Salon Privé was not on my agenda but I soon realised that I was heading up to Bedford for the supercar Sunday and figured I could leave earlier on Saturday and get to Blenheim Palace to have a mooch around and thus kill two birds with one stone.
I arrived at Blenheim Palace after I chased Lord Aleem to the entrance in his brand-new Porsche 911 Turbo S cabby, and I have to say that chap does give it the beans, it sounds beautiful it does look like it is going to get used like a supercar should be.
Anyway, I was queuing to get into the show, and I was surrounded by super cars and obviously a number of shopping baskets but still one of the better traffic jams I have ever been in.
The main event was good, and it was good to see the supercars in front of Blenheim Palace, there were a lot of people there, which made it a lot harder for the likes of myself to get any good photos or videos for that fact. Note to self – go on press days if you want decent photos….
Once I battled my way through the crowds and got a feel for Salon Privé, I was quickly searching out cars and to be honest I was desperately looking for a McLaren P1. I’ve not yet seen one of these mythical beasts in the flesh that hasn’t been one that McLaren has bought themselves, so I was keen and eager to spot one but no such luck… except for this one…
However, while on the subject of hyper cars, the Ferrari LaFerrari was there, it arrived late, but it was there, and it was in British racing beige colour scheme, and if I do say so myself, it looks bloody fantastic. I don’t know what it is about the LaFerrari, but I am sure falling in love with the way it looks, the way it sounds and most definitely the exclusivity of this fine piece of engineering.
However, I don’t like how Ferrari seems to control the owners, especially when it comes to comparing them to the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918, but then this is Ferrari for you, so why am I at all surprised??? If you are in a position to be asked if you would like to buy a Ferrari LaFerrari, then you can probably afford a McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 so you’re not going to kick yourself too much for buying the wrong one.
The cars and the weather were perfect for Salon Privé, I don’t think I’ve seen so many Koenigsegg’s or Pagani’s in one place in all my life, let alone three Porsche 918s, a LaFerrari, two Porsche Carrera GTs and three Bugatti Veyron’s coupled with the countless other Ferraris and a tonne of other Porsches and not to mention the classic cars that were there.
And oh my god the Lamborghinis, I forgot to mention the Lamborghinis… they looked as aggressive as ever!!
I’m absolutely blown away by this event, but not only that when you are there you can see the drivers, the owners, and the people who have the privileges of being in a position to drive the super and hyper cars. Being able to see someone that owns a supercar / hypercar gives you a really good insight into that very secret world.
Putting a face to the LaFerrari or a face to the owner of the Porsche 918s for me is exceptionally exciting, and I’m fascinated by people and the reasons why they buy certain cars. I don’t expect 65-year-old man to be trying to get out of a Lamborghini Aventador. However, seeing a 19-year-old girl crawl out of the same vehicle also doesn’t seem quite right either, but it’s definitely eye opening.
I’ve taken a ton of photographs and a ton of videos from the Salon Privé event, and I will be over time adding them to YouTube, so you can see some of the great super cars that were there.
So what was my favourite car of the Salon Privé event?
Okay, maybe I should split this up into two categories, my favourite car was Porsche Carrera GT and being able to see two of these made my day and probably made my year to be truthful.
However, my favourite owner of a supercar goes the guy who owns the koenigsegg CCx. This Koenigsegg owner let a small boy have a sit in this Koenigsegg and generally showed him around his car. I’ve never seen someone so happy and so delighted and even after the young boy had got out the car he was still buzzing about it to his father. I can pretty much guarantee that the small boy will grow up wanting koenigsegg and that the owner of this supercar probably changed the kid’s life so big respect to that owner.
One of the most strangest cars at Salon Privé.
Now the strangest vehicle has to be the 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, It kind of looks a cross between a funeral car and the Scimitar and to be honest I think it’s absolutely butt ugly, but then saying that I was quite attracted to it. So it does have me puzzled, either which way it is definitely one of the cars that has created the biggest stir on my Facebook page and also has created news all over the Internet.
You’d think after the Salon Privé event I would be going home, However, no, I am off to the Sharnbrook Supercar Sunday… It has been a busy weekend for sure.