2016 Bell & Covill Concours d'Elegance

[C43]

just realized I only entered my brothers Esprit and not my Evora.

Could we swap the two cars, its a very shiny Evora (and it would help me get over the disappointment of spending the last couple of months working on the Esprit and it failing right at the end - but then I guess that's part of owning a Lotus!}

cheers

Christian

[Bazza 907]

Yep

See you soon

[C43]

thanks mate. Got up at 6 to clean and polish the car and my little boy is desperate to do the parade laps at lunch time.

see you there.

Christian

ps can I buy your Essex Esprit please, it would look so nice with my brothers WC S2..  

[ChrisJ]

Thanks to Barrie for organising this, thanks to the judges and well done to all the winners. Better luck for the rest of us next year

[Bazza 907]

Thanks to all those who took part and made it great spectacle. The quality of cars was exceptionality high making it very tough for the judges.

Thanks to them and also to Chris who managed to fit 36 cars in an area for only 30.

Brilliant day.  

 

[The Pits]

Amazing cars on display today. I'm only sorry that my Esprit couldn't make it. I don't think we can rule out sabotage at this point!

Congrats to all the winners.

[Andyww]

19 minutes ago, The Pits said:

Amazing cars on display today. I'm only sorry that my Esprit couldn't make it. I don't think we can rule out sabotage at this point!

Congrats to all the winners.

I deny everything

 

[Kimbers]

Guys and girls, I have to say what a beautiful bunch of cars were in the Concours!

MJK and myself were talking about it a short time ago and both of us are of the opinion that there were just as many gorgeous cars on the grass as there were on the Concours! I personally would have loved to have seen that gorgeous Mk1 Lotus Cortina in there, maybe a Carlton or 2, some of the lovely other cars as well.

Anyway, MJK wanted to say that all those who were involved in the Concours did an excellent job and he absolutely loved them all. 

[JNW3]

Had a brilliant day and to win best in class was the absolute icing on the cake and something l was genuinely not expecting - many thanks to everyone who organised the event - one fantastic day and great to meet so many really friendly enthusiasts.

Jonathan  

[ChrisJ]

I volunteer to do the concours parking next year, but next time I'll be especially "careful" with any cars in the same category as I've entered

 

 

[OrangeBomb]

Thanks to a little too much sun I nearly missed, (all of) the briefing for the parade laps and I completely forgot to pop upstairs for the concours awards. With that in mind I'll just assume I won and well done to everyone else for trying ?

Bibs and crew you smashed it today well done to you all. Also hats off to the owners of some of the finest examples I've ever seen ?

[Benja]

Great event, credit to Bibs and the team for organising.

Truly fantastic machines lined up in the Concours and to be honest on the grass too. I'd not planned on entering but seeing as the other Exige S1 dropped out I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.  I think if there was a category for 'least original' then my ahem slighly modified machine might have had a chance.  Regardless I enjoyed showing it off and chatting with other enthusiasts.  

[OrangeBomb]

14 minutes ago, Benja said:

Great event, credit to Bibs and the team for organising.

Truly fantastic machines lined up in the Concours and to be honest on the grass too. I'd not planned on entering but seeing as the other Exige S1 dropped out I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.  I think if there was a category for 'least original' then my ahem slighly modified machine might have had a chance.  Regardless I enjoyed showing it off and chatting with other enthusiasts.  

Cracking looking car you have there Ben, there wasn't anything I could fault it on ?

[The Pits]

3 hours ago, Andyww said:

I deny everything

 

Either way I consider it flagrant cheating bringing such an immaculate example. I vote for a ban from all future concours events with immediate effect!

?

 

[pete]

have i missed the results somewhere?

[Andyww]

10 hours ago, The Pits said:

Either way I consider it flagrant cheating bringing such an immaculate example. I vote for a ban from all future concours events with immediate effect!

?

 

I am open to large-scale bribery

But seriously winning Best Overall (my wife asked me why there was an award for overalls) was a great honour. 

I was rather lucky though, there were many great cars in the field (which is where I will be next time, once is enough), and MJK (pictured) evidently being a man of impeccable taste has a penchant for early Turbo Esprits.

One piece of irony: I have posted here a few times on my pedantry for differentiating between S3 and Turbo models. When the award was presented the announcement was for "Andys Esprit S3" which threw me completely and I thought they might be meaning the pearl white S3 which was another entrant.

I promise not to be pedantic about that again!

This was a great day and certain other car clubs I could mention charge £££ for this kind of event and far less enjoyable. What other show can you enter a concours and then completely cover the car in mud from driving around a wet circuit? Great stuff and thanks to all involved. Bibs has worked wonders with this site and this event, plus all marshals and others did a great job. Also arent MBW great! Hats off to them for allowing non-MB cars to use their facilities.

[Andyww]

Oops MJK not pictured, I uploaded wrong pic, never mind.

[swindon_alan]

1 hour ago, pete said:

have i missed the results somewhere?

Ditto?

[Bazza 907]

The Results - For those not present in the S class suite the results were as follows. Apologies if I get some of the names wrong 

1974 & earlier - White Elan convertible

1975 to 1985 -  White S1 Esprit (Jonathan)

1985 to 2006 - Black V8 Esprit (Brooke)

2006 Onwards - Evora (Jim)

Best in Show as voted for by MJK was the 1982 white Turbo Esprit owned by Andy (Andyww).

I'm sure there will be pictures later. Next year we will look to amend the categories and encourage owners of other (Excels, Carltons etc) to take part. As others have said, there were some absolutely beautiful cars parted in the field that could easily have taken part/potentially won the concours.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Choppa]

6 minutes ago, Bazza 907 said:

there were some absolutely beautiful cars parted in the field

I've got visions of hoards of spanner wielding TLFers  descending on a pristine S1 Esprit and, piranha like, stripping it to bits in minutes.

[dan chambers]

Pleasure to meet and chat with you Barrie, and thanks for your comments about my Turbo HC.  The pictures I took of your car are stunning.  I had a great day and it was great chatting to the various owners, one of the main reasons for long Lotus ownership.   

[The Pits]

I have to say the green Turbo HC was magnificent, I hope we get to see some pics of that. I should have taken some myself but was too busy drooling.

So great to see so many older Lotus cars so well looked-after. It's the current generation of owners that will ensure the cars will still be around when we're old and banging on about that TLF meet way back in 2016. You know, when it was free and sunny all day. 

Without the promise of huge financial return enjoyed by owners of some other makes of cars, spending money on an old Lotus is still an act of love not money. That might have something to do with why the owners that I've met are a consistently great bunch of people.

But please, will someone bring a flipping Esprit Sport 300 next year, haven't seen one since Brands 3 years ago. If we can get 2 Essex cars and 7 Evora GTE's it shouldn't be too much to ask!

 

 

[Bibs]

I'm sure our wonderful judge, @Guy Munday will update you with the full results shortly

[Guy Munday]

Beaten to it! Bazza has already posted them above ^^.

Always a thankless task and sorry if anybody came away disappointed. I know how much effort it took everybody to present their car for others to enjoy.

[Paul Coleman]

I know you can't please everybody all the time and it's all subjective but a bunch of us were more than surprised that the Essex didn't win something - it was immaculate and somebody had gone to great lengths to get it in that state. None of us knew the owner so we were totally impartial. None of it matters at the end of the day and it's only a bit of fun.