A 1961 Jaguar E-type Series 1 Roadster formerly owned by Jaguar dealer and racing team owner John Coombs, and loaned to Jim Clark, won Best in Show at 2024’s Heveningham Concours at Heveningham Hall in Suffolk, UK.
The event, which took place on Saturday June 29 and Sunday June 30, 2024, attracted a wide-ranging selection of cars, from pre-war to hypercars, plus endurance racing machines and rally stars. This variety of entrants was a welcome sight, with the diversity allowing for many talking points and contrasts. Add in a relaxed atmosphere and an aircraft concours – including fantastic fly-bys over the venue’s Capability Brown-designed parkland – and it was a good way to recharge the batteries as well as take in excellent automobiles.
It’s all for charity, too – the money raised by the annual concours helps fund an Intelligent Mobility Scholarship at the Royal College of Art, the East Anglian Air Ambulance and local sports clubs and charities, in association with the Heveningham Hall Country Fair, which runs alongside the event. Judges for the concours included chairman Max Hunt, son of event organiser Lois, racing driver Marino Franchitti, designers Peter Stevens and Tony Hatter, Prodrive and Motorsport UK’s David Richards CBE, and Magneto‘s own David Lillywhite.
The event kicked off with a tour around the picturesque Suffolk roads before a black tie dinner on the Friday, with a party on the Saturday. On both concours days, there was an opportunity to see supercars from the modern and pre-war eras take on Horsepower Hill – a foot-to-the-floor hillclimb. Add in a stay in the beautiful Wilderness Reserve, and it was a great way to spend a couple of days. We’ve picked out the winners, plus some of our favourites.
Chassis 050015 was one of the first 17 E-types built, which Jaguar’s assistant managing direct Frank ‘Lofty’ England reserved for preferred customers, with an eye on competition. It was reportedly originally reserved for Bruce McLaren, who can be seen driving chassis 15 in pictures taken during the 1961 TT meeting at Goodwood. It’s also believed to have been loaned to Jim Clark. It has recently been subject to a 4500-hour restoration, and it retains its original engine and factory hard-top. In addition to winning Best in Show, the car also won The Dawning of a New Era, Post-War 1946-1965 class.
This 1956 Maserati 250F, chassis 2521, was driven by Jean Behra in five rounds of the 1956 Formula 1 World Championship. He notched up podiums in all but one of the those outings. For 1957, the car was assigned to Bruce Halford, its best placings being seventh at the Modena GP and Silverstone International Trophy. Later in 1957, the car was sold to John de Puys for Jean Lucas to pilot in that year’s Moroccan Grand Prix.
It was damaged during the race, and rebuilt by Maserati for André Testut, the car’s next owner. Despite his efforts, and those of Louis Chiron, he couldn’t qualify the car for the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958. He sold the car a year later to Serge Pozzoli, who’d keep it until 1990. Since then, it’s been a regular in Historic race meetings across Europe. It won the Challenge of Tarmac or Dirt, Race & Rally class.
Harry Metcalfe added to his 1972 Lancia Fulvia 1600 Zagato‘s haul of concours trophies with a very popular victory at Heveningham. In 1973, Harry returned home from school to find a 1600 Zagato parked outside his house – it was being used that afternoon by an employee of a local garage, who had been instructed by his wife, a coffee supplier, to deliver an order of beans to Harry’s parents. This car would inspire a love of cars that led to Metcalfe founding his own car magazine, Evo, and presenting his own YouTube channel, Harry’s Garage.
He finally decided to buy a Fulvia Sport 1600 Zagato, and chose a black one in need of work. After taking the paint off, he found that the car he’d bought was the exact one that had visited his parents all those years before. As profiled on Harry’s Garage, the car has been treated to a two-year restoration from Day & White, which included rebuilding the engine to FIA rally specification with twin Weber 45 DCOE carbs. It won the Speed & Beauty Combined, Performance 1966-1999 class.
As recently profiled in our sister publication Octane, this 2015 Jaguar C-X75 stunt car built for the James Bond film Spectre has been made road legal by CALLUM – the company co-founded by the model’s designer, Ian Callum. It features a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 engine from an F-type R, plus a rally-specification chassis developed by Williams Advanced Engineering. It won the Faster, Faster, Performance 2000-2024 class.
This 1968 Alpine A220, owned by La Squadra’s Jakub Pietrzak, is one of just five built, and was the Works entry for Alpine at the 1968 and 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours. For 1968’s race it was driven by Jean Guichet and Jean-Pierre Jabouille, but their race ended on the 185th lap with electrical problems. In 1969 it was driven by Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Jean-Luc Thérier, but head-gasket problems ruled the car out in the 12th hour. It is the only A220 registered for use on the road, and was restored over 20 years between 1984 and 2004 by former Alpine chassis designer Jean-Pierre Buirette. It won the Emerging Style, Post-Modern 1966-1999 class.
This 1939 Lagonda V12 Rapide Drophead Coupé is chassis 14017 – one of only 17 completed to Rapide specification and powered by a Sanction IV engine that was supposed to be used by the Lagonda racing team. Instead of a Rapide body, it wears James Young DHC styling. The restoration by New Zealand’s Auto Restorations took two years, and it won its class at the 2018 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance; at Heveningham, it took home The Stylish Years, Pre-War 1886-1945 class victory.
