Our favourite cars from London’s Concours of Elegance

Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court is surely one of the finest events on the classic car calendar.

Now in its 10th year, the latest edition of this prestigious concours is the biggest - and quite possibly best - one yet.

80 different cars are vying for the main Concours of Elegance award over the weekend, with a judging panel consisting of the owners of the entered cars.

Here are some of our favourites.

The Countach is remembered by many in its winged and widebodied LP4000 S form, but there’s a simple elegance to the original LP400 that’s hard to ignore. It looked truly out of this world when it was launched in 1974, with Marcello Gandini’s iconic bodywork being inspired by his previous creations. Inside, the typical rear-view mirror was replaced with a periscope-style system of mirrors, giving it the nickname of ‘Periscopio’. The design was recently reimagined for the Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4.

Developed in secret by Tom Walkinshaw – head of the eponymous firm that built and ran Jaguar’s racing cars – the XJR-15 was originally going to be a road-legal version of the XJR-9 called the R9-R. However, Jaguar was furious at the prospect of this 6.0-litre V12-powered supercar upstaging their own XJ220, only agreeing to allow its production if it was badged as a Jaguar. The XJR-15 also ended up starring in a one-make F1 support series, with this car being raced by David Brabham in the three-race championship.

No, your eyes don’t deceive you – this classic Ferrari really is a three-seater. Built on a chassis similar to the Ferrari 330P2 racer and clothed in a beautiful Pininfarina body inspired by the Dino concept car, there’s more to the 365P Berlinetta Special than meets the eye – as the firm’s first mid-engined V12 road car, it marked a turning point in Ferrari’s history. It’s a shame that they only ever made two.

The racing version of Gordon Murray’s groundbreaking supercar was just as much of a game-changer as the road car was. This is one of 10 so-called Longtail variants (no prizes for guessing why they’re called that) built to take the fight to the Porsche 911 GT1 and the Mercedes CLK-GTR on the racetracks of Europe. This one happens to be the second-to-last F1 ever made.

There aren’t really any words to describe how the H6B Xenia looks – there’s simply nothing else like it. Originally a ‘standard’ H6B – a luxury four-door roadster powered by an 8.0-litre aircraft-derived straight six – the one-of-one H6B Xenia was commissioned by fighter pilot-turned-inventor Andre Dubonnet to showcase his motoring developments. The swooping lines hide Dubonnet’s independent ‘hyperflex’ suspension and power-assisted brakes – both fairly revolutionary ideas for the time.

Everyone remembers the Ford GT40 for its racing success, but few seem to realise that it spawned a road version too. Compared with the original racing variant, the GT40 MkIII featured a detuned engine, softer suspension and a less sparsely equipped interior. It should’ve been a success, but the fit and finish simply wasn’t good enough for a car that cost $18,500 in 1968 - equivalent to $157,503 (£136,200) in today’s money. In the end, just seven were built.

This isn’t just any Porsche 917K – it’s the very car that gave Porsche its first-ever outright victory at Le Mans in 1970 under a fairly remarkable set of circumstances. Fitted with the less powerful 4.5-litre flat-12 engine (which still made 580bhp) and the slower short-tail bodywork, this car never should have stood a chance of winning the 24 hour high-speed race, but careful driving by Richard Attwood and Hans Herman in the pouring rain allowed it to take victory.

The EB110 should’ve set the stage for a triumphant return of the then long-dead marque. However, it ended up being the only production car made by the brand in its short early-1990s revival period before it fell into bankruptcy. The sharp design, originally penned by Marcello Gandini, set high expectations for the car’s performance, and the EB110 didn’t disappoint – all examples featured a quad-turbo 3.5-litre V12, with the SS version seen here putting out a whopping 610bhp when new.

When is a Bugatti Chiron not a Bugatti Chiron? When it’s a Bugatti Divo, of course. Named after French racing driver Albert Divo, this £4.4 million hypercar was designed to be significantly faster around a track than the Chiron it shares its 8.0-litre W16 with, and it succeeded – Bugatti says it will lap Nardo’s handling circuit eight seconds faster than the car it's based on. It’s more eye-catching than the standard Chiron, too – you certainly couldn't miss this bright-yellow example.

We couldn’t miss this one off our list. The 250 GTO was considered to be the most valuable car until very recently (when it lost the title to the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR), but there’s so much more to it than the eye-watering value. The stunning aluminium body was developed using a wind tunnel to make it as aerodynamic as possible, while the 296bhp V12 was taken from the famed 250 Testa Rossa. It was hugely successful on the racetracks of the world, too.

This is one of the cars that the Ferrari 250 GTO was designed to beat. The DB4 GT Zagato is seen as a legend for a reason – it was a lighter, faster and prettier version of the already successful DB4 GT. It was capable of reaching over 170mph in a straight line – which this car did at Le Mans in 1963 – but it was equally at home on slower routes. This example even won two rallies throughout 1964 – victories that act as a testament to its versatility.

Perhaps the most famous Bentley of all time, the Blue Train is nicknamed after a wild road race that it might not even have competed in. Back in 1930, Bentley CEO Woolf Barnato bet some friends that he could beat the luxurious Blue Train from Cannes to Calais. No one took him up on the bet, but he undertook the challenge anyway, beating the train by four minutes and receiving a £160 fine for road racing – equivalent to over £7000 today. For years it was believed that he used this car, and although new evidence suggests that that might not be the case, this remains one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

Back in the 1960s, Alejandro De Tomaso – boss of the eponymous firm – teamed up with Carroll Shelby to create a race car. However, Shelby left the project in 1965 to devote himself to the Ford GT40 project. To say that De Tomaso was annoyed by this would be an understatement. He decided to name his next road car the Mangusta, Italian for mongoose – a wild animal that kills Cobras. It never quite reached the level of fame that the Cobra attained, but this mid-engined V8 supercar is just a bit cooler in our eyes.

The Monza SP1 heralded the arrival of Ferrari’s Icona series, a line of cars that celebrate the firm’s heritage. This single-seat speedster is built on the underpinnings of the 812 Superfast grand tourer, sharing a chassis and a gearbox with its closed-roof counterpart. Power is upped to 799bhp, while the car weighs nearly 250kg less than the coupé that it’s based on, meaning that it will complete the 0-62mph sprint in just 2.9sec.

The Porsche Carrera GT is hardly a bad-looking car, but clearly someone thought that you can improve on greatness. A Swiss collector originally approached Zagato in 2013 to create a restyled version of this V10 supercar, originally intending for it to be a one-off, but it was so well received that five more cars were converted. The new design features a reprofiled rear decklid, with two humps rising up to meet the roof.