honours. A 1985 Countach 5000 QV, all wedge and wing, took the Spoiler Alert class, while a 1966 400 GT 2 + 2 claimed the judges’ favourite V12. A 1930 Bentley Six Saloon won Pre-War Masterpieces, while Best in Show went to a 1953 Jaguar C-type with a fascinating past, having originally raced in Scandinavia. Its current custodian, Tony Purnell, commissioned an exacting restoration that returned the car to its distinctive Finnish racing livery.
The presence of the Bentley and other pre-war machinery was a reminder that, however sophisticated the modern concours has become, its foundations remain the same: extraordinary cars, fascinating stories and an appreciation of those who designed, built,
raced and preserved them. That sense of stewardship is as relevant to a 1930 Bentley as it is to the earliest veterans that gather for the Run.
RM Sotheby’ s held its summer sale alongside the Concours, confirming Woodcote Park’ s growing pull on the collector-car market. Grossing £ 16 million, it was the auction house’ s most successful summer sale to date, adding another dimension to a weekend already packed with significant machinery.
In keeping with the Club’ s penchant for heritage, history was on show aplenty. Marking a century since Britain’ s first Grand Prix at Brooklands in 1926, the Club staged a display spanning a hundred years of Grand Prix racing – a Delage from that original race
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