This 1922 AC Works racing car was entirely developed for racing, with no commonality with production AC cars of the day. Designed by John Weller, the emphasis was on a small capacity and light weight – it has a 1.5-litre straight-four and tips the scales at a mere 450kg. The chassis has holes drilled into it, and the engine’s valve stems are hollowed out.
It then became the first 1.5-litre car to cover 100 miles in an hour at Brooklands in 1922, and went on to win the Brighton Speed Trials two years in a row. Denis Jenkinson revived the AC in the 1960s after it had spent more than 30 years laid up. The original engine has been reunited with the car, with an exacting reproduction of the original cylinder head. It won The Need For Speed, Record Breakers.
This Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 was driven by Sébastien Loeb to victory on the 2022 Monte Carlo Rally, four years after he hung up his helmet. Despite his time out of the cockpit, he notched up six fastest times on 17 stages alongside co-driver Isabelle Galmiche. When Sébastien Ogier retired with a puncture, Loeb became the oldest driver to win a World Rally Championship event, at the age of 47. The car won the Take Me Ohm, Hybrid & Electric class.
This 2006 McLaren-Mercedes MP4-21A was originally used by Juan Pablo Montoya for the first three races of the year. However, it also played a key role in the development of Lewis Hamilton’s career. The then 21-year-old got a chance to step behind the wheel in September of that year at Silverstone. In only a few laps he ended up being quicker than Pedro de la Rosa, who’d replaced Montoya mid-season.
This 1965 Sunbeam Tiger was fresh from competing in the gruelling Peking to Paris Motor Challenge 2024. Driven by former British Touring Car Championship racer Patrick Watts alongside wife Pam, it was upgraded with tougher suspension, an auxiliary fuel tank and a 400bhp engine. The car completed the 9000-mile route – you can read more about the event here.
This 1937 Delahaye 135 MS Coupé had only just finished its five-year restoration a matter of days before the concours. Chassis 48147 was originally delivered to Argentina, and it garnered its current Aérolithe-inspired aluminium body while in South America. It’s been in British ownership for 20 years.
This 1952 Jaguar C-type is chassis XKC 013, which was driven by John Gordon Bennett and Traver McKenna in the 1954 Sebring 12 Hours. The car, owned by Frank Miller, was due to come into the pits, but McKenna decided to stay out for an extra lap, hoping for a less busy pitlane. Sadly, he spun off. The C-type’s next owner, Jack Crusoe, took several podiums in SCCA events between 1955 and 1956; it still wears the scars of its very last race at the end of ’56.
This AMG-Mercedes C-Class W203 was driven by Mika Häkkinen during the 2005 DTM season. Chassis RS 05-012 took the Finn to third place on his second outing, and to victory at Spa Francorchamps after landing pole. He would finish the season in fifth place, and would continue to race in DTM for two more years, but his 2005 car was retained at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. In 2014 it was auctioned by Bonhams.
This 1956 Maserati 300S Long Nose is chassis 3059, which was used by two driver pairings at the 1000km Nürburgring. Piero Taruffi and Harry Schell were down to drive the car, but when Stirling Moss and Jean Behra’s 300s broke 18 laps into the race, Taruffi and Schell stepped aside to hand over their car. Behra closed the gap to the leading Ferrari of Juan Manuel Fangio and Eugenio Castellotti to ten seconds, but lost 66 seconds handing it over to Moss. With a quarter of the race left to go, Moss ended up winning by 26 seconds, as much as six seconds faster than Fangio. Moss would reunite with 3059 for victories at the Bari GP and Australian TT.
For more information on the Heveningham Concours, head here.
Heveningham Concours 2024
Best in Show: 1961 Jaguar E-type Roadster (John Smith). Also won The Dawning of a New Era, Post-War 1946-1965.
The Stylish Years, Pre-War 1886-1945: 1939 Lagonda V12 Rapide Drophead Coupé by James Young (Adrian Burr).
Emerging Style, Post-Modern 1966-1999: 1968 Alpine 220 (Jakub Pietrzak).
Speed & Beauty Combined, Performance 1966-1999: 1972 Lancia Fulvia 1600 Zagato (Harry Metcalfe).
Faster, Faster, Performance 2000-2024: 2015 Jaguar C-X75 Spectre stunt car (CALLUM).
Take Me Ohm, Hybrid & Electric: 2022 Ford Puma Hybrid Rally1 (Malcolm Wilson).
The Challenge of Tarmac or Dirt, Race & Rally: 1956 Maserati 250F (Brad Baker).
The Need For Speed, Record Breakers: 1922 AC Works Racing Car (Freddie Smith).
Horsepower Hill: N/A Ferrari SF90 (James Nichols).
Horsepower Hill (Jalopies): 1934 Bentley Barnato-Hassan Special (David Little).
Most Stylish Owner: Mrs Deanna Peters.
Hanna Aviation Trophy: 1934 Lockheed Model 12A Electra Junior (Fighter Aviation Company).
