces Formula 1 engines (amongst other things). Veilinghuis Coys held a small auction from some rare cars, but the most impressive car on their boot was the Porsche 959 “cabrio” that was auctioned at the Techno Classica expo in Essen. This unique car started as a regular Porsche 959 but after a severe accident they reconstructed the car as a cabrio.
There were quite a few autoclubs present as well, the Aston Martin Owners club managed to get all eyes on their Aston Martin Vulcan. The Vulcan costs over 2.000.000 euro. Sporting an 800HP V12 engine and is just like the Ferrari FXX K a track only car. Almost as ludacris is the Jaguar XJ220 (S) at the Jaguar Drivers club. Another monster is the Marcos LM600, the Marcos Owners club presented both the streetlegal as the race edition of the LM600.
To finish this report we have an homage to Jacky Ickx, Ickx is on of the world’s most diverse racing champions, winning for Ferrari in the Formula 1, long time record holder with 6 victories in the 24 hours of Le Mans, twice the best pilot in the World Endurance Championship and besides all that also managed t en in 1983 de Dakar rally won.
Tekst & Foto’s: Steven
