London, 15-16th June, 2022

The initial seeds of thought for a Concours on Savile Row were first muted in 2019 for an event in 2020, but the pandemic put paid to the idea in both that year and 2021. Thus 2022 saw the inaugural Concours take place on the street that has been the home of high end bespoke tailoring in London for well over 200 years, drawing an analogy with luxury and bespoke coachwork on a number of the cars that were on display. The idea came from Hothouse Media, the publishers of the renowned motoring magazine Octane, in collaboration with the Pollen Estate of which Savile Row is part, with assistance from the Westminster City Council allowing the road to be closed for two days for the event.

As with the diversity of tailoring styles in the establishments along Savile Row, equally so was the diversity of cars on display along the road, which runs parallel to and to the west of Regent Street. Amongst the thirty plus cars on display were a pair of diverse ex-Gianni Agnelli Ferraris, the exquisite duo-tone jewel 166 MM Barchetta, chassis 0064M, in dark metallic blue over sea green, with alongside it the Testarossa cabriolet in silver with pale blue accents, chassis 62897. The other cars on display were equally diverse, ranging in age and style from a 1924 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, through a 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Zagato Spider, the one-off 1934 Barnato-Hassan Bentley, a 1951/52 D&S Cabriolet which has hints of its Porsche and VW origins in its appearance, a 1952 Ferrari 225 S Vignale Berlinetta, chassis 0178ED, a rare example of the Citroen ID19 Le Paris Coupé, to the supercars at the modern end of the spectrum. These included a Ferrari F50, chassis 106905, a Bentley Bacalar, a McLaren Elva, an Aston Martin Speedster and the UK debut of the California-built Czinger 21C.

Apart from the cars on display, there was a central stage where interviews with various people from the worlds of motoring and fashion took place interspersed with live music. The concours entry may not have been high in numbers, but it was high in variety and quality.

Keith Bluemel
06/2022