Tag Archives: Hampton Court Palace

Annual pilgrimage to Concours of Elegance

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It’s that time again & one those events that signal the summer is coming to an end: the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace. Gave the car a decent wash, but there wasn’t too much to do as it was still pretty clean from the CMI rally a few weeks ago. Inevitably the wheels took as long as the rest of the car put together. Still rather annoyed at myself for curbing front nearside – only superficial but even so.

Nice journey down to Hampton Wick Saturday afternoon in the sunshine, following a Matara & an LM500 (which I can see both sides of around the Matara!). The excitement started when trying to raise the passenger window when putting the hood up in the hotel car park. Absolutely zero going on in the door, so the switch was the obvious culprit. Unfortunately that proved to be very hard to extract from the console & the switch was damaged. Some bare wires were revealed but nothing conclusive. More investigation required. In the meantime I am keeping an eye on the weather forecast but sunshine all day so fingers crossed.

The Mantis with the Thames behind & Hampton Court Palace Gardens just out of view to the right.
With my Mantis lurking fourth in line, Jay’s converted Challenge car dominates the foreground. A lovely flip tone & those grills look even better in real life.

Once again a great turnout of Marcos cars with a splendid mix of colours, models & ages. Of course for some, the lure of a broken Marcos is too much to resist…

A better class of mechanic…

Eventually it was time to bid farewell to the hardy bunch of Marcos owners left at Hampton Court Palace, & head north to Manchester.

Four hours later I was home & dry, with the emphasis on dry! With the passenger window at half mast I will admit to being the tiniest bit apprehensive about the journey back but I never quite caught up with the rain (or it never caught up with me?). A very enjoyable weekend & worth the trek down to London & back. Next stop, the electric window…

Concours of Elegance 2024… Slumming it at Hampton Court Palace

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Hampton Court Palace via the White Hart Hotel? It can only be time for… The Concours of Elegance!

The Usual Suspects

An uneventful trip down south on Saturday accompanied by my son, followed by a rapid check-in at the hotel then off to the bar. An excellent afternoon of banter with both familiar & unfamiliar faces. What to do in between a few beers & the evening meal? Obvs! Glue something back on the car that had fallen off… Gorilla Glue is your friend. A minor hood sealing rubber tweak.

Sunday is the show. For the first time ever the Marcos contingent actually drive into the palace grounds in order of age of car. We are also back on our original pitch alongside the walled garden, which gives a great backdrop of Hampton Court Palace itself.

A particularly good showing in terms of Marcos models & colours, I thought. The weather was decent and there were… cakes! 👌Marcos cakes!

Marcos cakes, & in different flavours too 😍

After a thoroughly decent day & welcome catch up with the other owners it was back home to Manchester. See you next year!

Concours of Elegance 2023

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A very enjoyable Sunday at the Concours of Elegance, held once again at the ever impressive Hampton Court Palace.

I am actually taller than this suggests…
A classic ‘rose between two thorns’ picture, surely? 
A reminder that as well as the cars, Hampton Court Palace is rather splendid in its own right!
The Marcos Mantis 2+2 was voted car of the show by the Classic & Sportscar magazine voters. The commentators seemed rather bemused.
2023 saw Marcos placed to the right of the palace.

2022 Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace

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What a marvellous weekend! Good company, cold beers, hot curry, sunshine & many, many rather splendid cars. Yes, it was finally time for the 2022 Concours of Elegance, held once again at the ever-impressive Hampton Court Palace.

On Friday afternoon & with no prospect of shutting the work laptop any time soon, it became obvious the car was not going to get the few hours cleaning it needed before heading off to London. Cue a quick search of local detailers (and I mean local! Nearest 500 yards!). Primewash did a decent job I think, given the time available.

Like a well oiled machine, I met up with The Morrisons at Knutsford Services around nine on Saturday morning, and by one o’clock we were parked up enjoying a cold beer in front of the White Hart Hotel, a stone’s throw from the Thames. The Essex mob rocked up shortly afterwards, which was an unexpected pleasure as they are a great bunch & I haven’t really seen them since the Le Mans trips a few years ago. Beers & a curry followed then bed & before you know it, it was show day! Whoohoo! It must have been a good night because Richard Partridge was not cleaning his car at 4 a.m on Sunday!!! (I genuinely checked). Blimey… Could it be The End of Days?

The fun starts with a catch up with the other owners at the staging area just inside Hampton Court Palace. A few new cars & faces to get to know. Also lovely to have a chat with the inimitable Jonathan Harmer, & the ‘other Oli’ with his (rather fetching) wife. Today the LMs outnumber the Mantis’ssssss, but that just makes them common in my book (which I may have mentioned in passing!). Not too much hanging around before we’re marshalled back out of the Palace grounds & a few hundred yards down the road to a different entrance. From there it’s into the Palace grounds again, past the Bentley owners club line-up and round the edge of the main car display to park up just in front of the Long Lake. A new location for us & ideal with the serious cars only a few steps away. Result!

The Marcos cars line up nicely, fourteen all told which is a good effort!

In hindsight, chronological order would have been better, but as it is my Mantis is next to the TSO which makes for an interesting visual comparison.

The weather holds, & after a few goodbyes it’s off back to Manchester, this time a solo effort as The Morrisons will be heading further south to Redline. Just under four hours later I am home. It has been a great weekend, albeit one without any family, but now time for some contented zeds.

Hampton Court Palace

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A fantastic weekend at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace. Marcos were invited to provide 10 cars as part of the car club displays. Hampton Court Palace is an amazing place so took the opportunity to take my daughter along so we could look round in between ogling cars.

We met with other Marcos owners at Knutsford Services on Friday morning; Debbie & Darren in their lovely LM500, and Andy & Lorraine Peers is his latest (fourth?) Marcos, a nice blue LM500. A chum of mine was also joining us in his rather splendid Jensen Interceptor MK 3. The cars managed to stay together for 99% of the journey into London, bar an unplanned random diversion instigated by yours truely for a can-be – postponed-no-longer comfort break  ☺️.

When you’re embarrassed you used to have a Mantis but swapped it for an LM… 😔🤫😭

Come Saturday morning we met with the seven other other Marcos owners at 0930 in the holding area by Stud Gate in the Palace park.

Bar some very limited drizzle on the journey south, it was a top down weekend. The car behaved faultlessly over the 500 miles covered.

Welcome to 2021

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Sooooo… We are into February & the Marcos Mantis is still, alas, dead. I confess to being at somewhat of a loss as to who to give the car to in order to get it fixed. Bring back Eddie from Cross Street Motors! (Actually, shame I don’t have his number as he won’t have been able to play golf for most of last year due to Lockdown so should have had a lot of time on his hands). Oh well! So long as the car is working for September. Why September I hear you ask? Because I will be taking the car down to display in the hoi polloi section of the Concours of Elegance in the gardens at Hampton Court Palace. One of only 10 Marcos cars invited no less! It would, therefore, be jolly nice if the car could actually move by then.