Hampton Court Palace - Concours of Elegance 2025

The Hampton Court Palace, Concours of Elegance down by the River Thames, is one of the more prominent events on the International Concours calendar held in the stunning grounds of the Palace with around 70 cars of a truly eclectic mix, to be judged for various awards based on a number of classifications. Whilst last year the events clashed over the same weekend with the similar Salon Privé event held at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire a week earlier, but the Hampton Court event features cars from earlier periods in motoring. Exhibits for the Concours range from Historic F1 and Sports cars through to Classic and Vintage cars from the 1930's, all presented in pristine condition as would be expected at such an event.

The day was blessed with glorious weather and to support the event, a number of Marque and Motoring Club's are invited to put their members cars on display, to further add a mix of colour and glamour to the event, these cars being parked around some of the tree lined gravel driveways surrounding the central gardens. Having attended the event here many times in the past, this year from my collection, I took along a black Ferrari F12berlinetta, fresh from its achieving a Platinum and Special Merit award at the Ferrari Owners Club Annual Concours a couple of week previous.

On wandering around the displays, to my surprise I stumbled on the Unipower GT belonging to Tim Carpenter, displayed as part of the 96 Club cars. Presenting better in the photographs, its plethora of windscreen stickers indicated its presumed attendance at a few previous Le Mans Classic race weekends. Well done Tim.

Unfortunately when I was leaving the Concours at the end of the day, what should I see, but the Unipower GT parked outside on the roadside, clamshell open and with Tim tying ropes/straps around the front suspension, presumably in readiness to be towed home to suburban London by someone. Obviously no help needed and a sad end to a lovely day out, but a reminder to others passing by that to maintain the reliability of cars from the 60's, does require regular maintenance.

Maybe new year I'll enter my race Unipower GT into the Concours, although I understand the entry fee is as much as the famous Concourso D'Eleganza held at the Villa d'Este in Como, Italy !. Cheaper to get to Hampton Court though !.

Gerry