► Salon Privé comes to London
► Runs between 31st August and 4th September
► CAR Magazine lists the must-see metal
Salon Privé will soon arrive at Blenheim Palace for its annual end-of-summer British event. This year, the show will run between the Wednesday 31st August and Sunday 4th September, showcasing some of the most expensive luxury cars in the world, as well as a collection of important modern supercars, EVs and concepts.
The main draw for the event is the Concours competition, which allows owners of some of the world’s finest classic cars to showcase their cars and – if they’re clean enough – take home a trophy. It’s safe to say that the cars on display here are cut above what you’ll see at Frankfurt and Geneva. If you’re looking for affordable metal, look elsewhere.
Given the calibre of cars on display, tickets to the event don’t come cheap. Tickets to the Concours d’Elegance events from Wednesday to Saturday start from £350, but you can spend as much as £595 if you tick the right (or wrong, depending on how you look at it) hospitality boxes.
Salon Privé also offers a more affordable £50 ticket for the final day of the event. If you’re lucky enough to own a flash car and be a member of a classic car or supercar owners club, you can also get a slightly discounted ticket for that day – and you have the benefit of being allowed to park on the North Lawn Supercar Paddock. Follow this link to book a ticket.
To give you a taste of what you can expect to see at the event, we’ve rounded up some of the best cars that’ll be on display this year. There’s a little bit of everything, ranging from modern recreations of iconic classic cars to crazy off-road racers and even a flying car. Scroll down to see what’s on offer.
1. Citroen SM Espace
Citroen is bringing a trio of classic cars to this year’s Salon Privé, but the one that caught our eye was this – the 1971 SM Espace. It’s concept for an open-topped version of the gorgeous Citroen SM which never made it into production as the French brand thought it lacked commercial appeal.
It features a T-bar running across the top of the cabin, into which panels covering the cockpit can fold like Roman blinds. Another addition for the concept car was a set of horizontal louvres over its rear screen, aping the design of the Lamborghini Miura.
Singer and David Brown Automotive are among the most famous retro-modern conversion specialists, offering upgraded versions of classic Porsches and original Minis respectively. However, another company has joined the fold.
British brand Caton unveiled its restomod version of the 1953 Austin Healey 100 in April 2022 – and the company is bringing it to Salon Privé. It features a rebuilt version of the original car’s four-cylinder petrol engine, modern LED lights and a completely retrimmed interior. Thankfully, Caton decided to keep the car’s exterior faithful to the original.
3. Charge Mustang
The Charge Mustang is what the Mustang Mach-E should have been, because it’s an electric muscle car rather than another electric SUV. It’s based on a 1967 Mustang Fastback, but Charge swapped its original V8 for a monstrous pure-electric powertrain.
It has two electric motors (one on each axle) which produce 536bhp and 1,121lb/ft of torque. That’s an awful lot of power to put through the chassis of an old car – but thankfully, Charge has beefed that up too. The motors are fed by a 63kWh battery pack, which the company says can store enough electricity for a maximum range of 200 miles. It even gets some modern driver aids like AEB and adaptive cruise control, as well as an infotainment system.
There’s no such thing as a humdrum Ferrari, but it’s fair to say that the Daytona SP3 makes the rest of the company’s cars look… almost average. It’s one of Maranello’s most exclusive cars, of which just 599 examples will be built. If you were lucky enough to be allocated one, you’ll have paid just over £2 million for the car.
Consider the specs, though, and it almost seems worth it. The Daytona SP3 is powered by a 6.5-litre V12 engine churning out 829bhp and 514lb/ft of torque. That’s enough to shove the supercar from 0–62mph in 2.85 seconds and 0–124mph in a scarcely believable 7.4 seconds. Top speed is in excess of 211mph.
Fast SUVs aren’t exactly uncommon now, but there are still a couple that stand out from the crowd. Such as this – the Aston Martin DBX 707. It doesn’t deliver the outright performance you’d expect from a conventional Aston Martin, but it handles impressively for its size while still managing to practical and comfortable.
It’s powered by Mercedes-AMG-sourced twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 engine, which churns out 697bhp. That equates to 707 metric horsepower, hence the name. Still not sure about the looks? Judge for yourself in person at the 2022 Salon Privé show.
You’ve probably never seen the Aston Martin Valkyrie in the metal – that is unless you’ve caught a glimpse of one testing around Gaydon or visited the odd Formula One Grand Prix. Thankfully, Aston Martin has the common decency to bring one to Salon Privé for you to ogle.
It’s the jewel in the crown for Aston Martin, designed in tandem with the Red Bull racing team. It’s quick, too, thanks to its naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine churning out a whopping 1,160bhp. Our tip? Get behind it and take a look at those huge diffuser tunnels – they’re a big reason why the Valkyrie handles more like a single-seater than a normal road car.
If it’s good enough for Sebastian Loeb, it’s probably worth looking at. That’s the thinking behind the Prodrive Hunter, which is the latest project from Dave Richard’s hugely successful motorsport company in the Midlands. This is pretty much a roadgoing version of the Bahrai Raid Xtreme car driven by Loeb at the Dakar, and uses a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine that develops more than 600bhp.
You’ve probably seen the Hyundai Ioniq 5 on the road, and possibly even a Kia EV6. Both of those cars are based on the Hyundai Motor Group’s E-GMP platform – and so does this. However, the GV60 has a slightly different attitude to its chassis siblings, as it’s designed to be a little more luxurious.
Genesis says it’s more refined than the Kia and Hyundai, which we mostly agree with. It’s also a bit quicker than its siblings, with the fastest version producing 429bhp. There’s even an overboost setting that increases power to 483bhp for 10 seconds, which Genesis assures us is for “safe overtaking.”
9. Pal-V Liberty
This one’s a bold claim. The Dutch company PAL-V has launched the Liberty as the world’s first-ever commercially available flying car. It has two engines – a 99bhp unit to power the wheels on the ground and a 197bhp unit to drive the rotor in the air.
On the ground, it’s a small three-wheeler. In the air, it looks more like an enclosed microlight, but it functions much like a helicopter. Naturally, you need to have a pilot’s licence to take to air. Reckon the idea will ever get off the ground? Get it?
When is a London taxi not a London taxi? When it’s this: a Clive Sutton prepared LEVC taxi. It was designed to look like every other modern cab from the outside, but the VIP Class features a bespoke interior with leather stitching, lots more technology (including a flat screen TV) and a dimmable sunroof.
The equipment list and customisable extras go on forever, but almost every part of the VIP Class has been sourced from other flagship cars such as the Mercedes Maybach. And who’s it for? CAR was told that the customers who can afford one have more ostentatious luxury cars, but they want the anonymity of a cab – as well as the bespoke service Clive Sutton can offer.