Hot in the City

New concours event in the heart of London’s financial district pulls in more than 3500 visitors

THE INAUGURAL City Concours at the Honorable Artillery Company headquarters has been hailed a great success, and a date for next year’s event already announced.

Despite polling day for the General Election falling on the first day of the two-day concours, attendance was strong, with over 3500 visitors, the majority from the nearby financial houses in the City of London. Many hosted business clients at the concours and at the accompanying lunches in the imposing HAC drill hall.

Most visitors expressed amazement not just at the cars but at the HAC’s little-known fiveacre lawn hidden away in the heart of the City, which turned out to be the perfect setting for a high-class automotive garden party.

Of the 110 cars on show, there were a few obvious hits, and a few surprises – the former being the line-up of 20 supercars from Gullwing to Aston Martin Vulcan via Jaguar XJ220. Of the surprises, the biggest in every way was the display of six black American muscle cars.

Other stand-out machinery included the beautiful black, bumperless Ferrari 275 GTB, the still-outrageous-looking Lancia Stratos, the surprisingly petite (by today’s standards) Bugatti EB110, the imposing Silver Ghost, the evocative 1956 Jaguar D-type and, in the motorcycles display, the Rickman-Kawasaki.

Octane and sister magazine Evo were event partners, and readers of both publications were asked to vote online for Best in Show and Best Supercar, respectively.

The Octane vote went to the wonderful 1937 Frazer Nash BMW 328, while the Evo Supercar award went to the 1992/2012 Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer.

Winning the Visitors’ Choice award, appropriately voted for by attendees using a ballot box, was the Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale.

Around the perimeter of the show were art displays from Collier Dobson, CARisma, Unique & Limited and Freire Printz. Automotive specialists included Atalanta, Fiskens, HR Owen, JD Classics, Stratstone, Clayton Classics, Will Stone Historic Cars, Romans International and Nicholas Mee & Co.

Nicholas Mee, managing director of Aston specialist Nicholas Mee & Co said: ‘For a firstyear event it’s clear that the City Concours has a huge amount of potential; the location is absolutely fantastic. We can welcome many of our customers here easily, in a way that just wouldn’t be possible if the location weren’t so central. We’re already in discussions to join the City Concours next year.’

The 2018 City Concours is set for 7-8 June. More on www.cityconcours.co.uk.