Postcard from Salon Privé 2018

By Will Wynn on 20 September 2018

Salon Privé in it’s 13th year took place in the grounds of the magnificent Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire for the fourth consecutive year. However, this year they moved the event, so that it was right next to the palace, and in our opinion this was a great move, and made the event all that more special. A beautiful landscape, exquisite building, classic cars, supercars, hypercars, in a relaxed and nice environment is why this car show is one of our favourites of the year. It ticks all the boxes to be My Car Heaven.

Claimed as one of the best and most exclusive garden parties in the UK, it certainly is exclusive if you want to get into the Concours event itself, with half day or full day tickets costing hundreds of pounds. But what’s been great is that in the last few years they’ve opened part of the event to all, with classic cars, supercars and hypercars aplenty, with the odd exclusive unveiling. This year visitors to Blenheim Palace could see many luxury cars, supercars and hypercars in the walk up to the palace and a few in the car park as well, such as this very cool Lancia (below).

All our photos are on our Facebook album, and you can read our other postcards and Salon Privé videos, galleries, etc here. Here are our Top 10 cars from Salon Prive 2018. To follow us real-time at all the car show events that we attend throughout the year, you can follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.

On the Day we attended (Thursday) Salon Privé had their Concours D’Elengance. Beautiful. We had the chance to speak to many of the car’s owners and see the European unveiling of the mighty Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, which recently broke the Nurburgring lap record for a production car. Awesome stuff.

It has to be said the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ looks great, sounds great, and is right up there for desirability. For the money £360k I believe, it’s expensive of course, but compared to the top McLaren, Ferrari, Porsche, etc., it’s good value I think.

Some stand out cars that we loved were (too many to mention):

1967 Bizzarrini 5300 GT America BA4 (below)

For us this would have been our choice for winning the category “Streamlined closed sports cars”, but this was won by a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTB. Stunning. We love the colour and shapes on this beautiful car. Read more on this car here.

2016 Pagani Zonda Oliver Evolution (below)

What’s not to love? The Zonda Oliver Evolution is one-of-one car based on the 760 RS model. Two spoilers at the back are definitely the highlight of the car which, possibly is, the best Pagani Zonda ever. Read more on this car here.

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1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Sport

What a beautiful looking car. The lightweight 1973 911 RS was the only Porsche ever produced in thinner metal to homologate the model for group 4 racing. Read more on this car here.

1978 Ferrari 512 BB Koenig (below)

I know the Ferrari purists will not like this car, but I’m a Ferrari purist, but I was drawn to this car, and we do love it. What do you think? Read more on this car here.

1937 Delage D8-120 (below)

Just superb in every way. We love it. We think it was the very best car on display and the judges nearly agreed with me. This car came runner up in the Concours D’Elegance. Read more on this car here.

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1965 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso (below)

Now we love this car so very much, and for us we fluctuate between this and the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato as the most beautiful car of all time. I have to tell you that this particular Ferrari 250 GT Lusso (Chassis No. 5697 GT) looked exceptional, and I would bet looked better than the day it left the factory. Absolutely stunning. Jaw dropping beautiful. Read more on this car here.

Salon Privé is without doubt a wonderful event, and one I’d recommend any car fan, art lover, aficionado of beautiful things to visit and above all it’s a wonderful day out. It has firmly been in our top 5 UK car shows to attend for some years, and the 2018 event was as good as ever. We cannot wait for 2019.

Did you attend? What were your highlights, we’d love to know.

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