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High-quality cars and A-list guests define Wilton event
Promoted as an all-new event, Wilton’s old Classic & Supercar Show was reworked into a top concours for 2026. Significant UK concours debutants lined up alongside live stages hosting designers, racers and rock stars. Restoration skills were celebrated with live demonstrations of coach-building, the sound of hammers on metal ringing out across the lawns.
Guilloré Delahaye 135M Coupé
Prototype Delahaye remained a one-off
Despite being acquired by a private British collection in 2016, UK showgoers got their first glimpse of this unique 1949 grand tourer.
This Delahaye proved to be the last evolution of Alphonse Guilloré’s passenger car designs who worked extensively with Delahaye from 1934, This 1949 car was intended as a prototype for a new generation of Guilloré Delahayes, but despite French concours appearances when new, it remained a one-off. Sold to a Mareseille buyer who kept it for most of its life, it was only used sparingly. In 1950, Guilloré stopped bodying passenger cars, concentrating his business on larger commercial vehicles. Both Guilloré and Delahaye ended production in 1954.
Derham Cadillac 60 Series Special
Cadillac ordered new by Duke of Windsor
‘This is this car’s first concours, following a ground-up restoration,’ said Martin Newnum of his Royal Cadillac. ‘It was ordered new by Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson while they were living in the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 1950,’ he explained. ‘They sent it to coachbuilder Derham in Philadelphia for extensive modifications. This included removing the rear windscreen and much of the roof, then reworking it with a smaller opera-style window for privacy. There’s also an electric glass divider between the rear and the chauffeur’s compartment, which can be operated by switches in any of its four doors. There’s also a compartment beneath the divider for Mrs Simpson’s jewellery, and a blue light worked into a bespoke housing on the roof, traditional for British Royal cars. The colour is standard Cadillac, but its range of colours was vast, so they would have had a shade of Royal blue. You can also control the radio volume from the rear seats. The car was twice the price of a standard 60 Series.
‘No-one had seen it after it left its original ownership, but someone told me it was for sale, and told me to contact – a collector in Minneapolis who was having a clearout. It turned out that I was the first person to call him. He’d stored it and never used it, and prior to him it had been in a New York lockup for 35 years, owned by a collector who’d actually bought the car from the Duke himself.’
Ferrari 250GT PF Coupé
Hawthorn imported Ferrari in October 1958
Restored by Haynes Motor Museum last year, this was the first Ferrari road car sold in the UK, having been personally imported by then-current F1 world champion Mike Hawthorn.
After his championship victory with Ferrari in 1958, Hawthorn did a deal with Enzo Ferrari to become the marque’s first official UK importer, operating through Hawthorn’s Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham, Surrey. Hawthorn’s first act as a dealer was to import three 250GT PF Coupés, exhibiting them at the 1958 British Motor Show at Earl’s Court. This car was sold at the show to the Irish landowner and historic building preservationist Major Desmond Fitzgerald.
Tragically, Hawthorn’s tenure as a dealer lasted just three months before he was killed in a road accident in January 1959. This is the only one of his Ferraris to remain standard. The other two were dismantled to create racing replicas.
Bristol 401
Barn-find Bristol is incredible survivor
One of the show’s most talked-about cars, this miracle-survivor Bristol appeared as a fully-functional barn-find, owned by motoring artist Julian Kirk. ‘It had a few owners and fell into disrepair. I have found one photograph of it, taken in 1960 when it was eight years old.’
‘It survived thanks to Bristol specialist Bryan May squirreling it away in the early Eighties. He kept it in an open polytunnel at his dealership in Solihull, where he’d keep the cars he intended as parts donors. I wanted an early Bristol, but didn’t have enough money for a mint example, so went to see Bryan and asked him which of his parts donors would be the easiest for me to restore, and he pointed to this one.
‘It was heavily patinated, so it didn’t matter if I just patched it up – they’re tough cars that can just “take it”, somehow. May found an engine and gearbox to cobble together – it’s essentially a BMW unit with the measurements changed to imperial from metric, and I managed to find a cylinderhead from a Cooper-Bristol racing car. Weighing just 1200kg, it’s quick. A friend of mine who was in the RAF in the Fifties remembers Bristol testing these cars on the runway at Filton.’
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