Kettering, 08 August, 2021

The Ferrari Owners’ Club held their summer garden party and concours at the splendid Rushton Hall Hotel & Spa near Kettering in Northamptonshire on Sunday 08 August. Rushton Hall is a 16th century Grade I listed country house, set in 25 acres of grounds, within which is the Triangular Lodge, regarded as one of the most unusual buildings in the country. The lodge was designed and built by the then “Lord of the Manor” Thomas Tresham, due to the indignity of being thrown into prison for his Catholic beliefs, where he came up with the design. This is a celebration of the Catholic faith, but in a surreptitious way, with many of the design features not being obvious to the uninitiated, notably its triangular shape representing the holy trinity – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The concours field was rather smaller than at previous editions, due in no small part to the event only having a six week lead-in time due to uncertainty over pandemic restrictions. There were also the vagaries of the British weather to contend with, as it was a mixture of sunshine and showers through the course of the day. Fortunately the sun was shining for the prize giving presentations in the afternoon! Despite the inclement weather, a large number of owners brought their Ferraris out for a drive to fill the display area, whilst there was an example of the recently announced 296 GTB also on display in the orangery courtesy of Ferrari North Europe. There was a display of supercars, spanning F40, F50, Enzo and LaFerrari, accompanied by the first Ferrari hybrid model, the SF90 Stradale. Classic models were thin on the ground, but augmenting this lack on the show field, DK Engineering provided a great display comprising of a trio of 250 GT SWB Berlinettas in red, blue and green, whilst Bob Houghton Ltd had a 275 GTB “Short Nose” competition example in attendance.

The splendid F40, chassis 90353, of Brian Grove won the Area Group Trophy for the Essex Group, but was ineligible for the main Best of Show award, as it had won this at the previous concours held in 2019. Thus the overall Best of Show award went to the one-off black and red 612 Sessanta, chassis 158048, owned by Mark Cale.

Related Material

... Entry Lists with chassis numbers >>>