Festival of the exceptional

The concours world exists in a strange parallel universe. Participants often spend huge amounts of money on buying and restoring a classic, only to watch on while a bunch of strangers wearing white Pa

As an international concours judge, I feel qualified to say how the process works. You need a beautiful car with a solid story to start with, then, if necessary, a high-class restoration. A shakedown

IMAGINE FLYING TO DUBAI TO VISIT THE BURJ Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. You ride the elevators over half a kilometre skywards to the viewing platform on the 148th floor and step out only

They said Antonio – later ‘Tony’ – Lago was ‘spietato ma con grande fascino’ (which is to say ‘ruthless, but charming’). And they said of his most famous car that it was ‘une veritable oeuvre d’art’.

The cars at Hampton Court’s concours event combine the weird, the wonderful and the very expensive. And then there’s the people…

Has there ever been a model so enigmatic yet charismatic, so awash with magical beauty and talent as the Alfa Romeo Type 33? On the track, Carlo Chiti’s 1966 design took a couple of years to find its