Honourable Artillery Company, London
June 28-30th
Words: Ben Klemenzson Photography: Ben Klemenzson & London Concours
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It’s not every day that classic American cars get top billing at prestigious concours events like the London Concours, but on this occasion, there was a special ‘Fins and Chrome’ class, featuring six specially curated cars that represented the best Fifties American vehicles here in the UK.
These included three cars from the Homan brother’s collection: a 1956 Packard Caribbean, a 1958 Mercury Park Lane and a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, as well as Steve Sullivan’s 1958 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, a 1960 Chrysler 300F belonging to Mark Sumpter and Rick Skett’s 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. The class was sponsored by Adrian Flux insurance and Classic American magazine and judging was carried out by motoring journalist Sarah Bradley, Classic American editor Ben Klemenzson and Matt Allen from Adrian Flux
The whole event took place in the impressive grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company in the heart of the City of London, a rare swathe of green amongst the Manhattan-like background of the City. Other classes included The Italian Spiders, The Pursuit of Speed, Japanese Jewels, Mercedes Benz and Great British History. Sponsors included luxury Swiss watchmaker Breguet and Veuve Cliquot Champagne, so the whole affair had a very upmarket feel to it. There were plenty of boaters and blazers to be seen, Champagne to be drunk and beautiful expensive cars everywhere.
Ultimately a winner from each class was selected and in the Fins and Chrome class, Steve Sullivan took the winning position with his remarkable Cadillac. It seems the lengths he had gone to in creating effectively a new car had impressed the judges. Best in show went to a very exotic-looking 1967 Toyota 2000GT. The mainstream classic car world traditionally adopts a parochial, slightly condescending attitude towards classic American cars, it would seem things are changing – Let’s hope to see some more Classic American cars at these types of events!
