The UK’s Salon Privé Chubb Concours d’Elégance, scheduled for August 31 through September 2 at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, has announced two early entries to the first of the two Concours celebrations held during the event. One is an elegant and rare 1939 Horch 853A Cabriolet (above, Vaidotas Grigas photo courtesy of Salon Privé), fresh from a four-year restoration, while the other is a competition-bred, race-winning 1965 427 Shelby Cobra.
Salon Privé is set to become the world’s first event to hold two Concours celebrations during the same event. With the addition of the inaugural Concours Masters, which will pay a ‘Tribute to 70 Years of Ferrari’, visitors will be able to see a timeline of 70 special and inherently different models from the Maranello-based marque.
“Last year’s Chubb Insurance Concours d’Elégance set a benchmark with a field of world-class entrants, culminating in the crowning of the 1956 Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa as Best of Show.” said Salon Privé Managing Director and Concours Chairman, Andrew Bagley. “We’ve been working tirelessly on the 2017 Concours Show Field and the standard of early entries already confirmed is once again improved. From the Cobra entered in the class ‘Classic Sports Racers against the Stopwatch’…to the freshly restored Horch 853A Cabriolet…I think 2017 will surpass previous years in being our best Chubb Insurance Concours d’Elégance event to date.”
The Cobra in question is very much a second-generation machine, for in 1964 Shelby American decided to update the ageing 289 Competition Cobra by producing 100 new examples powered by 427–cid Ford V8s for homologation purposes. Unfortunately, chassis supplier AC was able to build only 51 cars at the time, and when FIA inspectors realized this they declared the 427 Cobras ineligible. Luckily for Carroll Shelby, however, in June of 1965, the FIA decided to juggle its classification system and a new class called Competition GT was born. The production requirement was lowered to 50 cars — coincidentally, one less than the number of 427 Cobras already built. Only 19 of the 51 were made into racing cars, with the rest converted for road use.
The car that will be at Blenheim Palace, CSX3006, is best remembered for its victory in the Ilford 500 at Brands Hatch on May 8, 1966, driven by David Piper and Bob Bondurant. It is believed to be the only outright victory in an international FIA race ever achieved by an open Cobra.
Another international entry, one that is currently part of a significant collection in Germany, is a distinctive and elegant 1939 Horch 853A Cabriolet, fresh from a four-year restoration and entered in the ‘Graceful Pre-war Motoring’ class.
The car’s first owner was German entrepreneur Hugo Poddig, owner of the Poddig Works in Berlin, and after his death, his Horch, along with around 100 other cars, was sold to Daimler-Benz AG, which displayed the collection at the famous Museum of Technology in Berlin in 1981. The current owner purchased the car in 2012, and spent the following four years restoring it to its original condition — even finding and fitting the original engine to ensure its matching-number status — until it became part of the SK collection in August 2016.
This year’s classes are:
Exceptional Motorcycles 1900-1939
Exceptional Motorcycles 1940-1976 – Competition
Exceptional Motorcycles 1940-1976 – Highway
Graceful Pre-war Motoring
Post-war Luxury Tourers
Curvaceous Coupes from the 50s and 60s
Riviera Cruising
Classic Sports Racers against the Stopwatch
Best of British at Blenheim Palace
Supercar Pin-ups
Each of the ten classes will be assessed by a select panel of internationally recognized judges. The team, chaired by Derek Bell MBE, will inspect each entry on strict criteria of; history, preservation, style and originality. For further information please visit www.salonpriveconcours.com
