The inaugural Concours d’Appréciation

We wanted cars that got driven, hard and fast, for tens and ideally, hundreds of thousands of miles. Not basket cases desperate to be put out of their misery, but cars that had been loved not as an ornament, but for what they were designed to do. And that was it. We hoped we’d get a nice variety of cars to our event base at Bicester Motion, little did we know how splendidly our wish would be granted.

One bookend was provided by a 1954 2CV whose paint could not be seen for rust but which, beneath, was in fine fettle mechanically and will be driven to Le Mans next year. At the other, a Porsche Carrera GT with 77,000 miles on the clock which almost certainly goes farther, faster each year than most do in their entire lifetimes.

There was the Ferrari 599 GTB found in the desert with its engine on the back of Toyota Hilux that’s been completely resurrected, a gorgeous E9 BMW 3.0CSL that gets raced in the Pomeroy Trophy whose owner insists he’ll be buried in it, and a 1992 Caterham Supersprint that’s done over 100,000 miles, been driven from Finland to Spain, and from Houston to San Francisco.

Our winners were the aforementioned Carrera GT, a gorgeous 1750 Alfa Romeo GTV which gets driven across the Pyrenees from France to Spain every year, and a Honda Integra Type R which has covered 131,000 miles since its owner bought it almost 20 years ago. Cars from Germany, Japan and Italy, with prices varying from the teens, to the millions, plus another 20 entrants barely less worthy of mention that all turned up and joined in the fun.

And if you wanted to understand the workings of the mind of a typical Ti writer, our Contributors display provided a rare, possibly unique insight: Ian Callum turned up in Porsche 993 Carrera tuned to RS specification, David Twohig in the Alpine A110 for which he’d been chief engineer. Gez Medinger came in his DeLorean, Joana Fidalgo trading gullwings in her Toyota Sera. I managed to arrive in an 800bhp Gunther Werks Turbo and depart in an 800cc Volkswagen XL1. Our co-founder Richard brought his 144,000 mile Porsche 911 ClubSport and his extraordinary 911 GT2.

And just for good measure, we had immaculate examples of all eight generations of Golf GTI on site, to celebrate the 50^th birthday of the, if not quite original, then certainly most consequential hot hatchback of all time. They were accompanied by the first UK public showing of the Longbow Speedster, the all-new British EV that could yet redefine the concept of what an electric sports car can be.

Meanwhile, rumours circulated of yet another Porsche 911 3.2 ClubSport (this one with over half a million miles) hiding in the wilds of the grassy car park, having escaped the concours enclosure. There were certainly plenty of other 1980s delights to lurk behind, such as the bright red trio of Lotus Esprit S3, Honda NSX and gently steaming (post-track session) Alfa Romeo GTV.

On behalf of The Intercooler I’d like to thank all the staff at Bicester Motion who worked so hard to make it the best event possible, and Jack Phillips in particular; our partners at JBR Capital, and especially Omar El Faramawi for their support and enthusiasm for the event; all the Ti contributors for entering so brilliantly into the spirit of the occasion, and above all everyone who brought an interesting, well loved, well used car, whether a winner or not, whether they in the concours or main car park.

So were we glad we did it? That doesn’t matter half as much as all those who came up to us on the evening and were kind enough to say how much they enjoyed themselves, the messages we have received and all the posts that have since gone up on social media about it. But yes, we were and are absolutely delighted. When we first decided to do it, we didn’t know if anyone would turn up, so to see 500 people come through the gate (our absolutely maximum allowable capacity) really was something to behold.

And in answer to the question we were asked more than any other – will we do it again? – we need to have a proper debrief, but sitting here right here and now, I can’t really think of a reason why we would not. And if you like the sound and sights of the above, perhaps we’ll see you there?

Photography by Toby Rea