One of the great joys of 2011 has been a year long correspondence with Geoffrey Horton who has introduced me to the delights of Concours d’Elegance events with some fabulous pictures from the West Coast of the United States. This post is dedicated unashamedly to Geoffrey with thanks for opening my eye’s.

Geoffrey is the owner of this Jaguar XK 140 FHC SE/MC, seen at San Francisco Presidio Concours d”Elegance, which he purchased as a viable rats nest for $3,000 and spent four years restoring to it’s present Concours d’Elegance award winning condition. The only problem he has experienced with his Jaguar is that no one seems to be aware exactly which way round the side light indicators are supposed to have been fitted at the Jaguar factory. If you know please chime in below, this topic will almost certainly be the subject of a future blog.

Among the cars I have blogged about is this Allard J2 chassis # 1513, seen at the Dessert Classics C d’E in February. It turns out this car has once the property of Roy Richter the brains behind the post war success that was Bell Auto Parts. Roy was also the California Allard dealer who prepared this car and raced it just once beating the likes of Phil Hill in a Jaguar XK120. Seasons greetings are also due to Colin Warnes of the Allard Register who together ex Allard engineer David Hooper helped with a number of Allard queries through the year.

At the Sacramento State Capital Concours Geoffrey met Dave multi championship winning driver and owner Dave Wolin owner of this 50 foot special Mercedes Chevy 300SL. Geoffrey put me in touch with Dave who kindly furnished me with further details for what has become the single most popular GALPOT blog to date.

One of my all time favorite cars is the Porsche 935, and this immaculate Interscope liveried K3, as originally driven by Ted Field and Danny Ongias, seen at Palo Alto C d’E would be one of my favorite 2 of the type.

Goodwood Festival of Speed hosts an annual Cartier Concours d’Elegance on the lawn in front of Goodwood House, the unrestored Spyker Silvestris V8 Prototype above won this years event, proving that original patina is not necessarily a barrier to success in Concours d’Elegance events.

In August each year Carmel by the Sea holds it’s annual Concours d’Elegance which this year filled 16 blocks. Geoffrey sent me a mouth watering selection of photo’s from the event including this one of a 1955 Allard J2R. The winning car from the event will be reprized on Friday.

At the end of August I managed to visit the Bristol Owners Club Concours d’Elegance held in the grounds of the former Naval School at Greenwich in London. 91 year old ex Bristol works director Syd Lovesy is seen here presenting one of the many trophies to Richard Vaughan owner of the unique Bristol 407 Viotti Convertible that once belonged to comic actor Peter Sellers.

Much to my embarrassment such was the hectic pace of life at GALPOT towers this summer that until I started to compile this review I had not noticed that I completely missed posting a blog about the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance where one of the stranger vehicles in attendance was the unique, despite a 45,000 mile promotion drive, Airomobile Sedan C built by Carl T Doman at the request of Paul M. Lewis in 1937.

15 01 12 Amendment i originally indicated Tom Tjaarda was involved in the design however it has been pointed out to me by Tim Murray that Tom was not born until 1934 and so cannot have been involved in the design of the Airomobile.

It’s not everyday that I receive an e-mail with photographs of five different open top sports cars about which I know absolutely zero, but i received such an e-mail from Geoffrey upon his return from Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance in September. Above is what appears to be the prototype 1952 Maverick Sportster recognizable by the absence of any doors !

Rounding out the year Geoffrey attended the Niello Serrano Concours d’Elegance where another stunning selection of vehicles was in attendance including a top selection of US convertibles. The one that gave me the biggest headache trying to identify was this Dual Ghia, although a distinct Chrysler flavor eventually gave the game away.

I hope you will join me in thanking Geoffrey for taking the time to send me so many photographs from his collection, I’d also like to thank all those who helped me in anyway, great or small, to tell the stories behind some of them. I can’t wait to see what Geoffrey turns up next year !

Thanks for joining me on this Concours d’Elegance edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Don’t forget …

Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz

December 26th – January 2nd

Win a set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards

Set 1 Sports & GT Cars

Set 2 Phil Hill World Drivers Championship 50th Anniversary Edition

Set 3 1934 Season

Set 4 Grand Prix Engines of the 1950’s

or

Set 5 Mike Hawthorn’s Race Cars

The Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will comprise 8 categories.

Overall winner chooses one set of Paul Chenard Greetings Cards from the five sets shown above.

The cards measure 15.24cm x 11.43cm, come in packs of 12 with 3 copies of 4 designs in each set, plus A6 envelopes.

Which set will you choose ?

The free to enter Automobiliart GALPOT Seasonal Quiz will run from December 26th – January 2nd Entries close January 8th 2012, Winner announced January 16th 2012.

Full details on December 26th at GALPOT.

Looking for Automotive Seasonal Gift Idea’s? Visit Automobiliart Now !