The Holyrood Palace Concours

Posted on November 6, 2015.

Report by Stewart Ross, pictures by Gavin Struthers

The Concours of Elegance held its first event four years ago with the venues at Windsor Castle, followed by St James’s Palace and Hampton Court Palace. This year it continued its royal theme by staging the event around the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, the Queen’s residence in Scotland.

A two day tour was planned for the Wednesday and Thursday leading up to the weekend of 5th and 6th September. Its appeal attracted sixty cars of world renown that were invited to take part.

The program started on the Wednesday with a highland tour taking in a climb up the legendary “Rest and be Thankful” hill climb, part of Scottish motoring history since 1906. Taking part were Sir Jackie Stewart with his son Paul, Dario Franchitti and HRH Prince Michael of Kent.

Some of our Club members took the opportunity to be at the top of the hill when the cars came through. Sir Jackie and Dario stopped for coffee and made themselves available to talk with us. Sir Jackie also gave an interview on the history of himself and late Jim Clark when they competed on the hill.

The tour moved on and to see these cars in action, among them some magnificent marques, was possibly a one off experience for Scotland. The tour finished in Edinburgh on the Friday for the main event at the Palace over the weekend.

Our Club was invited to take part by putting on a display on both Saturday and Sunday, these days being open to the public. There was a good response through the Scotland West Area Group with much needed support from the other Scottish areas, allowing a full display on both days with no less than twenty five Ferraris.

On Saturday there was a concours run in collaboration with the Royal Automobile Club called “The Club Trophy”. It allowed all clubs to enter cars. We were represented by new member Brendan O’Brien with his 288 GTO and Stewart Ross with his Dino 246 GTS. The competition was truly world class with a magnificent SS Jaguar taking the trophy. However Prince Michael of Kent showed a particular interest in the Dino 246 GTS,  having owned an identical car in colour/trim in 1973 and in discussion was correct in recollecting every detail.

Cars being displayed included Ferraris brought over from America, such as a superb 275 GTB/4S  from New York and the famous 250 GTO ( light green in colour ) from California, raced in period by Innes Ireland. Member Nigel Allen’s concours winning 275 GTB was also on display.

It’s an event certainly worth noting for the future.

(To see lots more pictures go to our Flickr page)